Blue Highways
Utrecht, NL
April 23, 2005
Blue Highways Festival 2005, |
Tom RussellCopyright Peter Pricken TOM RUSSELL is having big fun, while replacing the McGarrigle sisters on the stage in the Big Room: "A cow on the tracks, how country can you get?" He has gathered a band of seasoned (as in grey-haired and/or balding too) veterans around him: his sidekick Andrew Hardin on (Telecaster)guitar, Gurf Morlix as the bassplayer, multi-instrumentalist Fats Kaplin on fiddle, pedal steel and keyboards, Rick Richards is the drummer. The stand with fish-snacks out in the hallway must do lots of business, as the air starts to smell -let's say a bit "fishy"- all around me. The musicians are ready and start off with an uptempo Mexican-flavored instrumental piece, Fats on accordion, that's some opener! An energetic "Gallo Del Sielo" follows seamlessly, Mr. Russell sure has charisma... He is actually one of the main attractions at the festival for me and I feel bad that my partner Nick, who passed away in 1997, can't be here anymore. We never saw Tom Russell live, but were always big fans, Nick loved to sing those wonderful story-songs and this was actually the first one we ever heard, in a taped Belgian radio-show a friend gave to us. Strange coincidence that Tom choses this one as the first song in the show! I try not to get too wrapped up in memories and concentrate on the show. Tom is already thinking about a new album, which will be called "Love And Fear", he sings one of the songs he wrote for it. Then he goes back to an old crowd-pleaser, "Blue Wing" and convinces the audience to sing along with "Muhammad Ali". Too bad he resorts sometimes to this "entertainer" mode, Chris Gaffney did that too a few years back and such talented singer-songwriters definitely don't need that, they're at a festival for music lovers, not in a Texan bar where booze needs to be sold in order to get tips! He makes it up to me immediately with his smart remark about the lawyer's song : "If you're Mexican you go to Death Row, if you're rich, you call Racehorse Haynes!" Great harmonica solo by Fats, who plays pedal steel on another new one, about Ash Wednesday. Two oldies, "Angel Of Lyon", where Andrew gets his own applause for his excellent solo and even "U.S. Steel", which comes from the first tape I bought of storyteller extra-ordinaire Tom Russell. We were out on the road and I was looking for that song about Gram Parsons, which is also on "Road To Bayamon". Darned, this still sounds the same tonight as on that recording eighteen years back! Fats Kaplin plays fiddle on "The Next Thing Smokin'", that Tom wrote with Katy Moffatt and I forgive him the corny remarks about signing CD's and female bodyparts, he sure brought a stellar band! I'm not too enthusiastic regarding "Woodrow", the song about Woody Guthrie. Sometimes I get the feeling that these very prolific singer-songwriters like Tom Russell and Chip Taylor don't think long enough about what they put on their next record, next year. Ripe and green ends up there, which makes it harder to dig for the hidden gems. "Grapevine" from the same recent album "Hotwalker" is wonderful though, I know it's about a bad stretch of road in California, I've lived there, but the way he announces it: "A trucker's hill, that runs into the San Joaquin Valley", wow! People behind me call him "a revelation" and we all have fun about his childhood story: As a 12-year old he heard Buck Owens and Bob Dylan on the transistor radio, he grabbed his ukelele, ran off and they caught him blocks away trying to buy some wine! "Everything's gone straight to hell, since Sinatra played Juarez" is another "sing-along" with accordion and then Tom invites Eliza Gilkyson on stage for a duet, "The Dutchman". Sounds beautiful, too bad they chose that cheesy old song, every unknown musician in California wants to sing that for you as soon as they hear you're Dutch! And they'll ask how to pronounce "Zuiderzee" for sure. Tom ends the show after one-and-a-half hours with two songs he wrote with Dave Alvin, played two times faster than on their albums, with slightly changed lyrics, but very impressive: "Out In California", which is the favorite song of Mart Smeets: "I'm sitting here and drinking in the last bar on Earth", followed by "Haley's Comet", which has a busstation in it and therefore is definitely one of my all-time favorites! Fantastic show, I wish Nick could have enjoyed it with me... ========== 
Kelly Willis
Copyright by Peter Pricken The McGarrigles are still nowhere in sight, so KELLY WILLIS is on next. I've been looking forward to her show, as I liked what I heard on the radio a few years back, just her and an acoustic guitar. Before that she was one of those pretty Nashville has-beens, plagued by scandals. I assume we all remember those photographs from the 90s, where she and Lyle Lovett (then married with Julia Roberts) leave a hotelroom in the early morning, guitarcases in their hands, very guilty looks on their faces! But those days are over, she's happily married with Bruce Robison now and mother of three children in the meantime. Still looking girlish with her blond hair, wearing a black skirt and a jeans jacket, she exclames that it's "a thrill to be here" and does her bloody best on her performance! But... her voice sounds quite sharp and raucous and she obviously has a cold. She indeed explains that she is bothered by allergies and the long planeride didn't help much, she apologizes for using chewing gum... Poor girl, I know how she must feel! She sings some recent work, from her latest albums, including those titletracks "What I Deserve" and "Easy". A new song she wrote with Gary Louris, something by Marcia Ball and also one of her husband's compositions, she tells: "He has a knack for writing these real sad songs." I like that old 70s song, made famous by The Kendalls, "Heaven's Just A Sin Away". After a few songs Kelly gets going and starts to sound somewhat better, but she still forces her voice and she doesn't have much of a vocal range, so a lot of the songs start to sound the same... Just too bad, as she has a great band with her, they bring some variation to the music, Warren Hood is a talented fiddler, who also plays mandolin, Rob Gersjoe is definitely one of the best guitarplayers around and Chip Dolan leaves his keyboards a couple of times to play accordion. They can't save the show, there's again some technical trouble, Chip makes wild gestures towards the sound-engineer and after exactly an hour this almost painful performance comes to an end with a couple of more rocking songs, one is even a Marshall Crenshaw tune. Yeah, what can I say? I know too well how bad allergies can get, so I'll give Kelly Willis another chance. She said it herself, that she would come back without the sniffles! ========== Finally, Kate McGarrigle seems to have arrived and everybody is hurrying around to set up the stage. As I figure that will take a while, I'm leaving the Big Room for another pitstop and one more round to find people... It's not so crowded this year, I still think they sold way too many tickets in 2004, there were some potential dangerous situations then. Not only in the Small Room, many people couldn't get in there for the full evening, also in the Big Room where some neckbreaking climbs over the balustrades were performed. Now I want to meet Hans Settler (of course!) and also Colin Black, an American singer-songwriter who lives in The Hague, discovered by our radio-show Alt. Country Cooking. I see Colin's "paper-trail", he has left good-looking flyers all over the hallways and I'm pleased to see that he quoted me extensively. But... I can't find him in person! Back to my seat, KATE & ANNA MCGARRIGLE are about to begin their show and this is something I don't want to miss. After all, they don't play concerts that often, let alone here in The Netherlands! I like them at first sight, I always have a weakness for ladies in their 40s and 50s who just let their hair go grey, like Emmylou Harris did. And I do love this kind of hippie-folk! The sisters sit on chairs, playing accordion and banjo, there's also a very good fiddle-player, Joel Zifkin. There was no time for a regular soundcheck, so the voices are not loud enough in the mix at first, but the sound-engineers do their best to fix that. After every song Kate and Anna change instruments (and seats), they also play piano and guitar. The third, much younger lady who sings, turns out to be Anna's daughter, Lily Lankin. Conversation between songs is often hilarious, typical family teasing... Anna tells Kate something, Kate says: "Whatever you say, my dear!" and laughs to the audience: "She's my big sister, you know..." The stories about the songs are quite funny too and finally, when "La Vache Qui Pleure" is played we hear what happened during the journey. Kind of, as Kate keeps interrupting herself. Taking the train was already plan B, she couldn't leave Gent (Belgium) because of a bad traffic accident, then the train ran into a cow (it's true!), close to the first stop. The delay would take over an hour, no buses or taxis available, as always in these circumstances, so Kate, realizing that she could never make it to the stage on time, was in tears. Then a Belgian gentleman came to the rescue and brought Kate in his car all the way to Utrecht, he got a well-deserved applause! A couple more songs are in French, a couple are well-known, like "Going Back To Harlan" and "Heart Like A Wheel", there's an Appalachian melody and of course their big hit "Complainte Pour Sainte-Catherine" is played! The vocals of the sisters are a bit nasal sometimes, but otherwise this is just a great performance! So relaxed, like they're playing in a coffeehouse on the corner or in their own living-room, instead of on a big festival-stage. There's even time for an encore: "Talk To Me Of Mendocino", gorgeous!! A very special concert! ========== Closing off in the Big Room is CHUCK PROPHET and his Mission Express. It's thirty minutes past midnight already, so many people who came by train have to leave, the nighttrains via Amsterdam are not the best alternative. WHY isn't it possible to start the festival at two in the afternoon and end around midnight, so this problem could be avoided? Not everybody drives a car, you know... I've seen Chuck probably twenty times already: various places in The Netherlands, various times in San Francisco, even in Portland Oregon. I wasn't too crazy about the show I attended at the Q-Bus in Leiden, June 2003. Multi-instrumentalist Max Butler had left the Mission Express by that time and Chuck was just rocking away, while I like those alt. country touches so much. But my hopes are high tonight, as (very pleasant surprise!) nobody else than TOM HEYMAN plays pedal steel and guitars. Tom used to be the guitarplayer in Go To Blazes, he is currently often on stage in the wonderful San Franciscan bands Map Of Wyoming and The Court And Spark, he is also a singer-songwriter in his own right, I just love his album "Boarding House Rules" with guest-roles for Chuck, Stephanie Finch and Chris Von Sneidern. Speaking of Stephanie, of course she's behind her keyboards now, but I don't know bassist Kevin White and drummer Jeff Anthony yet. Chuck starts off as always, with a one-liner: "This is my deal of festival, no beer, no piss, no mud, I could get used to it!" Wow, this is an amazing show, everything goes just right, even the sound is perfect - finally! The old Chuck is back, even better than ever, no offense to Max - but I'm a huge fan of Tom Heyman!! He sings great harmonies, as expected and just hands the musical opportunities to Chuck, so he can get into his freaky guitar solos and weird sound experiments, often with the additional microphone for effects. Of course he plays lots of songs from his latest album "Age Of Miracles", including the title song, "Solid Gold", "Just To See You Smile" and that funny "You Did (Bomp Shooby Dooby Bomp)"! "Memphis Moon" starts off with the kickdrum and develops just as ominous, being the true story of three teenagers wrongly convicted of murdering three little boys, they became suspects just because they didn't really fit in, listening to goth and metal, very impressive song. "Summertime Thing" is a somewhat older song, according to Chuck: "It has three of my favorite chords, for anybody taking notes!" Then he plays acoustic guitar on "Pin A Rose On Me", what he wrote together with Kim Richey. It's the end of their tour and the band plays very well together, they're obviously exhausted too! Tom leans his arms on the pedal steel and Chuck pets him teasingly on the head: "Everybody has feelings!" Tom just spreads his hands in disbelief... On the side of the stage somebody gestures that it's time for the last song and then that it's time to stop playing, but Chuck ignores all the warnings and rocks on, ending with a duet, Stephanie also playing guitar, both singing in one microphone, just like the old days! There's definitely truth in the saying "keeping the best for last", this was the highlight of today! Oh yes, one more thing: can Tom Heyman have his very own show, next year on Blue Highways? Or let him bring The Court And Spark or Map Of Wyoming, they will blow your mind! ========== Jeez, is it really over? Too bad, I still can't find Hans or Colin... A friend of a friend is so kind to send an SMS via her mobile phone (thanks, Mirjana!) but even that doesn't help. Now I better take my coat and bag from the wardrobe, it's the last stuff left there, I always do that! I'm so glad Yvonne and Paul are giving me a ride and a place to stay in Haarlem, otherwise I couldn't even be here now. Thanx a million, friends! Some more goodbyes and then the last music lovers leave the building... ========== Written by Johanna J. Bodde, April 27th 2005 for Insurgent Country, Germany www.insurgentcountry.net |
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