05.08.07
The show’s the thing
My best friend from childhood also lives here in Nashville, and she just sent me all these dumbass MySpace links to the pages of people we knew when we were kids. I spent like forty minutes over there doing NOTHING. I am considering defacing our MySpace page in a frenzy of self-inflicted retribution.
I just thought I lost the notes I took at the show I’m fixin’ to write about. This would not be the first time this has happened, but I’ve been having temper tantrums lately and I feel that losing my notes would have set off a Mount Vesuvius level eruption. Cricket’s life barely spared!
Before I write up the Drew Holcomb show from the other night, I want to make a passing mention of this piece of glory: Geoff Berner’s “Cards with Corby.” The other day I was listening to the CBC, as is my tendency, and Geoff Berner (a Canadian klezmer musician) was on jawin’ away with Sook-Yin Lee (pretentious Canadian “artist,” former MuchMusic host and current CBC radio host) about his new record when the conversation turned to this song and Corb Lund’s abilities as a card sharp. If you didn’t love Corb already, what more reason could you need than that he could take a man for the shirt off his back? [As if his cowboyness is not enough? –Daisy]
So, last week Cricket was otherwise engaged, so I decided to drag Mr. Hmmm (a friend of ours who is always hanging out over here) to a show. This was the usual sort of fiasco where I first ended up at an open mic night whose highlights included a chick playing the bongos accompanied by a dude in a Hawaiian shirt who sang in a high, screechy soprano about the environment and a woman who apparently has never heard of TMI or her own voice on tape (and it was a jam band!!!).
Right around the time we managed to escape the fourth circle of hell, Cric demanded we come fetch her. Shenanigans ensued, but we made it to the gig right as the opening act ended (Moriah Harris–whose podcast will be up here shortly).
Anyway, Drew Holcomb at The Rutledge:
I hadn’t been to this venue before. I think it’s newish, but there’s also the distinct possibility that the booker just tends to book acts we avoid (looking at you, jam bands). The sound has to be the best I’ve heard in Nashville. Now, if you don’t live here, you’re thinking that it’s freakin’ Nashville, the place is crawlin’ with crab and sound engineers (often crabs are crawlin’ on sound engineers), so the music venues must have some excellent blah blah blah. Oh, but you’d be wrong (about the sound part). The sound at the Rutledge was surprisingly good.
We picked up this show because I’d listened to Drew’s music on CD Baby a while back and had liked it a great deal. He’s another of the Memphis indie artists that seem to be rupturing out of the place in a torrent. Attending the show was something of an impulse venture that paid off.
I’m not gonna complain about the crowd, but just pretend like I did. (WTF is wrong with you, Nashvillians? Seriously, y’all SUCK.)
When Drew opened his mouth and started singing the first couple lines of his opening number, I knew Cricket and I were both gonna love him because his voice has that cigarette ember and burnished copper texture of Matthew Ryan.
“Jamie” was the stand out track for Mr. Hmm (who repeated how much he liked it enough times for me to remember him saying it). Mine were the acoustic versions of “Resurrected” and “Promised Land” (but that could, in large measure, just be my preference for bare music). Cricket had no favorites, as she was too busy falling in love. [Though in this case the love was with Drew's wife Ellie's voice and their harmonies, rather than the man himself.—Cric]
Mainly, what struck me about this show was how uniformly tight and flawless the performance was. The band (drums, guitar, base and backing vocalist) was rocky without being over-powering. Drew’s vocal delivery was heart-felt and vibrant. It was a professional set done by people who obviously enjoy playing together. Not something we see enough of.
The real glory of the performance was Ellie Holcomb’s (Drew’s wife) voice. Considering her fragile looks and sweet face, I wasn’t expecting a Memphis blues voice to burst out of her. However, that’s exactly what happened. She gives the act more of a Memphis-y feeling than the other contemporary acts from over that way. Drew’s voice is simply stunning.
I was somewhat disappointed when I listened to the studio recordings that some of the spontaneity and spark I saw in the live set had been produced out of the studio tracks. This could be, again, just what I like for live music, so keep that in mind.
Upcoming tour dates in Birmingham, Memphis, and Colorado amongst other places. Get out and see him. You will thank me.
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