Concert Review: Nick Lowe at Knuckleheads

I had no intention of attending Nick Lowe’s concert at Knuckleheads when I woke up last Wednesday.  My itch for nostalgia had been thoroughly sated at the previous week’s Janet Jackson’s concert.  My life partner wasn’t having it.  In an uncommon role reversal, she dragged me to see the Jesus of Cool.  The opening salvo of “So It Goes,” “Ragin' Eyes” and “Without Love” compelled us to shimmy in front of the stage like it was 1987.  The masked surf-rock ensemble Los Straitjackets, Lowe’s backing band, struck the proper balance between reverence and relevance.  I’m pleased as punch that the bride still rock-and-rolls.


---
The production at Arcade Fire’s appearance in Independence was the most impressive display I’ve encountered since Kanye West’s Yeezus tour touched down at the Sprint Center in 2013.  Here’s my review for The Kansas City Star.

---
George Young, a genuine rock Zelig, has died.  Many of his obituaries fail to mention his role in Flash and the Pan’s forgotten 1976 hit “Hey, St. Peter”.

---
Chuck Blackwell, the Tulsa based drummer who performed with the likes of Leon Russell and Joe Cocker, has died.  (Tip via BGO.)

---
Martin Ain of Celtic Frost has died.

---
I prefer Lee Ann Womack’s throwback country on The Lonely, the Lonesome & the Gone to Margo Price’s more progressive All American Made.  Unconcerned with- and probably indifferent to- the current climate, Womack evokes dusty albums by the likes of Elvis Presley, Dolly Parton and Glen Campbell.  Price sounds as if she’s consciously competing with Sturgill Simpson and Chris Stapleton.  Here are Womack’s “Sunday” and Price’s “Weakness”.

---
Big K.R.I.T.’s 4eva Is A Mighty Long Time recalls the era in which the Dirty South ruled hip-hop.  RIYL: T.I. country, Killer Mike.  Here’s “Keep the Devil Off”.

---
The rough-and-tumble blues-rock set by Cinderella’s Tom Keifer at Rockfest was one of the year’s most pleasant surprises.  Although The Way Life Goes is substantially cleaner than the show in June, it still impresses me.  Here’s the representative “The Way Life Goes”.

---
Kim Wilson’s Blues and Boogie is wild-eyed barroom blues.  RIYL: James Cotton, carousing, Little Walter.

---
Not surprisingly, I’m smitten by Agrima, the new album by Rudresh Mahanthappa and the Indo-Pak Coalition.

---
I had a violently allergic reaction to Live in Montreal, a duet album by Edgar Castaneda and Hiromi.  RIYL: leaf blowers, Friday Night in San Francisco, ostentatiousness.

(Original image of Nick Lowe by There Stands the Glass.)

Album Review: Stirrup- Cut

In the past week I’ve attended performances by banda, honky tonk, mainstream jazz and folk artists.  I also wrote a short essay about an indie-rock group and talked about a heartland rock band on an NPR affiliate.  While it’s all of a piece to me, I’ve regularly employed Cut, a new album by Chicago’s Stirrup, as a proverbial palate cleanser.  Cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm makes a Sonny Sharrock-esque racket in the unconventional power trio.  It's the sort of room-clearing noise that's long appealed to me.  Here’s correspondingly unpopular live footage.


---
I reviewed a concert by Julión Álvarez y Su Norteño Banda and Poncho Barraza at the Sprint Center.

---
I wrote an extended preview of Gwen Stefani’s concert at the Sprint Center.

---
I pondered the carreer of the Rainmakers with Steve Kraske on KCUR last week.

---
I reviewed Lee Ann Womack’s concert at Knuckleheads.

---
I write weekly music previews for The Kansas City Star and Ink magazine.

---
I wimped out at Plastic Sax by not identifying the perpetrators of a dismal jazz performance.

---
The folk star Glenn Yarbrough has died.  Fun fact: he and Jac Holzman, the founder of Elektra and Nonesuch Records, were college roommates.

---
I love E-40.  The Bay Area rapper’s latest single ”Petty” tickles my ears.

(Original image of KCI floor tile art by There Stands the Glass.)