Concert Review: Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Dave Alvin and Jon Langford at Knuckleheads

My date threatened to run off with Jimmie Dale Gilmore at Knuckleheads on Saturday.  I understood her impulse.  The Texan is an even groovier variant of Willie Nelson.  And at 73, Gilmore’s voice remains celestial.  He’s touring with Dave Alvin in support of their collaborative album Downey to Lubbock.  (Here’s the title track.).  They’re backed by a band of ringers including Lisa Pankratz.

Alvin’s frenzied guitar solos and the surprising jam-based segues were pleasing, but Gilmore was the main attraction.  His delivery on Woody Guthrie’s “Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)” was free of the sanctimony that often spoils the song.  And hearing Gilmore warble “Tonight I Think I’m Gonna Go Downtown” was worth the $70 I paid at the door.

Jon Langford opened the show.  After noting my enthusiasm for the man who described he and his accompanist John Szymanski as “sad old guys playing acoustic guitars,” a few members of the audience of about 200 asked me about Langford.  I told them that his band the Mekons was the best rock group of ‘80s.  Langford seemed more inclined to abscond with my date than Gilmore.  I’m relieved that she didn’t ”Treat Me Like a Saturday Night”.

(Original image of Jimmie Dale Gilmore by There Stands the Glass.)

Concert Review: Eric Taylor at Knuckleheads

Eric Taylor threatened to shoot me last night. 

I walked into the back room of Knuckleheads shortly after Taylor's first set began.  I was immediately entranced by the folk songs and halting speech of the Texan.  Even so, I was compelled to respond to a couple text messages about 15 minutes after I took a seat among the audience of ten. 

Taylor took offense. 

In a profanity laced tirade in which he referenced his open carry license, he demanded that I "turn off my f*cking cell phone."  Partly because his stage set consisted of a glass of red wine, a prescription pill canister and an unopened bottle of water, I heeded his warning without objection. 

I passed on appearances by Richard Buckner and Old Crow Medicine Show/Carolina Chocolate Drops in favor of paying $15 to see Taylor for the first time.  Still haunted by my failure to witness a performance by Townes Van Zandt, I figured I'd take a flier on Taylor.  Sure enough, Taylor told a tale or two about his former running buddy.

Taylor's stories were at the core of his two sets.  He spoke about the series of strokes he'd suffered, the deafness in his right ear, the physical pain he associates with abandonment by women, Pentecostal snake handling, heroin and moonshine.  A recording of Taylor's tribute to Bill Morrissey captures the tone of last night's performance.

His approach is in keeping with the Texas troubadour tradition of Vince Bell, Guy Clark, Steve Earle, Lyle Lovett, Billy Joe Shaver and his ex-wife Nanci Griffith.  A glowing profile in The Houston Chronicle serves as a helpful introduction for the uninitiated. 

I called Taylor out on his threat after the show.  He insisted that his ominous warning was merely "a bit" and that the prescription bottle was just a prop that contained guitar picks.  The mea culpa was unconvincing.


---
I reviewed a concert by Pat Benatar/Neil Giraldo and Rick Springfield.

---
Johnny Winter has died.  His production of Muddy Waters' Hard Again was among my primary entry points to blues. 

---
Elaine Stritch has died.

---
"Sound Bite" is a track from Ces Cru's forthcoming Ego Stripper album.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

Ray Price, 1926-2013

Now blue ain't the word for the way that I feel…

I had a rocky relationship with my dad.  The outlaw country of Waylon, Willie, Kris and Bocephus was one of the few things we could agree on.   My dad also kept a more conventional hits collection by Ray Price in regular rotation.  I've continued to love those songs in the two decades since my dad died.  I saw Price for the first time at Knuckleheads in 2007.  Although I was "working," I shed simultaneous tears of joy and grief during much of the legend's vital concert.  Here's a representative performance.  Price died earlier this week.

---
I reviewed concerts by Steel Panther and Stone Temple Pilots.

---
I played music by Terri Lyne Carrington, Bobby Rush, Brandy Clark, Frank Wess and Stik Figa on KCUR's Up To Date yesterday.

---
Guitarist Dave Higgs, a founding member of Eddie and the Hot Rods, has died.  (Tip via Big Steve.)

---
My favorite tracks on the The 12 Days of Christmas (and Voting) compilation are by the Doo-Dads and Making Movies.

---
Because the Internet is the first Childish Gambino recording that speaks to me.  RIYL: emo rap, sad guys, Kid Cudi.

---
I can't stop thinking about last month's spectacular Kanye West concert.  An intriguing detail- ambient music including Burial's "U.K." provided the low-key soundtrack to the construction of the imposing mountain that served as West's backdrop.

---
There will always be a place in my life for albums like Scott Hamilton's Swedish Ballads… and More. RIYL: Ben Webster, moldy figs, Coleman Hawkins.

---
"As the Palaces Burn", the new documentary about Lamb of God, looks great.

---
Kansas City Click: My official picks are published here.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)

Concert Review: The Mavericks at Knuckleheads

I anticipated that I'd be a part of a coterie of a few hundred nostalgic fans of The Mavericks as I drove to Knuckleheads last Thursday.

After all, the concert was competing against two free high-profile country shows.  Charlie Daniels was playing the kickoff concert of the Flatlands Music Festival.  Outlaw Jim and the Whiskey Benders were on the KC Live! stage at the Power & Light District.  Who'd be willing pay an exorbitant amount of money ($40 in advance and $45 day of show) to see a band that peaked almost twenty years ago when free entertainment was on tap?

It turns out that Kansas City is home to over 1,000 moneyed alternative country fans who probably wouldn't be caught dead at a Charlie Daniels show and wouldn't feel comfortable patronizing the Power & Light District.

And man, these people loved the Mavericks.   Trampoline may be one of my favorite albums of all time, but I couldn't begin to join the majority of the audience in singing along to most every song Thursday.  This rough fan footage captures the atmosphere.

I'd attended a couple of front man Raul Malo's solo performances in recent years, but I hadn't seen the Mavericks since a 1990s gig at Guitars & Cadillacs.   The recently reunited band was supplemented by a horn section, an accordionist and two or three additional multi-instrumentalists.  The large band played over two hours.

Yeah, I got my money's worth.  Here's Tim Finn's proper review.


---
Miranda Lambert won me over at the Flatlands Country Music Festival.  Here's my review.

---
Ray Dolby has died.

---
Patrick Neas interviewed Joyce DiDonato in advance of her performance in "The Capulets and the Montagues" at the Lyric Opera.

---
Here are videos for Tech N9ne's "Dwamn" and Krizz Kaliko's "Night Time".

---
Jim James participated in Lawrence High School's Classroom Sessions program.

---
Roscoe Mitchell's Not Yet is RIYL: Anthony Davis, John Cage, Anthony Braxton.

---
Essential Tremors,  the new album by J Roddy Walston & the Business, is RIYL: Jack White, Jerry Lee Lewis, Led Zeppelin.

---
I dig British hip-hop.  The Menagerie's "Are You Serious?" is RIYL: The Streets, Dizzee Rascal, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis.

---
A recent 70-minute performance by the Dave King Trio is streaming at YouTube.

---
Roy Smeck shreds.  (Via There Stands the Glass reader Phil.)

---
This week's new releases of special interest to There Stands the Glass include Avicii, Bill Callahan, Carcass, Todd Clouser, Elvis Costello & the Roots, Crystal Stilts, Kenny Garrett, Garland Jeffreys (!), Smokin' Joe Kubek & Bnois King, Mark Lanegan, the Del McCoury Band, MGMT, MMG, Nightmares On Wax, Gregory Porter, Sidi Touré, Why?, Windhand and the 1975.

---
Kansas City Click: My official picks are published here.

(Original image by There Stands the Glass.)