Hey Rand, how'd you like to be Boss for awhile?

Listening, last night, to Randy Newman cruise through his, ahem, "hits," it was clear that seated before me on the stage of the Calvin Theater in Northampton, MA, was a major American talent.

As he said last night, his recent creative period has only produced six song in nine years, (or was it nine songs in six years), but those songs are undeniably original Randy Newman songs. The kind of songs that no one else could, or would write, and precious few could perform.

At 64, Newman's voice has neither mellowed gracefully, nor disintegrated. He can still barely wander outside of the narrow mid-range where his croak of a voice feels comfortable, and when he does, well, the results are unpredictable. But that is at the essence of his charm - to write perfectly singable songs that he doesn't really sing. It's not surprising that some of his songs are a bit more like a musical conversation than an aria.

He began with "It's Money That I Love," and didn't look back for half an hour as he explored his oeuvre, and acknowledged the smattering of applause at the start of well-known, well-polished and well-loved Newman classics like "Short People," and "Marie."

He sampled generously from his latest effort, "Harps and Angels," singing about potholes on memory lane, and warnings to the boys about when they lay you on the table.

Newman was having a bit of difficulty with the Steinway keyboard, or was it his fingers rebelling after a few nights on the road at joints like Carnegie Hall or Boston's Symphony Hall. At midpoint in "My Life Is Good" Newman's digits seemed to wander onto an errant chord and he announced, "Are there any doctors out there? I think I just had a small stroke." But his fingers wandered astray a half a dozen times during the evening leaving Newman to admit, in one of his last numbers, "God, I'm playing so shitty tonight."

It was a minor distraction in an evening where Newman's stories were as hilarious as ever, his songs, as simple and beautifully expressed as they are, served to skewer our notions of power, comfort and fame, or in a half dozen common words, tore to the heart of a complex emotion.



Towards the end of the show, he actually asked for requests. The room was suddenly alive with titles from throughout his career as he launched into "I Love LA." As he turned toward the keyboard for the first chords of "I Think It's Going To Rain Today," someone shouted out for the obscure, "My Little Buttercup," which Newman began to play. Then he lamented, "Aw, I've gone and ruined the mood," as he returned to the brilliant classic of loneliness and desperation.

Hiatt and Lovett at the Calvin

Thanks to a wandering gallstone, my musical forays were limited this week, but I did get to the amazing pairing of Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt at the Calvin Theater in Northampton Mass on Saturday night.

These are two of my favorite American songwriters, and the solo acoustic trade-a-song approach highlight the songwriting and performing ability of both.

Of the two, Lovett seemed a bit more adventurous in his song selection, choosing lesser-known, but deserving to be better known songs like, Creeps Like Me and Last of the Family Reserve. Hiatt hit his high points, and even tried out a few from his new album Same Old Man.

Hiatt and Lovett tix on sale

John Hiatt and Lyle Lovett will visit the Calvin Theater in Northampton MA on February 23 and advance ticket just went on sale to members of the Iron Horse mailing list. It's an acoustic show, and appears the two will share the stage.

I was able to get a couple of tickets in the first row, and not worry that the scalpers were going to beat me to it.

Bragg and Beausoleil

Lucy and I started the evening at the Iron Horse dancing to Beausoleil at Mike Doucet's invitation.




Then it was two hours of Bragg, who began with The World Turned Upside Down and To Have and Have Not and previewed his new album, Mr. Love and Justice (which will be a great one by the sounds of these). Bragg played and talked for two hours, and ended with a song dedicated to the audience "You Kept Faith."

Shit, another Billy Bragg post

Okay, the concert is tonight, so there will be one more, when I review the concert tonight or tomorrow, but you can't miss the Calendar cover story Eric Danton did in the Hartford Courant today.

Billy, meet Betty

Billy Bragg shook the Queen's hand and the controversy it's engendered has left Billy explaining how and why.

The occasion was the debut of the Beethoven's Ode to Joy as performed by the London Philharmonic, with professional and amateur choirs, singing Braggs new English lyric which was originally written by Schiller.

Bragg works with the best people - Woody and now Ludwig von.

Bragg appears at the Calvin Theater in Northampton Mass, on Thursday, October 18.

Jilted for "The River"

As you might have read earlier, Billy Bragg will not, I repeat, will not appear on WWUH on Thursday as promised earlier.

Seems tickets have not been selling as briskly as hoped (I think it's the Red Sox AL playoff effect) and Bragg will hurry from NYC to Northampton to appear at the site of Northampton Box Office and give an "impromptu" concert in hopes of selling some more tickets. The short concert, and interview (scheduled exactly when his WWUH interview would have been conducted), will appear on Northampton's "the river" radio station WRSI.

This is a rather rare appearance for Bragg, and if you've seen him, you know he shouldn't be missed. If you haven't, he's one of those performers whom you'd like to count as friend after seeing a show.

Eric Danton, music critic of the Hartford Courant, interviewed Bragg by phone last week and part of that interview is available on his blog. The remainder will appear in the Courant on Thursday.

For my part, I'll be playing a hell of a lot of Billy Bragg on today's show.

Crowded House exquisite in crowded house

Crowded House officially kicked-off their US reunion tour in Northampton Massachusetts last night, and the evening was magic.

The band began the show with Recurring Dream, and performed many songs from the new album, which also provided the elements to the stage set, including, as Nick Seymour explained, "the tree of life." The band seemed in good spirits, jumping from the new albums to various points in their recorded history. They sang, amoung others, When You Come, Private Universe, (for Frank) Not the Girl You Think You Are, Fall At Your Feet and Pineapple Head. Neil Finn urged the crowd to sing the first verse and chorus of "Don't Dream It's Over," and we did, with appreciable volume and energy. Finn demurred a request for "Catherine Wheels" as "impossible, mate" then proceeded to sing most of the song with Mark Hart providing harmony, and atmosphere on the lap steel. Seymour was totally animated throughout the show, bouncing around the stage as effectively in the good old days. Hart was remarkable, and serious. Matt Sherrod proved remarkably able to keep up with this wonderful band, and Elroy Finn kept rhythm on guitar. Neil seemed happy to be singing with the boys again. So happy, in fact, that at one point the band launched into a version of "Rock the Boat" by the Hues Corporation, and dropped a bit of the Kinks, "Sunny Afternoon" into another song.

Although Liam Finn was scheduled to open the show, instead Philip Price and Flora Reed of Winterpills did a beautiful acoustic set, which was well received by the audience.

Crowded House closed the show in the second encore with "Better Be Home Soon," a fitting farewell to the crowd and to Elroy who was heading home to university.

Concerts of the Week

Crowded House
Fri. Aug 3, Foxwoods, Ledyard CT
Sat. Aug 4, Calvin Theater, Northampton MA

When Neil Finn invited former Crowded House members Nick Seymour and Mark Hart to help him on what was to be another solo album, Time On Earth became the first new Crowded House album in nearly 15 years. The group seemed unlikely candidates for a reunion after the suicide of popular Crowded House drummer Paul Hester. The album, which is another lovely outing for the band, begat a tour, with new drummer Mark Sherrod, which began with tryouts at the Troubadour in LA last week, and in a secret concert at a NYC club a few days later, and officially kicks off Saturday at the Calvin with another "tryout" at an Indian casino on Friday. Finn's beautiful folk-pop songs have always been among my favorites, and it's a total mystery that they never made a dent in the US charts beyond Don't Dream It's Over. In some ways, this band would have been a perfect headliner for the Newport Folk Festival (see below) Forget the Police, this is the reunion concert of the week.



Dunkin' Donuts Newport Folk Festival
July 3, 4, 5
Newport, RI

There's a lot of history attached to this festival, founded by George Wein in the early sixties, but that never stopped producers from exploring what's new and exciting in "folk" music. There are big names like Linda Rondstadt, Emmylou Harris, the Allman Brothers, and Ralph Stanley, but there are great new bands to consider like the Carolina Chocolate Drops, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, the John Butler Trio and Elvis Perkins.


Podunk Bluegrass Festival
August 2-5
Martin Park, East Hartford CT

An honest-to-God big time bluegrass festival in a city park in East Hartford. Who woulda thunk it. Great bluegrass from Doyle Lawson, the Hunger Mountain Boys, Jesse McReynolds, Lost and Found and Rhonda Vincent.

Billy Bragg at Calvin Theater in Northampton October 18

Advance tickets are on sale now for people on the Iron Horse/Northampton Box Office mailing list. Others tix on sale Friday.

Newman!

There's a bit of magic about a man who can take a handful of plain words, and melodies that strike so near you feel you must have known them your entire life. But it's what Randy Newman can do. His performance at the Calvin Theater tonight was straightforward, and sublime. He started with "It's Money That I Love" and ended with "Feels Like Home," and in between it was a journey between hilarity and a simple, soulful connection with human feeling. Newman has made much of a modicum of talents - an endearing croak of a voice, a subtle touch on the keyboard, and a command of a few words that carry nearly all our human thought and feeling. He's one of the best, and tonight was no exception.

Concert or the Week

Randy Newman
Sunday July 15
Calvin Theater, Northampton Mass



You know Randy Newman, even if you don't. In fact, you may know him in a way that makes you dismissive of his talent. Randy Newman, you know, Short People, I Love LA, Mama Told Me Not to Come, You Can Leave Your Hat On. That's all Randy. But that's not all to Randy that there is. Newman's musical genius, his wicked humor, and his use of irony and dramatic monologue, have gotten him in trouble. For my money, he's one of the greatest American songwriters ever. He's written dozens of brilliant, deceptively simple, insightful songs (Sail Away, I Think It's Gonna Rain Today, Marie, Dixie Flier). His controversial concept album "Good Old Boys" may be one of the most brilliant albums of the album era. And his dozens of movie scores include incredible music for The Natural, Avalon, Toy Story, Ragtime, The Three Amigos, and Seabisquit. And he cast Don Henley as Faust. Perfect.

His live shows are hilarious and monumental.

Interesting interview in the Springfield Republican today.

Incredibly underwhelming

I've seen Richard Thompson perform on more than twenty occasions. I walk away from most wishing that the show had gone on longer. Last night at the Calvin Theater, Thompson displayed all the reasons why he is considered the best guitarist in the world whom no one has heard of. Unpredictably inventive guitar leads, strong songwriting, rich evocative vocal. But there were two things wrong with the evening.

One wasn't his fault - the typically muddy mix at the Calvin Theater. This is an ongoing issue in which vocals are lost to the racket of the band.

The other, well, I'm afraid Richard is responsible. Thompson could fill four hours of playing with incredible songs. Somehow, on this evening, he decided to chose several songs from his new album, and lots of second-tier numbers. Some of the songs for the new album were outstanding. His live performance of "Dad's Gonna Kill Me," drew a standing ovation early in the set. While "Mr. Stupid" could remain one of those songs you leave off of your iPod selection when you rip the album. And unfortunately, when Thompson is touring with his band, he is tempted to take one two many of those incredible extended leads.

I hold Thompson to high standards, and unfortunately, I wish I walked away from the show not wishing he had played more of the incomparable songs he's written.