Soooooo…. it would appear that I have been absent for some period of time.  I have many apologies… travel...work… what not.  They are lame but indeed, that is what we have come to expect from these halting pages.  But I have not been idle.  Half way through, despite all the issues and some mist steps it has been… quite year.  

I have seen a lot of music this year.  Much of it has been at Off Broadway and I am happy to report again, and again that this is becoming a treasured venue in town.  I have lived through the venue being the worst and stupidest of shit holes.  Back in the day… when i was a pup it competed rather unsuccessfully with Mississippi Nights and the old Cicero's.  But these venues eventually went on to not become a Jacques Cousteau museum or to become a lame incarnation of itself up the street from it’s former location.  But Off Broadway ambled on… trudged on...slowly… awkwardly and sometimes horribly.  Great bands but a really stupid room.  You would arrive at the front door and come in behind the stage into a “lobby”.  Then walk around and there was a cool long bar that extended down the side.  A “stage” was there, poorly lit.  The “room” had a beautiful wagon wheel chandelier which didn’t belong.  There was an upstairs which could have been funky but was instead awkward and vision was blocked by the over hang as well as… the chandelier.  Doors were at 8.  Bands started to play at 9 ish and there were often 3 of them.  On a school night you were always out till 1.  Too late for people with jobs and too random an experience for a “grown up”

But a few years ago new owners came on the scene.  Things started to happen.  Good things.  Happy things.  They started to experiment with:

Earlier shows

Afternoon shows

Shows that started on time

Tall boy beers

Professional employees

Redecorating

Losing the iconic chandelier

Peeling years of...shit of the walls

Painting

Shortening the bar

Bringing in seats for old people shows or partial old people shows.  What I am saying is that if you ever have an inclination to see some live music.  Hit their website and go out.  They bring in some of the most talented acts that are both breaking and established and when local bands play there it is because they are awesome.  Their website is:

http://www.offbroadwaystl.com/calendar/

So some of the shows I have seen recently.

Rhett Miller.  Rhett is lead singer and other than one song per album by their bassist sole lyricist for The Old 97s.  Rhett is… well… their is really no one else like Rhett.  I would assume he is about 40 (I am too bored to WIKI him).  He went to Sarah Lawrence (girls school) on a poetry scholarship.  Now remember he is from Texas.  He dropped out and moved back and started a band and they have turned out 8-10 CD’s and he has dated and married super models and he has long hair and my best friend’s wife loves to go to shows just to see him whip his hair.  And he does.  But when he comes to town for a show he normally just shows up with a guitar.  I think he has 5 solo albums out and he writes great songs.  He writes lines like:

“I was going through a hell of a time

When suddenly you showed up

You gave me hope but I lost mine

But hope is not enough

I loved you so hard

It broke my heart

And you weren’t like the rest

Until you left”

Seriously… that is “Dylanesque” which is the nicest thing I can say about a songwriter.

Frankly this show was the most fun.  Buy his newest album and buy the new Old 97’s album as well.  It is not poetry but is an album full of songs about getting drunk on bourbon and having sex.  What could possibly go wrong.

Steve Earle hit the Pageant and reminded us all what a grumpy, great, tuneful, deep, flawed, wonderful nightmare that he is.  He had a pretty set with a tight band featuring the husband and wife team “The Mastersons” who opened up the show with a tight swinging sound.  She has a sweet voice and he has good chops.  Together they ably backed Earle.  Steve Earle has had a checkered personal life but has always been a brilliant artist.  Sidelined by heroin and drugs it appeared he had straightened himself out after several marriages and had settled with the talented Allison Moorer in NYC.  This tour seemed to be about him working through that latest break up.  The bottom line with Steve Earle is that he is likely the most soul filled white man out there.  He bleeds through his songs and is constantly working out his thoughts in his songs whether it is personally or politically and… you should go see him.  The Pageant is not intimate enough for what he was doing on this tour but still… as I said...get off your dead ass and go see a show.

Twang Fest 38 returned this year with it’s normal panoply of touring and local acts.  I was only able to hit two nights of the four nights but each one was filled with great music.  KDHX does such a great job for my kind of tunes and the Fest gets better and more professional each year and the partnership with Off Broadway seems here to stay which… is good.

More  recently I hit Off Broadway to see the late great Robbie Fulks (not yet deceased).  Fulks, from Georgia via 20 years or so in Chicago does not come to town enough.  he was playing an early show opening for Chatham County Line who is the latest “thing” in Americana/Alt Country...whatever you want to call it.  But Fulks… I have seen 4-5 times.  I was able to reminisce with him briefly about his first show in the St. Louis at the old High Point...100 or so years ago.

Fulks has been keeping himself in Chicago at the Old Town Folk School up there and has helped them create a beautiful community that teaches a lot of people and promotes even more.  Fulks is a gem and no one knows about him who does not pay attention to great music.  He has a truly unique voice and I don't mean “unique” like Dylan or Niel Young.  I mean unique like...fucking beautiful.  There is something in the way he resonates that literally can make me tear up and there is both a joy and a mournfulness that he conjures which becomes stunning in a small venue like Off Broadway.

The voice coupled with 30 years of songwriting proved too much for the normal 45 minute opener and he played for over an hour and left everyone wanting for more.

Georgia Hard

She said she was leaving

So I went to follow

Blind love and I-55 got me here

Dirty old salt truck

in the smog before me

And dear old Dixie, back in the rearview mirror

Got a third-story walk-up

With a view of the alley

A mailroom job that isn't all glamour and fun

The woman I came for

Is gone to another

Now my feet are just too planted to run

Chorus:

But there's no Carolina Moon over Chicago

No bluegrass growin' out in my backyard

No fields of sugarcane, no soft Virginia rain

But damn, if this livin' ain't Georgia Hard

Down on Halsted

The women walk by me

Like they can tell

I haven't got a dollar to spare

So it's into a side street

For a beer and a sad song

I guess some things

Are the same most everywhere

So please, Mr. Conwell

Could you except the charges?

When I told you "A cold day in Maacon", I lied

And if your pecan trees still need a-shakin'

I'll be back a-beggin' fast as the grey dog flies”

Chatham County seemed like they were going to be awesome after some awful sound problems.  They do 4 musicians, no drummer, and one microphone.  It is almost too cute but these guys are clearly killing it and a braver man would have stayed for more but… I am old.

Robbie Fulks/Chatham County Line

Most recently I went to Off Broadway to see the Felice Brothers.  The Felice Brothers became like gods to me with the release of their eponymous CD from 2008.  Songs like “Whiskey In My Whiskey”, “Scarecrow” and more made a CD that was so solid song to song, so lyrical and so filled with sad energy that it was far and away my best CD released that year.  But so what?  They came to town to the Firebird once since then and I missed them (out of town) which was clearly my bad but mistakes get made.  But I did not miss them this time and they were everything I had hoped and more.  They were brilliant.  Sad.  Emotional.  Funny.  Talented and… shit… they were beautiful.   Ian and James Felice even without their brother Simone play the kind of music that can only be played from playing together for life and loving and hating each other as only brothers can do.  The concert ambled, rambled, soared and swooped.  It was meticulous and it was a train wreck and it was everything rock and roll is supposed to be.  It is clearly for me the best show of 2014!                    

Songs of addiction and madness that when you read the lyrics they just make you ache… and cringe.

Scarecrow

Would you love me

If I told you I was born upstream

If I told you I come from money

White money

Would you love me

Would you love me

Well, I was born down

By a bad little river in a poor town

Where an indian-giver put a board out

It said "Boarding House"

Call him Scarecrow

He kept whores around

And I'd go there

I'd wait my turn on the broke stairs

And get me the girl with the gold hair

Aw yeah, leave your clothes there

On the folding chair

In that cold room

Your breath would twist just like ghosts do

You said, "Call me Dorothy in red shoes"

And the bed moved

The bed moved

The bed moved

Tracy, don't you wake that scarecrow tonight

Well, the man would come in

It's hard living right giving head when

The sad days of winter have set in

And the medicine for an addict is heroin

I'd find you there in the bath

We'd cook up your shit in a tin can

And you started calling me Tin Man

And we started making plans to begin again

Begin again

You saved a C note

Told me you felt like a seagull

Told me to meet at the depot

With the needle, then maybe we'd go

To Reno

Where you'd be my desert dove

And we'd find a way to make better love

Said, "Baby, that's how the West was won"

And the blood-red sun

Yeah, the blood-red sun

And the blood-red sun

Tracy, don't you wake that scarecrow tonight

Well, the man cries,

"Who gives a damn when a tramp dies?"

But I loved you there in the lamp light

With your bare thighs

And the halo of your hair alive

And all my lifelong

I'll never shake off your siren song

And all of your talk about dying young

With an iron lung and that crazy way

Would you love me

If I told you I was born upstream

If I told you I come from money

White money

Would you love me

Would you love me

And all my lifelong

I'll never shake off your siren song

And all of your talk about dying young

With an iron lung and that crazy way

You said, "Simon,

I think I might stay here with Scarecrow tonight

Simon, I think I'm gonna stay here with Scarecrow tonight."

                                  s

“I put some whiskey into my whiskey

I put some heartbreak into my heart

I put my boots on that ole dance floor

I put three rounds Lord, in my 44”

The Felice Brothers.

Quite a year indeed.

Go see some music.

Save your soul.

Okkervil River: Off Broadway November 4 2013

Soooo..... as discussed there is nothing like live music.  NOTHING!  With Fall mercilessly upon us and winter a bad shout out away one needs something to lift out of the gun in my mouth season... with trees turning brown and leaves....falling.  But there is even more nothing better (and I intended to say it like that) than seeing live music in a small venue... as God intended.  Follow the Diner Review Rule that if the guitarist us not close enough to spit on you, than don't bother to go.  Two weeks ago I went to see Neutral Milk Hotel down at the Blue Note in Columbia and it was an epic show... but nothing like this.

My son Jon of St. Louis Wing Review fame was finishing up a brutal Fall concert schedule and was wing man.  Jon had come fresh from a dinner with my in-laws which I ...missed.  It had been a long weekend of family with everyone in town for a wedding but they were gone now and this would be a finale to 3 nights of being slightly...over served. 

Off Broadway has morphed into one of the more pleasant places to see a show.  The new management (now several years in place) has...

*Opened a courtyard and made that the entrance which improved on the rat maze feel the old entrance had...like you were coming into a closet or something.
*Removed wagon wheel light fixture which though "classic" blocked the view from the shitty balcony and cluttered the room.
*Further uncluttered by removing all the crap off the walls replacing them with iconic (if boring) posters of musicians, many of whom are flipping the bird.
*Torn out the beautiful long bar and replaced it with a much smaller and more manageable  one.  It is not as pretty and you will wait in line but there is never any question of being ignored or when it is "your turn".
They have not fixed the bathrooms which remain abysmal though clean.  They do discriminate against the "bowel challenged" (I might adopt that as a description for my celiac) but I would suspect that is a 5 figure to 6 figure fix which is hard to justify,  A port-o-potty rental for the courtyard might be an idea though or even a bathroom out there... I don't know.  Bottom line is that they have made it into a much more friendly venue, and the shows run on time which is something former management could never seem to get done.

The other nice thing about it is that if you get there for the opener, you are likely to see the headliner, or headliners, walking around.  Like Richard Gere in "Officer and a Gentlemen", they got nowhere else to go!  Unless they want to hide in the attic like green room there are very few choices.  I was there early because I was excited about the show and needed to stake out standing space for Jon and myself and got to chat up Will Sheff in the drink line.  He is a pretty unassuming guy and has boyish looks.  I was able tot ell him how much I liked his music and he was polite and friendly.  I did not make him get in a pic with me... I was proud of myself for maintaining that tiny...TINY bit of dignity.  The last time I saw Sheff was at the Pageant where he did a standoffish set and was so drunk that he forgot a verse of "Westfall" but..... I am a fan.

Will Johnson opened.  Johnson is from Kennett Missouri (If It Makes You Happy) and now lives in Austin.  He interested me 15 years ago with his main band Centromatic but has a lot of solo stuff out as well as a tribute CD he did with Jay Farar.  Bottom line was he played solo and he was...great.  Kind of a Kenny Logins (Logins and Messina) voice but then he would get all dark and whispery and his guitar is just...haunting. He played about a 50 minute set and was impressive enough for me to buy his new CD. 

I had been off to the side of the stage but after Johnson left the weak willed or weak bladdered headed off and I moved in and camped front row (standing) slightly off center and was thrilled, once again by the tininess of people who go see live music.  Whether it is a genetic thing with music lovers or whether it is because they are more apt to abuse themselves with cigarettes and alcohol stunting growth... it is great to be over 6 foot at a live show.  Jon showed up and we had nothing but these sweet, elf size music lovers in front of us, so much so that I that I was able to move several more people in front of me (because you don't want to be a dick and block other people's view just because you can) and peer over their heads.  It is, by the way, considered poor form to place your drinks on their heads.

Okkervil came on at the crack of 9:30.  Late for a school night but it had been tweeted by venue that it was the schedule, and it was, so I could pace myself mentally and cocktail-wise. Sheff came on with a crack 5 piece band and simply killed it, tore it up, beat it up bloody, right from the start.  He lit into two tracks from the new album, "It Was My Season" and "Balcony" which really got everyone going but after that he tore into some his great, old, angry songs from Black Sheep Boy, "For Real" at which point he owned the audience and the show.

Their new album, "Down The Deep River" is a really mature work and it hearkens back to the earlier days of the band with a lot of accessible introspection.  Sheff has been all over the rock press and NPR promoting this and everyone seems to make it out as this loveable look back at growing up in a small New England town.  Can New England be pastoral?  I don't think so and I would argue that Sheff does not either.  There is joy, sadness and God bless him, teen angst.  The songs recall all types imagery from the 80s and they are sweet... with an edge.  I don't know what this was.

This show was a killer.  An artist who is re-peaking after a little thrashing around who really knows how to put on a live show.  This size venue is PERFECT for him, and for the audience.

Will Johnson Opened!

Off Broadway, KDHX, Marshall Crenshaw, Bottle Rockets and Dale Watson

Sooooo...I am falling in love with Off Broadway and with KDHX all over again. Last things first but KDHX in my adultery.... or in my adulthood has become such a mature, yet still such a fun station. We have no idea how lucky we are in a market like St. Louis to have a good NPR station and a good independant music station. There is NOTHING play listed about KDHX and if you know their programming schedule the chance to hear eclectic music in a genre that you like is awesome. They have always promoted live music in town but have gathered the people and economic resources so it seems like they are always promoting great music coming to town. Here is site for their schedule of weekly shows:

http://kdhx.org/radio/881-kdhx-schedule-shows-and-playlists

On to more important matters. Off Broadway was formerly a nightmarish venue. It had a lot of character. It had cold beer. It had good shows. But it was dirty, beaten up, looked like a big version of my old dorm room only the wagon wheel was a chandelier rather then a coffee table. That was not the problem though, the problem was that the shows would be doors at 8 and show at nine. More often then not the show would not start till 9:30 and then they would book three acts (two local) which meant that the headliner often did not start till 11:00 and sometimes would not be done till 12:30 or 1:00. That just became too late for and aging man like myself. They have a very accsesable web site which i link to from the Diner review home page but it is good to keep an eye on. I cannot complement the place enough and for the first time in a long time it seems like we have a somewhat worthy successor to the niche that Mississippi Nights formerly held. It can be a little “close” sometime but that does not change the...awesomeness of having great bands playing at a reasonable time, close enough so that the guitarist can spit on you... should he have a mind to.

I have seen two shows there already this year. the first was the Marshall Crenshaw show where he was backed by the Bottle Rockets. I got a little confused by the billing not understanding that the Rockets would be his back up band and then still not expecting an opening set from them. You can say what you want about Bryan Henneman but he has become a local treasure and he really knows how to put on a show. There is none of the shoe staring mopiness of a Jay Farrar show and of course though Tweedy is great... he did leave us... the bastard. So Henneman comes out and the place is packed. Easily 20% of the folks were out just to see a Bottle Rockets show and he did a great job... just the hits folks...just the hits. The bottom line is that he puts on a great show, works the audience and delivers... every time. Then Crenshaw came out. Marshall Crenshaw was the next big thing for a solid 5 years. he was a critics darling who wrote some excellent songs, had a distinctive sound and great pop sensabilities. But... he could never quite crack it. He got to play Buddy Holly and continued to put out quality, crafted pop but he never made it, as making it was defined in the day. His debut album in 1982, the epynomous Marshall Crenshaw is a pop gem. Buy it. But he is old. With the Bottle Rockets and Henneman all wearing what looked to be J Crew style pork pie hats they looked like a group of middle aged men very uncomfortable with their baldness. Still, Crenshaw worked through his beautiful jangly songs and it was just a lot of fun. As I said the place was absolutely packed and it was a lot of fun. it remined me again about how fun a show was and I saw local music head R. Brightman who informed me Dale Watson would be playing the next week... and I needed to see him.

I had no idea who Dale Watson was. But Brightman has an ear for the twang and he seems to have a lot of the Bakersfield penchant that has grabbed me for a while so... I trust him. he has also gotten me into a couple of house concerts and that is something for which i owe him no small debt. So... on a Sunday night after the first football playoff game and during the second one I headed out to the show solo. There were not quite as many people there and he had a nice big bus in front of the place but he came out and... he was site. He has a pretty regular gig at the revered Continental Club in Austin and I would judge his age at somewhere north of 50. I have never seen hair like his in my life. There was a good crowd there and he came out with a very tight band and a sweet lap steel player. Beatle Bob was there doing his thing (he made the Marshall Crenshaw show as well and he rocked us through a set made up of his own classic country relating to liquor, death and sadness. It was a well received show that had people two stepping the night away on the dance floor in front of the stage.

St. Louis is not grateful enough for it’s music scene. Off Broadway and KDHX are partnering to put on some great shows. Pay attention. In the words of Neil Young, “Live Music Is Better! Bumper Stickers Should Be Issued!” Amen.

Elizabeth Cook: Off Broadway

So what can I say about Off Broadway. The newest owners are doing right by me. Earlier show times are a huge, huge, blessing. I cannot recount the amount of times I had gone down there on a school night and got there for doors at 8 and waited... and drank... and waited... and drank...until the 9:00 show time came and went. Then at 9:30, like salvation the band came on except it was the opening band... so I frank... and the opener was ok. I watched them break down and then watched.... oh shit... another band that was not the headliner set up. It was already 10:30 by the time they go on and then they played their 45 minute set, broke down and somewhere around 11:30-11:45 the headliner would come on...getting me home around 1:00 A.M. drunk and tired and more importantly drunk driving AND drunk driving at that bad time of night when I feel like a target. So that was bad. A lot of great bands, a lot of good times.

But new management has made some changes. They cleaned the place up. I am ambivalent about the changes but they are good ones. They tore down all the kitschy crap. The wagon wheel light fixture that had graced the place, forever, gone. All the garbage on the walls, gone. The place is all cleaned up. The long bar left in tact. Everything else cleaned up, stripped down and hosed out. Awesome. They set a few chairs out and a couple of tables and what looks like a new dance floor. It all opened up. It is a prettier, better lit space with slightly better site lines...and a patio area you can easily access to smoke. Nice.

And show times are earlier. Caught an early show a few months ago and now they seem to be starting a lot of shows at 7:30 or 8:00 with doors at 7:00. This is brilliant for the old crowd and I think the old crowd is THE crowd as far as going out and seeing live music in a small venue. At least in our town. Anyway...

Showed up at 7:00 and there was an opening act called Porter Hall Tennessee. They were a surprisingly good trio with a chick and three guys playing drums bass and electric guitar. The bass player had a big old "dog house" bass and it was a very tight show. they sang nice alt country with the guitarist playing a style that reminded me a lot of Brent best from Slobberbone. A personal favorite of mine. The female lead was working the leopard mini and she had some nice pipes with a little trace of Lucinda as they did country gospel and bar room brawl. It was extremely satisfying for an opening act and set a nice tone.

Towards the end of their set a guy dressed in over-alls with slicked back hair game in looking like L'ill Abner with a little blond in fishnets, boots and a mini who was playing the roll of Daisy May. Interesting. The opening act ended and they set up, guitar, slap bass and acoustic guitar. No drum, no organ, no gimics. Elizabeth started to talk with her southern twang and we settled in for a nice set made up primarily of songs from her new CD "Welder". Sadly I heard of her through NPR (How sad is that) and she is one of 11 kids and has a pretty wild and varied upbringing with upbeat, true to life personal experience songs like "Heroin Addict Sister". She reached back and did some of her "old" songs like "Sometimes It Takes Balls To Be Woman" and pleased the crowd greatly.

A lot of unexpected pleasures for this show. First was just how authentic and rich her voice was. The songs were all pretty simple and paired down. The second was that her lead guitar player is evidently her husband. I was admiring his guitar which was really a little too good, almost distracting from her voice and songs. The she she said his name and it turned out Li'l Abner was Tim Carroll, an alt-country guy I have admired for years. he is a great song writer and singer in the Bakersfield style of a Robbie Fulks or Buck Owens. Really good stuff, nice harmonies and great guitar. The third was when they played one of his songs and she took off her boots and put on some taps for percussion. She explained to the crowd that it was not tap but "cloggin". "Tap is for rich people". She really put on a charming show and seemed very authentic.

this was their first show back in the States after a European tour and she said "God Bless America...so hard". I love that type of authenticity. She also said that Faith Hill was possible going to cover one of her songs and that "she would have to stop talking bad about her". The only disappointment was that she did not sing "Follow You Like Smoke" which might be the most nuanced song on "Welder". Show ended and they came out and did two encores. I got home by 10. I did not drink too much. I had a great night and she put on a great show.

Coming up....LOUFEST Preview: http://www.loufest.com/

Concert Review: Robbie Fulks @ Off Broadway

Soooo the house concerts have been great but there is still something righteous about going to a club, standing at the bar, paying for a beer and then seeing a band. Seriously righteous. But daddy is old. Daddy is tired and some venues have become off limits. Particularly Off Broadway.

I have vivid memories of going down there time and time again. I would show around 8 because things were winding down at home, kids are in bed are going to bed, the wife is working on a project so rather then watch some more crap TV I go to the club. I pay. “When does the band go on?” I ask and am told the opener is at 9. You look and you see two drum kits stacked on the stage and and you know that you are not going to luck out and have “an evening with” where one artist plays the whole show. So you wait, have a beer, have two beers, then the opener. Often they do not suck. They always go one late, say around 9:15 and get done slightly after ten. Then you see a second band setting up and they are not the band you came to see. GREAT NEWS! Three bands for the price of one! Shit. That mean that if you wanted to stay till the bloody you were there till 12:30 or 1:00. I am too old. I have to work tomorrow! But I stayed. And I loved it. And I hated it. I was ecstatic and I was miserable. I love dichotomies.

The place has changed hands at least three times since I started going to shows but no matter who it was it was always a late place. Even the much missed and lamented Mississippi Nights ran a tighter ship.

http://www.offbroadwaystl.com/

Anyway.... I digress. I read in the RFT or the Post or something that Robbie Fulks was coming to town and playing an EARLY SHOW at Off Broadway. 7:30! How great is that. Even better a good alt-country true believer called and reminded me of the show and even better I was free of other obligations that night so... down we went. Off Broadway is just off of Broadway down south of the brewery and as I said it has been there for years. It was interesting upon going in that there was again new management which is I guess the reason for trying some new stuff. I complimented them on the concept and away we went. The place was all cleaned up with all the trash and memorabilia which had been gathered (read plastered and strewn) all over the place for 20 years or more. The only thing I was sad to see gone was the huge wagon wheel chandelier which used to hang in the middle of the room, awkwardly hanging over nothing but part of the floor. It had always somewhat obscured the view from the awkward little balcony.

They have always had a large beer selection there and I was grateful to see that they had not felt the need to get rid of the Busch and Stag long necks. In fact they had a special on the Busch 20 ouncers but... I prefer glass bottles for my Busch beer. I am classy that way. We had a beer, and had a seat. It appears they had also lost the crappy little tables they formerly had and instead set up seating in about 10 rows of chairs. We got a seat in back and had another beer and I was pleased to see local luminaries like Brian Henneman and Beatle Bob at the show.

Fulks came on at 7:30 promptly with his acoustic and more of slightly more interest or annoyance he was appearing with another guy with an acoustic, Robbie Gjersoe. If anybody cares he plays for a band called Screen Door Music which you can find on My Space... or not. Fulks has a new CD coming out and so he was shilling for that and the new tunes were tuneful and nice and his voice rang clear and true with that sharp, well pronounced twang. It was awesome just to hear him live again. The first time I had scene Fulks was at the old High Pointe. He knocked me out fronting a band and paying loud, funny twang with Nashville and Big Hat hating country songs like "Fuck This Town".

If you want to get a taste of Fulks I would sample the first two CD's "Country Love Songs" and "Southmouth". These Buckcentric CD's are awesome and funny and his voice is so young and pure that when i listen to them now they often seem even more heartbreaking. After that he has a good songwriter catalogue but as i said, I recommend "Georgia Hard" as his best. Fulks cut his teeth doing Bakersfield country and channeling Buck Owens like no one's business but since that time and most specifically with his album Georgia Hard he really came into his own with some beautiful, catchy and dark songs. So the new ones sound good. I will have to get the new Cd and he played a nice sampling of his past 9 albums. One of the great things about Fulks is that most of the songs are 2-3 minute blasts of beauty and angst and it was awesome. Gjersoe played a nice accompaniment and sang high harmony when needed and occasionally pulled out the craftsment 9/16 long neck socket for a little slide guitar as well.

After he put in an hour he started to take requests but other then a couple of suggestions he pretty much ignored them and played what he wanted. Although disappointed not to hear "The Buck Starts Here", there are no bad songs in his catalogue and he was playing before about 50 hard core fans. The show was done by nine and I was able to have another beer on the way home and be in bed shortly after 10. That night, life was good indeed. Here is to the early show.