Pursuit of Happiness

Greg Brown is a great performer, and it helps that he's got an 8am whiskey voice, a no-nonsense sort of attitude and eyebrows like you feel like only the devil and Riad should have. Joe Price is an amazing and rather self-deprecating blues guitarist; his only vanity appeared to be his cowboy boots. And Vicki Price not only plays the steel guitar in excellent and stately rhythm, but she has a serious set of pipes on her. Those are three performers from Kansas/Iowa and parts flat and distant whom you feel have seen most if not all that this world has to offer.

I love how you can viscerally trust good musicians. Like Patti Smith and Neko Case and The Hold Steady.

So, then in the local scene, Eilen Jewell is a light, small, serious performer who's just really enjoyable to listen to. I only call her light because her musicality is impeccable, and her songs are well-written, and she's got a lot of good old country blues and folk-style songs... but I haven't heard a lot of her more personal music. Angry or sad, she's always so smooth. Which is why I'm excited about her new album, and a bit sad that I didn't wander over to Johnny D's after the Greg Brown show, because her first act was canceled, the cover was free on account of the Sox game, and she would have been setting up to play just as I walked in. But where I went, there was bluegrass, so I feel like it all came out alright.

Anje Duvekot is playful (and stunningly, multi-dimensionally attractive) and her songs are all over the place in tone and subject. She writes what she thinks, she's friendly, and her live performances are better than anything I've heard from her that was produced and recorded.. but it's hard to polish a performance for a recording and add accompanying artists without losing some of the original dimension. I've never heard a better cover of, "Your Famous Blue Raincoat."

I love living in this city. It's so nice when you go to a show, because you/the crowd feeds back to the performer. You and your friends, you're all there together. And you're so close to home. So, then you can go to someone's house and break out the guitar, because the only thing better than listening to music is making it. So, I'm glad I'm here. I'd feel so lost if all I had was a condominium, a Leonard Cohen anthology and the radio to keep my heart warm.

And it makes me even happier becase I'd never have started to appreciate live music and good music and different styles of music if it wasn't for my friends.

Now, get out there and go support your Musician's Local 405.