Nick Jaina/Jeremiah Nelson; August 14, 2010; Kiki’s House of Righteous Music

I seldom book bands I haven’t seen, since I like to know what I am getting into. But when the best patron of the House of Righteous Music is so enthusiastic about a band that he gives you a copy of their CD, and gives the band your contact information, you have to give it a shot. Well, I did at least. Usually Nick Jaina travels with a crowd, a big band that includes all kinds of strings and horns, and is seldom the same line-up twice. For this short Midwest tour he was traveling light, just a violin and a viola accompanied him for the premier of his ballet in a small town in Michigan (apparently how that all came about is a long story) and the handful of dates following. I haven’t seen the big band, but if the trio is any indication, they must be amazing.

The blond and handsome Jaina is a serious type, his sense of humor very dry, his conversation smart, and his smiles fleeting. But when he does flash one of those hard to come by grins you feel like you’ve been let in on a secret. His string section was much less solemn, pretty viola player Amanda Lawrence had a glow about her that lit up the room, while adorable violin player Nathan Langston was Jaina’s photo opposite. Dark, floppy hair framed an angelic face with a mischievous smirk, he was a bundle of energy and likely to jump up and play his pizzicato part bouncing around the microphone. Whether it was because of the band he had with him or the mood Jaina was in, the set tended toward the melancholy and I recognized only a few of the songs. Bill had done his research and the songs he requested were some of their more obscure. I waited the whole set patiently for the song that had ultimately convinced me to book the band. Problem was, I didn’t know the name of it since the only copy I had of Narrow Way was the copy Bill had made me.

Jaina had already said “thank you, good night,” when I asked if he could play one more since he hadn’t done my favorite song. He asked what and I had to admit I didn’t know when Bill volunteered “Cobblestone.” Turns out that the real name is “Winding Sheet,” but that was enough to allow him to figure out the tune I was looking for. It also turns out that it’s a piano song, which totally hadn’t occurred to me. Thankfully he was game for trying it on guitar, Nathan enthusiastically joined in, and it was the best song of the night.

It’s always fun to pair one of my local favorites with the touring band, and Jeremiah Nelson was a good choice. Their styles weren’t exactly the same, but they blended well. Even more importantly, there was a lot of mutual respect going on. The best moment may have been as Jaina and band settled in to begin their set. Glancing around the room, Nathan pointed at Jeremiah with his bow, “That was a sick set, man. You were amazing.” Of course, I always think that about Jeremiah. He’s written some of the smartest, catchiest songs I’ve heard, and I never get tired of them no matter how many times I hear them at Mickey’s. Of course, the difference is that there he’s competing with the constant chatter of the beer drinking patrons, and here it is silent. I wish he would hurry up and finish his CD so I can hear amazing songs like “Skin to Touch” and “It’s Hard to Love on Bourbon Street” more than once a week. His set in the basement was terrific, and it was nice to actually be able to hear him.

Jeremiah Nelson




Nick Jaina

Justin Roberts & the Not Ready For Naptime Players; August 13, 2010; The Vera Project

Ha Ha Tonka/Chris Mills/The Grandtours; August 12, 2010; Sunset Tavern, Seattle

Ha Ha Tonka and Chris Mills on the same bill? It seemed too unbelievable and certainly too good to be true. In fact I was pretty sure I was being lured into some kind of trap, though I’m not sure exactly what kind. After all, one certainly didn’t know that I loved the other. And even though I’d seen HHT ten times already this year, I couldn’t miss them on the same bill as my favorite singer/songwriter.

Just a little over two weeks ago when I showed up in Minneapolis for their last show with Langhorne Slim, HHT’s lead singer Brian Roberts told me that I couldn’t surprise them. It didn’t take long for him to have to take that back. We weren’t more than two feet in the door when bassist Luke Long and drummer Lennon Bone rushed up demanding to know what we were doing there. I responded to that inquiry the same way every time I was asked, “Isn’t that obvious?” Mills was equally surprised. I saw him turn to Gerald as soon as he saw me and asked if he knew about this. He just grinned. He’d been sworn to secrecy after I asked him if he would be playing with children’s musician Justin Roberts who was also in the area this weekend. With Roberts and bassist Liam Davis in the audience, as well as Chris’s wife and our new friends Scott and Molly, we knew so many people it certainly didn’t feel like we were thousands of miles from home.

So was it worth it? Of course. I’d grown so accustomed to seeing HHT do opening sets that I’d forgotten what they can do with a headlining spot. “Close Every Valve to Your Bleeding Heart,” easily the best song on the record and obviously my favorite, had been dropped from recent sets (despite my very vocal protest I might add). Tonight though it was back in, and dedicated to us for traveling from so far away. I’d given Brian a list of songs they could drop from the set to make room for “Close Every Valve” on a nightly basis, but I had to take that back tonight. They can’t drop any of them, I love all those songs. They just need to play longer every time, so there. There were two more brand new songs in addition to Brett’s new one in the set tonight, and the new album looks to be shaping up quite promisingly. Whereas Novel Sounds was a slow grower, but totally worth the effort mind you, their third release should be more immediate. This was their first time headlining in Seattle and apparently the word had gotten out, there were close to a hundred people in the cozy Sunset Tavern.

The Chris and Gerald show may be one of the only band configurations that happened more than once that I haven’t seen. I’m not on his mailing list, but the e-mail he sent mentioned another musician, so it wasn’t until I got there that I found out it would just be the two of them. Gerald seemed less excited by the prospect, he hadn’t played with Chris in many months and there was at least one song he’d never heard before. That made two of us. “When We Were Young” is at least the third new song I’ve heard since the release of Living in the Aftermath, and indicates that although he doesn’t tour like he used to, at least he is still writing. The truth is, I barely see Chris at all any more. The last time had been way back in November at the Hideout for a Sally Timms birthday command performance, and before that, a June show at Schubas. Twice a year is not enough, and almost demands extreme measures like these even without the added bonus of HHT.

So I’ll admit that I was the tiniest bit disappointed with the set list. Before the show I’d asked for “Dry Eye” from The Silver Line (one of only two perfect records, Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks since you asked), but he said he couldn’t play that one. Disappointing, but I was sure he would at least play the title track, one of the top ten songs ever written, ever. Alas, I believe tonight marked the first time I didn’t see it played. Sure, that does mean I have probably seen it close to one hundred times, but refer back to earlier statement. In fact, other than set closer “Signal to Noise” from Kiss It Goodbye there was nothing older than the last two records. I love those records, the heartbreaking “In the Time of Cholera,” the smart metaphor “You Are My Favorite Song,” and the fast talking, name-dropping “Calling All Comrades,” but I really need to hear the songs that first made me fall in love with his music.

Of course it was still a great set. Gerald was flawless, or at least flawless to my ear, and Chris’s ridiculously high energy level makes him one of the most entertaining live musicians I know. Next time I guess I’ll just have to let him know I am coming.

Guess we'll have to wait till later for our second trip up

At Pike place Market

The Space Needle from the harbor

The view from the Space Needle





The Grandtours



Chris Mills





Ha Ha Tonka

Levon Helm/Joe Pug; August 11, 2010; Woodland Park Zoo, Seattle

Once it had been decided we were going to Seattle to see Chris Mills and Ha Ha Tonka, we needed to find some other shows to see. That turned out to be very easy. A perfunctory search on Pollstar yielded this gem- the drummer for the Band (who got their start as Bob Dylan’s backing band), and Joe Pug (a Chicago boy who wants to be Bob Dylan). The bonus was that it was in Seattle’s gorgeous Woodland Park. We’d already spent the day at the zoo and had heard them sound checking on and off as we wandered around. Unlike the Minnesota Zoo’s show area, the Seattle zoo didn’t have seats, instead everyone just staked out a spot on the North Meadow lawn, spreading their blankets, setting up their short lawn chairs, and opening their picnic baskets. In the hour between doors and the show we had plenty of time to be jealous of the fancy spreads the people around us had packed, but once the music began it was easier to ignore.

I’ve seen Pug a few times before, an opening set for Rhett Miller in front of a tragically inattentive audience, the end of a set at SXSW, and his 30 Minute Music Hour taping, but I’ve never really seen him play to an attentive audience. For two of his Madison appearances he’d tapped Brown Derby guitarist Andrew Harrison to play pedal steel with him, tonight he also had a pedal steel player by the name of Bucky Baxter, who coincidentally (or was it?) played with Dylan from 1992-1999. And yeah, it did sound like he said Bucky Badger the first few times he introduced him. Pug has a nice voice that often falls into a Dylan drawl, but unlike His Bobness it doesn’t stay as interesting. Combined with the warm weather and the hum of the pedal steel and I found myself lulled into a sleepy trance. Oddly enough, his last song, after he excused Baxter, was the one I enjoyed most.

Back in October when Charlie Sexton rejoined Bob Dylan’s band, people on the Internet were saying it would be great if multi-instrumentalist Larry Campbell came back too. I wouldn’t argue that, the band consisting of Sexton, Campbell, and current rhythm section George Recile and Tony Garnier had been my favorite, and most consistent, of all Dylan’s bands. That’s where I found out that Campbell was playing with Helm. Of course, I had completely forgotten about that fact when Pug thanked the Zoo and the sponsors and Helm and Campbell. Wha?! And all of a sudden I was even more excited about the set we were about to see.

Helm is getting old, he turned 70 last May, and his white hair and slowed gait attest to that, but once he gets behind the kit he is an unqualified force of nature. They opened with the Band classic “Ophelia,” his gruff and gravelly voice surprisingly strong. It was one of only a few times he took lead vocals for an entire song, but it was one of many Band songs to make it into the set. “The Shape I’m In,” “Chest Fever,” and “Long Black Veil” (their cover is classic) preceded the inevitable encore “The Weight” which also included Pug and Baxter. Fittingly, a Dylan song made it into the set, and their version of “Blind Willie McTell” was terrific. When Helm took a break from the drum kit I was surprised to see the sound guy, who up until a minute ago had been just five feet to the left of us, take his seat. Ably, I might add.

In all the years Campbell played with Dylan, I marveled at his musical prowess on anything with strings, but I never got to hear him sing. Turns out he does that just as well, and I liked him best of all the vocalists who took their turn, especially on the Grateful Dead’s “Deep Elem Blues.” He’s a little grayer than he was then, but his guitar playing was still an absolute thrill, especially the extended solo that introduced “Chest Fever.” Wow. Additionally, Theresa Williams and Helm’s daughter Amy both played guitar and sang with the band. Keyboardist Brian Mitchell had a Dr John sort of vibe which served his raucous numbers well. The vocalists weren’t the only talent in Helm’s big band. He had a horn section- which included a tuba- that gave a nice fat sound to the songs they were featured on.

It was an amazing show and I’m still kicking myself for not seeing them when they stopped by Summerfest last month. Had I remembered then that Campbell was in the band you can bet I would have been there.

The awesomely delicious and divey 5 Point Cafe

At the Woodland Park Zoo



By the way, we learned that Helm's favorite zoo animal is the giraffe.


The Levon Helm Band




View from the Space Needle at night

Lucero/Ha Ha Tonka; July 30, 2010; High Noon Saloon

The first time I saw Lucero was at the Empty Bottle in Chicago. Matt Pond PA had just played a quietly gorgeous set. At first Lucero’s amped up Southern rock was a nice contrast, but eventually it all started to sound the same and their increasingly drunk frat boy fans drove me out before the encore. The second time was at Twangfest a few years back. They had just come from the Wakarusa festival, which is dry, and boy, were they thirsty. They were so drunk by the time they played that they didn’t successfully complete a song all night. Surprisingly that was less annoying than it sounds, and I actually preferred that show to my first experience.

Third time’s a charm? Not quite. Much like the Murder by Death show, the High Noon was packed with people I didn’t recognize. Yes, many of them were certainly drunk, but none as bad as the fans or the band respectively of my first two Lucero encounters. None of the band actually looked familiar except for jovial lead singer Ben Nichols. For one thing I certainly didn’t remember there being that many of them on stage last time. In addition to Nichols, the rhythm section and a lead guitar player, there were two horns, a keyboard player and a pedal steel player. Eight band members nearly justify the large tour bus parked out front. With all those musicians you would think that their songs would have some variety, but as their set moved into the second hour I had identified only four, there was the slow jam, the song with horns, and the one that sounds like it was written by the Drive By Truckers’ Mike Cooley. Uh, make that three different songs. Admittedly, I don’t know their material at all, which undoubtedly accounts for my inability to differentiate between songs. As the crowd continued to roar their approval, sing along and beg for more, I couldn’t help but wonder why Two Cow Garage doesn’t enjoy this sort of popularity. After all, they do the same sort of thing, they do it better, and they have more than three songs.

One thing I will say about Nichols, he was charming, genuine, and sincere, on stage and off. When fan after fan came up to him after the show wanting a photo and to tell him how much his music means to them, he couldn’t have been happier to talk and then grin adorably for the camera. All the while I’m pretty sure what he really wanted was a drink. During their set he thanked Ha Ha Tonka so many times I actually lost count. Which makes him much nicer than me, I just harassed them for not playing “Close Every Valve to Your Bleeding Heart” AGAIN and told them it was a good thing for them that it was too late for me to not come to the show. It was an even shorter set than Monday’s already too short show, with Brett’s new song also being eliminated. Still I do love those boys, and I’ll seldom miss an opportunity to see them. The good thing about tonight was that it convinced me not to drive to DeKalb on Monday to see the same show again. The bad part about tonight was that I found out later that my previous ping pong drubbing at Brian’s hands wasn’t because I was drunk last time. He’s just that good. Another myth busted.

Actually, now that I think about it I am pretty sure that I saw Lucero between rain showers at the Beale Street Music Fest in Memphis years ago.

Ha Ha Tonka




Lucero



Alex with Ben Nichols

Time Since Western; July 27, 2010; The Frequency

I told Time Since Western’s Andy Brawner that I wasn’t going to review this show, and I’m not, not really. I do want to say that it was mostly awesome and his cover of “Back in the USSR” was positively inspired. It will make me sad if I never get to hear these songs live again.