This week in May marked the return of two house concert performers who had both played in 2008 and hadn’t made it back till now. The first of these was Brennen Leigh, a Fargo native who now lives in Austin. I first met her in Fargo through mutual friend Josh Harty. Unlike Ian Moore, who I’d seen several times in between his first visit and his return, I’d only seen Leigh once since she’d been in the basement. Since then she’d gone vegan, quit drinking and started performing with Noel McCay, it’s the latter that made tonight’s show so great. More accurately it’s the two of them together that did it.
Both are accomplished songwriters and guitar players, at times
it was hard to know who to watch they were both so good. When she took the lead Leigh may have had the
more memorable songs, several of which had her imagining herself as an old
lady. Her dad had given her the
marketing advice to make a video for “I Want to Be an Old Lady” and have Betty
White star in it. Not a bad idea, the
charmingly upbeat song enumerates the privileges afforded by old age, like
driving a big car too slow in the passing lane.
“Elizabeth, Minnesota” was another, a sweet travelogue around a rural
town conducted by an elderly narrator.
“North Dakota” could have been sold to the department of tourism it
paints such a beautiful picture of the overlooked state. Though first you would have to take out the
verse about how drilling for natural gas was destroying the land. For his part, McCay sung beautiful and
classic sounding country songs that sound like they could have been written
with Guy Clark, sometimes because they were.
His song “Are You Still Taking those Drugs” was an argument for growing
out of the things you did in high school. Written after McCay ran into one of
his best friends from his teens who didn’t recognize him, it was clever and
persuasive.
The songs where they traded vocals were reminiscent of John
Prine’s duets album In Spite of Ourselves, and took a page from Loves It!’s
book of tricks. Their opening number
“Before We Come to Our Senses” reveled in the impulsiveness of love, while
another song reflected on how vacationing in Lubbock would prove they were
really in love. “Sexist from Texas” and
“Real Cowboy” both poked fun at some of Texas’s more prominent stereotypes,
though Leigh admitted the biggest sexist she’d ever met was from Sweden.
Opener Nick Brown, accompanied by the always terrific Andrew
Harrison on electric guitar, was his usual entertaining self, his uncomfortable
banter as memorable as his songs. He
confessed he’d worn a short sleeved shirt this time since the last time he had
“sweated like a pig,” quickly amending that it wasn’t the basement that made
him sweat, it was just him. Instead of
the usual hard sell many bands take on pushing the merch, he only mentioned
that they were on the table and “I think you know what I’m getting at.” He also had a few new songs to supplement
those on his debut release, and they were just as smart and catchy as the
original bunch, though he seems to think his songwriting has taken a turn for
the twelve year old. “The new songs are
called “Underpants” and “Ooh, That Girl,”” he deadpanned. “He wasn’t this funny at the High Noon,” my
sister whispered to me halfway through his set.
And she was right, his band show a few days earlier had been mostly
business, but this is definitely the Brown I prefer.
Nick Brown
No comments:
Post a Comment