2022
Our Native Daughters, Carnegie Hall, November
Amythyst Kiah, Kennedy Center Terrace Theater, October
Brandi Carlile, Indigo Girls and Allison Russell, Merriweather Post, August
Silkroad Ensemble with Rhiannon Giddens, Wolf Trap, July 24
Norah Jones with Emily King, Pier Six, July 23
Bonnie Raitt with Lucinda Williams, Pier Six, June
Robert Plant and Allison Krauss, Merriweather Post, June
Molly Tuttle and Oliver Hazard, Baltimore Soundstage, April
Allison Russell and Kyshona, The Barns at Wolf Trap, March
Aoife O’Donovan and Yasmin Williams, Kennedy Center Terrace Theater, February
2021
John Hiatt and Jerry Douglas, Rams Head, November
Yasmin Williams and Amadou Kouyate, Creative Alliance Baltimore, November
Bela Fleck, Strathmore Hall, September
In the wake of Covid and recognizing that technology shifts meant I was no longer buying albums or supporting the musicians I liked in any significant way, I resolved in 2021 to start seeing more concerts in person.
Our Native Daughters, Carnegie Hall, New York, November 2022
Rather than clog up this post with extensive notes, see my full review of this excellent reunion concert of the 2019 album Songs of Our Native Daughters featuring Rhiannon Giddens, Allison Russell, Amythyst Kiah and Leyla McCalla. Also, check out my YouTube playlist based on the set list for the concert. Suffice to say this was one of the most significant concerts I ever attended, and one of the very best.
Amythyst Kiah, Kennedy Center Terrace Theater, Washington DC, October 2022
This show was good but somehow less than great. Amythyst has many talents, starting with her voice, a force of nature that invites comparisons with Odetta, Nina Simone and Joan Armatrading (by the way, this On the String article and accompanying interview are most informative and insightful pieces I’ve found on Amythyst), able to shift from a sweet tone to a mighty roar. Her fingerpicking guitar skills are quite good and her songwriting can reach impressive depth and resonance. “Black Myself” is her calling card anthem, “Wild Turkey” about her mother’s suicide is heartbreaking, “Firewater” about alcohol dependence is compelling. Those three songs are the spine of Wary + Strange and her show, and they are plenty good.
While Amythyst has these strengths, she’s also reaching for indie-rock credibility (“Fancy Drones”, “Tender Organs”, “Sleeping Queens”) along the lines of Brittany Howard and Alabama Shakes, maybe. Here she falls a bit short, from my point of view, and wasn’t helped by her three-piece band of wispy white guys with whom she doesn’t seem to have any special rapport. They were competent but didn’t add a whole lot. She introduced them at the end but I didn’t recognize or catch any names other than the guitarist was named Chris. It seems to be a different group than the people she had when she opened for the Who at several arena dates earlier this year.
Amythyst encored with a harrowing solo version of “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” sung from her perspective as the child of her suicidal mother (good version on YouTube). The song has become a kind of uplifting country music national anthem of continuity but Amythyst wrenched it back to its mournful roots. No longer a feel good singalong, it was a powerful statement of loss.
Brandi Carlile, The Indigo Girls and Allison Russell, Merriweather Post, August 2022
I’m happy to report this was the best concert experience I’ve had this summer, a nice payoff to a string of shows I’ve attended this year. I was most looking forward to seeing Allison Russell’s progress since Laurie and I saw her in March and how she would handle a big outdoor audience. She opened this extended show at 6:30pm with the sun still bright and the audience slowly filling the seats. She had nearly the same band as in March with the pleasant but somewhat inconsequential addition of Joy Clark on acoustic guitar and vocals. Unfortunately, she was without a drummer; Elizabeth Goodfellow was with her at the Barns and one of the best things about the show, both for her rhythmic pulse and her octopus-like movements (she was with Allison for much of the summer but not this night, without explanation). The lack of percussion was missed in the big open space of Merriweather. Allison and the band gamely went through their paces on just 5 songs in 30 minutes (Hy Brazil, Persephone, 4th Day Prayer, All of the Women, Nightflyer). The sound was a little muddy making it hard to understand the lyrics, and the milling, buzzing crowd didn’t help matters. It was very much an opening act experience but Allison and the band seemed to handle it like pros, and fortunately there was more to be seen from them later in the show.
The Indigo Girls followed with a set that felt like a comfortable pair of old jeans, rather like the ones worn by Emily Sailers. She and Amy Ray were joined by Lyris Hung on violin and Lucy Wainwright Roche on vocals. The four of them didn’t need a drummer to get the crowd on their feet, singing along with their well-known canon. It was clear that while a minority of the crowd knew Allison Russell’s music, everyone knew the Indigo Girls’ songs. It’s worth mentioning that the crowd was overwhelmingly female, with many couples and a surprisingly wide range of ages, ethnicities and hairstyles. It was a nice vibe but I was very glad I never had to stand in one of the exceedingly long lines for the women’s restrooms. Amy and Emily invited Allison back out to sing their finale, “Closer to Fine,” with everyone on their feet singing along. It was a feel-good goosebump moment.
I’ve not been a big Brandi Carlile fan but with her big voice and exuberant command of the stage and her band, I readily admit she puts on an excellent show. I found that I knew most of her songs almost by osmosis over the years, and the rest of the crowd knew every word. SistaStrings, the cello and violin playing pair from Allison’s band, joined Brandi’s longtime cello and violin players to make a powerful string quartet, complementing the rock star moves of Hanseroth twins on guitars. The crowd and cameras loved their expressive playing and it was great to see SistaStrings get the added recognition. I believe they will be stars in their own right before long.
Brandi seemed genuinely pumped up and energized by the sold out crowd. This was the first stop of a summer tour with Allison, the Indigo Girls and a few other female artists, a sort of mini Lilith Fair. She recounted her many shows in the DC area over nearly two decades in smaller clubs – namechecking the Rams’ Head and 9:30 clubs – working her way up the ladder. She has certainly played large festivals but this might have been one of the largest shows and tours she’s headlined on her own. Her enthusiasm and energy were infectious, reciprocated from the crowd, and fun to be part of. She was riding high throughout the evening.
Brandi brought Allison and her band out for an encore to perform their newly released version of “You’re Not Alone” which was sweetly done (video from the show posted). I’m not sure it’s entirely an improvement on the original version from Songs of Our Native Daughters, but the addition of SistaStrings’ cello and violin solos are a definite plus and it was exciting to hear the tune on the day of its release. Brandi next invited the Indigo Girls back onstage, recounting the many years they toured together at the start of Brandi’s career and the help they provided along the way. It was a girl lovefest. The show went right to the final minute before the 11pm Merriweather curfew, a testament to professionalism in the face of noise abatement laws.
Silkroad Ensemble with Rhiannon Giddens, Wolf Trap, July 24, 2022
The Silkroad Ensemble, conceived and led by Yo-Yo Ma for more than 25 years, is a rotating collective of dozens of musicians…not a single band but more a concept and now a nonprofit musical and educational foundation to promote “radical cultural collaboration.” Yo-Yo Ma passed the baton of artistic leadership to Rhiannon Giddens in July 2020, mid-pandemic, and this seven-stop Phoenix Rising tour was (more or less) her first with the ensemble. I hesitated for a while to get a ticket since it was the day after the Norah Jones show that I’d already committed to, but ultimately decided that I strongly wanted to see what Rhiannon Giddens was up to with Silkroad and wanted to show my support for wherever she was headed. I figured I would kick myself if I skipped the chance to see one of their only shows this year.
I’ve long thought Silkroad was a delightful concept and the music I’d heard was interesting but not something I listened to more than once. Many wonderful artists, including some of my favorites, have been associated with the ensemble; they’ve recorded 8 albums over the years but I don’t think I’ve listened to one all the way through nor had I sought out a concert.
Rhiannon Giddens, on the other hand, has become a force in music and my world over the past few years. I first saw her at Wolf Trap with the Carolina Chocolate Drops in 2011 and was drawn to the 2017 Celtic Colours Festival in Nova Scotia because she was playing there (though I couldn’t get into her sold out shows). I was enchanted by her 2019 Songs of Our Native Daughters and delighted when Laurie fell under her spell as well. We’ve both reveled in the growth of each member of that group, especially Allison Russell in the past year. Rhiannon could easily be riding along on the wave of popular support for black women in Americana and Country music but instead embraced world music in the past few years with her partner, Francesco Turrisi. Silkroad was not an obvious step for her, but I can see its attraction. Rhiannon does not seem to be driven by a need for great fame or the allure of a pop star’s life. She seems to be striving to make a positive impact on American and world culture, reaching for a higher (and higherbrow?) plane with Silkroad, her recently debuted opera Omar, and her Carnegie Hall Perspectives series. (There’s yet another project, Lucy Negro Redux, a ballet work Rhiannon and Francesco scored last year that will air in September on PBS.) At one level I wish she would stick with her banjo and fiddle playing dive into American black musical history, but I applaud her apparent desire to grow beyond that. I’m willing to follow and see where she leads. So I showed up at Wolf Trap.
The show started promptly at 8pm with the 13 members of the ensemble settling in at their various instruments. With a little subtle bravura, Rhiannon started off with a hum, presumably in perfect pitch, to which the other instruments all tuned. The tuning turned into the opening chord and rhythm of “O Death” (here’s a 2021 performance). This dirge, made famous by Ralph Stanley, is not your normal cheery opening number but was a thematic statement for the show, especially the line “spare me over for another year.” It’s a jumping off point from the pandemic to our lives going forward.
Next came “The Call” by harpist Maeve Gilchrist, a long (10-15 minute?) piece that showed the entire ensemble to great effect, painting aural pictures that evoked Scotland, the Asian steppes, Japan and wherever your imagination took you. They moved on through “Ho-oh” featuring Japanese flute and drums, “Ascending Bird”, “Ekla Cholo Re” featuring tabla and Rhiannon singing in Bengali, “St. James Infirmary Blues” with Rhiannon singing while reclining (here’s a 2016 performance, Rhiannon’s first collaboration with Silkroad), “Sacred Cloud Music” featuring pipa, “New Ritual” featuring all the percussionists, and “Cut the Rug” with the whole ensemble closing the main show. Here’s the program for the show, with descriptions of each piece under “Program Notes.”
I didn’t know this evening’s ensemble members but they are worth noting: Jeffery Beecher (Bass), Sandeep Das (Tabla), Haruka Fujii (Percussion), Rhiannon Giddens (Banjo, Voice), Maeve Gilchrist (Celtic Harp), Mario Gotoh (Viola), Joseph Gramley (Percussion), Wu Man (Pipa), Karen Ouzounian (Cello), Mazz Swift (Violin, Voice), Francesco Turrisi (Accordion, Frame Drums), Kaoru Watanabe (Japanese Flute, Percussion), Reylon Yount (Yangqin). All of these players are all-stars on their instruments and have extensive careers beyond Silkroad. It’s not clear to me how often the ensemble really comes together which is why it tends to be a special event when they do. About half of these seem to be longtime Ensemble members and the rest seem to be new, or at least not listed on the Wikipedia list of members.
The main show was barely 75 minutes which seemed far too short. Rather than all shuffling off stage and back, the ensemble stayed for two encore songs. The first was a hauntingly beautiful version of “Biko”, Peter Gabriel’s 1980 song protesting the death of South African activist Steve Biko; I was unaware that several Silkroad members were involved in an excellent 2021 Playing for Change remake of the song. Violinist Mazz Swift opened her mouth for the first time and provided a wonderful complement to Rhiannon’s singing, suddenly pointing to exciting new potentials for Silkroad. Having a second strong voice opens more engaging and entertaining opportunities for the ensemble. The song’s signature verse provided the thematic summation for the show, “You can blow out a candle, but you can’t blow out a fire. Once the flames begin to catch, the wind will blow it higher.”
I didn’t recognize the final song, “Keep On Keeping On” but I imagine it’s been around for a long time. Rhiannon and Mazz turned it into a folksy audience participation number and a feel-good finish to a concert that was over too soon. Some clarification came a few days later from this NPR interview with Rhiannon: Mazz Swift wrote the song (and she’s a they, by the way). It’s a very deliberate audience participation number, community building in a literal sense for at least a few minutes. It should be a required campfire hit song in its own right. I found a YouTube clip from our show (here’s a maybe more official version from an earlier show, but I like our show’s version better).
If you came expecting a Rhiannon Giddens concert, you’d have been disappointed. She only sang four songs, not counting the one in Bengali, and hardly tapped her own depth as a writer, singer or player. She made several self-deprecating remarks about the members of the ensemble being patient with her crazy ideas; they seem to be still feeling each other out. The whole troupe had just come from the Newport Folk Festival where they performed on Friday and did some special appearances Saturday, including Rhiannon playing with Paul Simon on his reworked (for her) “American Tune” (YouTube) and the ensemble with Natalie Merchant and Adia Victoria (less impressive, I’m sorry to say), though they missed Joni Mitchell stealing the show on Sunday (with Brandi Carlile and Allison Russell, btw).
This Phoenix Rising concert and tour was something of a mission statement, playing pieces previously commissioned for Silkroad, written by several of the ensemble members. Silkroad has unveiled an ambitious multi-year project, American Railroad, that will be a hydra of recordings, films, books, performances and more. I’m eager to see it develop. For now, I need to decide how much of a fanboy I want to be and whether to try to see the Songs of Our Native Daughters (first and only?) reunion concert at Carnegie Hall on November 4. Tickets go on sale August 22.
Norah Jones and Emily King at Pier Six, Baltimore on July 23, 2022
I’d suggested this concert to Larry early in the summer, not expecting him to take me up on it, but he did so I got tickets. A few weeks ago he let me know he couldn’t attend – he had to help his son Phil move out of his Philadelphia apartment instead. I questioned his judgment but maybe he was right since the show ended up being on one of the hottest nights of the year. I’m not a huge Norah Jones fan; she was celebrating the 20th anniversary of her breakout debut album, Come Away With Me, but I preferred her offbeat projects like the Texas swing of the Little Willies or her Everly Brothers tribute with Billy Joe Armstrong rather than her mainstream singing career. But she’s one of those artists who has been on the edges of my musical tastes for a long time and I respect her perseverance, so I was happy to support her by attending this concert.
Norah’s piano playing, voice and band were pleasant, soothing, competent and rarely threatened to break out of their mid-tempo mellow vibe. She evoked a Manhattan cocktail lounge ambiance, which was a good trick on a steamy Baltimore night, but there was nothing edgy or electrifying in her performance, nor much of a connection with the audience or her bandmates. Her longtime drummer, Brian Blade, was the best of the bunch but even he mostly faded into the background with tasteful, quiet accents to Norah’s singing. There was nothing wrong with the show but little was memorable either.
Emily King opened to absolutely no fanfare – I didn’t even know there was going to be an opening act and I’d never heard of her before I looked her up. Lo and behold, she’s been bumping around the industry for nearly 20 years with four albums out. She was a likable performer and sang a mix of original torch songs, covers (Landslide, Freedom), and a little sass (By You I Mean Me, or BYIMM). She worked hard and got some appreciation for her set, but an opening act in an amphitheater is always a tough gig. It makes you realize how difficult it is to break through and build a successful career in this music industry. Emily later joined Norah for one song and provided a little bit of spark before she retreated offstage again.
One more note to self when attending shows in Baltimore: check to see if the Yankees are playing the Orioles at the same time. It was tough getting to Pier Six and even more difficult leaving town after the show.
Billy Strings at Pier Six, July 2022
I approached this Billy Strings concert with a little trepidation. I bought the ticket on a whim several months ago in the wake of seeing Molly Tuttle; I couldn’t interest Larry in this show and it’s probably just as well. I was curious why Billy seems to have a much more successful and lucrative career at this point than Molly even though they came up together in more or less the same milieu, at more or less the same time, often played together and were even roommates for a while, evidently. Why is he headlining a full summer arena tour when Molly is just breaking in small clubs? It’s not on the strength of his songwriting, singing or even his stage presence; Molly wins hands down on all those fronts. He is a certainly an inventive and speedy guitarist, with a floor full of pedals that can make his acoustic wail like a Strat.
The concert was loud and the multi-generational audience stood and bobbed continuously through both hour-long sets; it was at least as entertaining watching the audience as it was watching the stage. Billy’s band is a classic bluegrass lineup of mandolin, bass, banjo and fiddle to complement his guitar and while they were all competent, none other than Billy really stood out for their abilities, nor was there a whole lot of genuine interaction or back-and-forth between them. It was very much Billy’s show. I was impressed by his abilities but remain a little mystified by his success. He’s much more interesting to me to see when he collaborates with other skilled players in a somewhat more subdued environment, but evidently self-indulgent shredding is what the people want. Oddly, there was no encore; “Turmoil & Tinfoil” was an endless jam that had people actually sitting down and checking their phones. Billy closed with “Tennessee” and admitted he was looking forward to getting home for a little break. When he was done, there was no sustained clapping or chants for more, everyone just kind of agreed that was enough and filtered out. On the plus side, I was able to exit the same Harborplace parking lot after the show with no problem, so maybe the Bonnie Raitt experience was an anomaly.
I have to give some credit to Billy’s social media team who document the hell out of each show. They posted these photos which I’ll collect here for the sake of completeness, if nothing else.
Bonnie Raitt and Lucinda Williams at Pier Six, June 2022.
I went solo to this show, looking forward to a little female empowerment after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade the day before, and also on the strength of Bonnie Raitt’s latest album, Just Like That. I think I last saw Bonnie in 1978 at the free concert on the Mall for the movie Hair. I felt like I owed her the price of a ticket for a career of consistently fine songs and integrity. Her show was predictably solid and professional, with a few poignant moments such as when she introduced Angel from Montgomery in memory of John Prine. She and her band never really caught fire, even when covering Burning Down the House as a show closer, but it wasn’t bad for a 70-year-old. The same can’t be said, unfortunately, for Lucinda Williams whose mid-tempo dirges don’t hit my sweet spot even though I knew most of the songs she played…but then again she’s coming off a stroke just a few months ago so it’s remarkable she’s even touring. In a few weeks, Bonnie will be touring with Mavis Staples and oh how I wish I could have seen that pair instead.
Seeing two shows in a month, I was struck by the contrast between Merriweather Post and Pier Six. I hadn’t realized that Merriweather is now four times bigger, holding 20,000 to Pier Six’s 5,000 at full capacity. My cheap seat at Pier Six was way closer than my “cheap” seat at Merriweather…but there was no video at Pier Six so you had to rely on sightlines to get a good view. Bonnie Raitt’s set was marred by two very animatedly talkative ladies in the seats directly in front of me. I couldn’t really hear what they were saying but they distracted me almost continuously through the show. I tried standing in the rear of the lawn for a while but it filled nearly to the brim such that eventually there were few good places to stand. Still, it’s very nice having the alternative of scanning the activity in the harbor when the show flags, or someone like Lucinda Williams is playing. I’ve got two more shows at Merriweather this season (Norah Jones and Brandi Carlile/Allison Russell) and one more at Pier Six (Billy Strings). We’ll see if any of them can deliver really special moments — it’s harder in venues of this size with so many distractions and rude people. And one more thing: it took more than 30 frustrating minutes to get out of the Harborplace garage after the show. No wonder people were streaming out of the show early, another distraction.
Robert Plant and Alison Krauss at Merriweather Post Pavilion, June 2022
Went with Larry. I looked forward to this show for a long while, buying tickets the first day they went on sale (and still ending up in one of the last rows of the venue). I studied up on Plant/Krauss’ recent Raise the Roof album and its 2007 predecessor, Raising Sand, making a playlist of both with the original versions of the many songs they covered. Larry and I had a good dinner beforehand at The Food Market before heading across the street to the show, a nice example of Columbia’s “downtown” starting to reach its potential as a dining and entertainment hub. We sat through an undistinguished and thankless opening set by J.D. McPherson and his band. J.D. pulled double duty as guitarist for Plant and Krauss’s stellar band that also included Stuart Duncan, Viktor Krauss, Jay Bellerose and Dennis Crouch. Plant, Krauss and the band performed note-perfect renderings of their albums’ slinky mid-tempo grooves and atmospherics (setlist). Everyone was precise, perfect…yet somehow soulless. Robert Plant is a caricature of an aging rock god but still sings well — and well knows that the biggest applause still comes when they do a Led Zeppelin song. Alison Krauss sang beautifully, played a little tasteful fiddle, never said a word and otherwise held an enigmatic smile somewhere between Mona Lisa and Peggy Lee. The most interesting performer onstage was drummer Jay Bellerose who used every manner of drumstick, brush, fingers, and an exquisitely miked drum set to propel the songs. But there was never any fire, magic, or even rapport with the audience. These were all consummate professionals collecting (hopefully) very substantial paychecks from their sold out summer tour.
Molly Tuttle and Oliver Hazard at Baltimore Soundstage, April 2022
Went with Larry. Molly Tuttle and her band, Golden Highway (mandolinist Dominick Leslie, banjoist Kyle Tuttle, fiddle player Bronwyn Keith-Hynes, and bassist Shelby Means), took the stage with energy and played very well throughout. The musicianship and solos of each bandmember sparkled but unfortunately Molly’s vocals were somewhat muffled in the mix. It’s too bad because many of her songs are as interesting lyrically as they are instrumental showcases. Still, the energy and momentum of the show started high and generally gained pace as she mostly featured selections from her strong new Crooked Tree album. Her encore featured a nice version of the now-classic “Streets of Baltimore” (video from the concert) and closed with a rousing take on “Big Backyard” which felt downright anthemic in the little club.
We missed most of the opening act, Oliver Hazard. They were a threesome from Ohio that leaned heavily into Lumineers/Head and The Heart territory. I would have liked to see more but we caught their last couple of numbers, including “Dandelion” which is at the top of their iTunes playlist. I found this clip of Molly Tuttle and Oliver Hazard doing an encore of “Look at Miss Ohio” from their show two nights earlier in Philadelphia.
It was our first time in the Soundstage, a small industrial box with standing room only. There is a small bank of “VIP” tables on the side but I never did figure out the protocol for getting one of them. Larry and I stood in the back, near the sound mixing booth which at least gave us old folks a place to lean. Even in the back we were effectively about 10 rows from the stage with good sight lines. The crowd was significantly younger (though entirely white, I think) than any I’d been in for a concert in many years which was something of a relief.
Allison Russell and Kyshona at The Barns at Wolf Trap, March 2022
Went with Laurie. Laurie and I have become big fans of Allison Russell in the past few months, Laurie even more than I, since her CD has been the main thing Laurie has listened to in the car since Christmas. We were lucky to grab some of the last available seats at this show a few weeks before when I stumbled across the fact that she was performing in the area while Laurie was here. It was my first time at The Barns, Wolf Trap’s smaller indoor venue. We were seated in the last row of the balcony but still had a good view of the stage – I’m glad we weren’t on the floor where all the seats were on the same level.
Allison Russell and her four piece all-female band, featuring SistaStrings – Chantee and Monique Ross on violin and cello, plus a strong female guitarist and drummer whose names I didn’t catch – delivered a strong, joyful set. Allison is clearly on the rise with her (3-time) Grammy-nominated debut solo album, Outside Child, after 20 years in the music business. Her amazing and difficult life story deftly unfolded during the set and built to a happy and joyful present. She seems to have had a real birth of confidence and good fortune stemming from the Our Native Daughters sessions with Rhiannon Giddens in 2018, followed by a connection with Brandi Carlile thanks to the (2018?) Cayamo Cruise. It was great seeing her on a smaller stage; I expect she will do well when the Grammys are announced next month (she didn’t win but she did perform at the pre-show) and I look forward to seeing her later this summer opening for Brandi Carlile at Merriweather Post. I hope she has a long and fruitful career.
Opening for Allison was Kyshona, an artist I’d never heard of but someone who has worked with Allison and many others over the years. Her solo set started strong then leveled out a bit as the songs started to sound the same. She has a rich, warm voice, solid rhythmic guitar and a commanding stage presence. Kyshona later returned to sing with Allison, with whom she has a clear rapport and friendship.
Aoife O’Donovan and Yasmin Williams, February 2022 at Kennedy Center Terrace Theater
I got a ticket for this concert mainly to show support for Yasmin Williams, the guitarist I had seen last November in Baltimore. Yasmin opened the show and was good, enchanting me again with her melodic tapping guitar style. She was a little more mature and assured than in November, though she missed an opportunity to play up her local connections to ingratiate herself with the audience. I still hope for big things for her.
I’ve been an admirer of Aoife O’Donovan since she co-founded I’m With Her with Sarah Jarosz and Sara Watkins, and for her many collaborations with other artists. I tried brushing up on her solo work but must admit that most of the songs washed over my ears without sticking. Sure enough, this concert was much the same. Her voice is lovely but she often stretches to odd places and her enunciation is wispy enough that I catch less than half of her words. She didn’t really seem to engage with the music or the audience, even sucking most of the life out of a Bruce Springsteen song (“Open All Night”) from Nebraska…not an easy accomplishment. Her three piece band didn’t help punch things up. The older, overwhelmingly white, very NPR crowd – my type of people – offered tepid applause at best. Even the encore where Yasmin came back out to accompany the title track from Aoife’s new album, “Age of Apathy,” was tentative. I wasn’t expecting a whole lot from the show and was still rather disappointed. The day was not a total loss, however, as I preceded the concert with a nostalgic several hours driving around old haunts in Arlington.
John Hiatt and Jerry Douglas, November 2021 at Rams Head, Annapolis
Went with Larry. I’d been looking forward to this concert since I first heard this pair’s collaboration on “All the Lilacs in Ohio” from their recent album together. I talked Larry into getting tickets back in April. Our dinner plans in Annapolis were short-circuited when Larry dropped the ball on selecting a place and we ended up eating in the Rams Head venue from its limited menu, but my crab soup and blackened chicken tacos were fine enough. The concert was terrific, with Jerry Douglas and his band opening for about 45 minutes, then John Hiatt joining to run through his extensive catalog. I knew nearly every song. The show was loose and intimate and all involved seemed to have a good time. I certainly did.
Yasmin Williams and Amadou Kouyate, November 2021 at Creative Alliance, Baltimore
I first encountered Yasmin Williams thanks to a January 2021 Washington Post article and was wowed by her melodically soothing songwriting as much as her unique and entertaining fingerpicking/tapping acoustic guitar style. She has a bunch of videos on YouTube, the best of which is probably her recent Tiny Desk Concert. I was very eager to see her in person and got a ticket (Covid be damned) back in May, the first day the Baltimore show was announced. I also turned out to be the first in line for the general admission performance in the small Creative Arts venue and got my pick of seats: second row, center aisle, about 15 feet from Yasmin and Amadou. I refrained from taking pictures or video even though it was kind of the perfect spot.
The concert itself was a joy. I didn’t know Amadou Kouyate other than that he was featured playing the kora on the title track of Yasmin’s Urban Driftwood album. Amadou actually did a 45-minute solo opening set on the kora and several drums including the djembe. He was an engaging ambassador for the West African music traditions he clearly loved.
Yasmin herself turned out to be a petite woman with surprisingly small hands for all the power her fingers generate. Her music is indeed lovely and it’s remarkable to see her perform in person. Her stage presence and between-song patter is warm, youthful and unassuming, though maybe a little too amateurish as she lost track of time and juggled numbers as she went. I thought Amadou and Yasmin might do more together but they only did one encore jam that was nice but seemed like it could have been the start to a whole new concert if time had not run out (or maybe if Amadou hadn’t done a full opening set).
For a while I’ve wondered why Yasmin didn’t do any cover songs on her albums or on YouTube and she admitted that she struggles selecting songs to cover. She did one, Post Malone’s “Sunflower” (which I didn’t know so it may as well have been a new song to me), and she asked for suggestions from the audience so that she would be more hip when she plays on college campuses. This was the wrong crowd to ask — there were more over-50’s than under-30’s in the crowd, though it was reasonably diverse compared to other shows I see. Still, I think some covers of songs that inspire her (rather than worrying about what’s hip) would be a good door-opener to a wider audience and a way to showcase her unique style. She hinted that her management seems to agree.
Yasmin seems on the cusp of greater things with an extensive touring schedule lined up for the rest of this year and 2022 including some heavy hitters and venues. I hope she has a long and healthy career, and grows in self-confidence and stage presence. It was great fun to see her up-close in a small venue.
A quibble for the evening is that I guess I didn’t prepare Barb well enough in advance that I’d be going to the concert alone. She started to get all worried that I’d be in a “sketchy” part of Baltimore alone after dark and it planted unwanted seeds of doubt and anxiety in my mind. She worried about where I’d park and insisted I call her when the concert was over and I was coming home. I ended up scratching my loose plans to get dinner in town somewhere near the venue. Instead, I drove down just a bit before the show, found some on-street parking about a block from the venue, hustled in and then hustled back to my car just after the conclusion of the show. I would have actually liked to have stayed and maybe talked a little with Yasmin at the merchandise table after the show as she invited us all to do. But no, I made a hasty exit. There really was no need to worry — there was literally no one on the streets anyway — but the seeds of anxiety were definitely there. Barb and I were both happy when I made it back to the safety of the suburbs. My quibble is partly with Barb but mostly with myself for succumbing to the anxieties that she planted.
Bela Fleck, September 2021 at Strathmore Music Hall, Bethesda
Seventeen months and the Covid-19 pandemic later, I was back at Strathmore for a concert (though technically the John Mulaney show in Boston with Allie three weeks earlier was my first Covid concert). This one was based on Bela’s new album, My Bluegrass Heart. The album has just become available and I’m enjoying listening to its variety of instrumentals and styles by a who’s who of top acoustic players. The core band from the album and the tour includes: Sierra Hull on mandolin (welcome back to the Strathmore!), Michael Cleveland on fiddle, Justin Moses (who’s married to Sierra, I didn’t realize) on dobro, Bryan Sutton on guitar, and Mark Schatz on bass. Other all-stars will join Bela later in the year, culminating with everyone at the Ryman in early 2022. I hope there’s a video or album of that show.
I got to the Strathmore an hour before the show because they warned us to allow plenty of time to show our vaccine cards and electronic tickets. I was in my seat within five minutes which gave me plenty of time to watch the hall slowly fill. The show pulled almost entirely from Fleck’s new album. The six consummate musicians weaved intricate bluegrass-inspired instrumentals, mixed in with a few vocal songs. One nice thing about a mostly instrumental concert is that after two hours you’ve had plenty. There was a nice Fresh Air interview with Bela as well to promote the album. I daresay this album and tour will be something of a landmark in the little world of progressive acoustic music.
You must be logged in to post a comment.