Got a chance to see Anais Mitchell at Berkeley's Freight & Salvage this week. She is a very interesting, heady songwriter with a distinctive voice and a lot to say. Her latest, Young Man In America, was produced by Todd Sickafoos, and Chris Thiele throws in some mandolin. Doesn't mean it sounds like the Punch Brothers. Her lyrics refer to Greek mythology and the Old Testament. Audience was a littl
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No one seems to have picked up on this 2008 Yep Roc release, but Loudon is in pretty good voice, good arrangements and delivers some pretty powerful material. He may have been a failure as a parent (according to both Rufus and Martha), but he is a hell of a songwriter and is unflinching at self-examination. This is good stuff.
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I caught the first night of a two night stand by the incomprable Allen Toussaint this week at Yoshi's in Oakland. He played with a drummer and a monster bass (six string, yet). The sold out crowd thoroughly enjoyed his over two hour set, which included some familiar and unfamiliar songs. He covered City of New Orleans by Steve Goodman. He did From a Whisper to a Scream, which I don't think he ofte
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I picked up this double CD, don't know how I missed it. It is well-recorded, his Bobness is in pretty good voice (I have a live performance of Sick of Love, which is almost painful to listen to). The only gripe I have is that the record, an official Columbia release, provides no information about the backing musicians. I can hear some David Hidalgo, who has been all over some of the recent release
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Dave Alvin finished up a two month tour with a band with an acoustic performance at Berkeley's Freight and Salvage last Friday. The Freight is a very comfortable venue with good sight lines and an excellent sound system, all courtesy of the late Warren Hellman, who is also responsible for Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. Dave had an opening act, a veteran of Bay Area alternative bands who had just gigge
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Marianne Faithful appeared at Yoshi's, an upscale mostly jazz venue in Oakland's Jack London Square about a year ago (reviewed previously) and returned this week for two nights before a very receptive audience of about 200. Excellent acoustics, pleasant venue. She had a guitar accompaniest who was excellent. She explained that she had been to the recent Metallica gig in SF and thought they were a
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I have most of his released material, and read his daughter's unvarnished biography, I'll Sleep When I am Dead. Warren died of mesotheliioma, a terrible way to go and his last weeks were as bad as it gets. He had alienated many, but remained close to Jorge Calderon. His final album was difficult for him, but remains a testament to his ability. The remaster is absolutely worth it, although I have a
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Keef, besides doing publicity for his autobiography, has been busy of late. His reissue of Wingless Angels, with an additional CD's worth of material is first rate, although it helps if you like vocal and hand drums with minimal studio sweetening by some serious Rastas singing material from their child hood. Vintage Winos revisits one of his solo efforts, Main Offender, but is extensively re-maste
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Caught Massive Attack and Thievery Corporation at their recent gig at Berkeley's Greek Theater last night. Notwithstanding ear protection, probably lost a few db's of hearing. Thievery Corp. had an extremely engergetic drummer, influenced by Chuck C's go-go beat but much more elaborate. Stands to reason, Thievery is based in DC, as is Chuck C. The bass was amped to the point of ground shake. Vocal
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Thought I was going out of my nut. Watched a well acted movie titled Brothers which credited a U2 song "Winter" which I thought was great, but could not locate in their extensive discography. No OST album has been released. A recent news story indicated the canny SOB's had a stash of unreleased material amounting to something like 4 albums worth. Maybe Winter will make the cut--it was haunting, be
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