Bought the tickets mainly for Sara (the opener): she introduced herself and pronounced her name Bare-el-ess. Good to know since I was putting some random French pronunciation on it! 🙂 Her album is nice, pretty, kinda calm. In person she has a MUCH bigger voice / she can really fill up an auditorium (and we were at the Riviera so not a v. small area!) / seems like on the album they mixed her kinda bland and quiet compared to her actual voice. I described her to someone as a “less husky (and perhaps less sultry?) version of Rachael Yamagata” / not as electronic-based as Beth Orton or Dido, not as ballad-y as Sarah McLachlan. Sounds like she hasn’t gotten much support from her record company, but she’s certainly got a great voice.
James Blunt sounded good, all the songs sounded really pretty, but the cheesiness does get to you after a bit. Also he’s quite comically awkward on stage, I think maybe it’s the soldier in him? His “rockin’ out” moves really cracked me up. Still – he played almost the entire first album with doses of the second, everything sounded pretty, and the crowd was SOOO into it (and it wasn’t all 12 year old girls either; one of the most mixed crowds generation-wise I’ve ever seen at a late show, groups of 50 to 60 years olds in attendance as well).

Isbell split off from Drive By Truckers and released a solo album that I liked well enough — well enough to buy these tickets! — but wasn’t completely blown away by. Well, if you liked that album at all, you MUST go see him on live because he’s on fire and it was completely exhilarating and now I listen to the album with completely different ears.
Very casual and laidback on stage, drinking Jack right out of the bottle, smoking, and sweating up a storm, and such awesome guitar playing it seemed like flames would start coming out…
One of those people whose talents make them more and more attractive. The night started out: He’s a OK-lookin’ dude. Seems fun. Later: Wow, he really loves to play guitar. He’s kickin it. Later: Damn, look at him go. He is hot!
Thick layered Southern Rock, a sound that just fills you up. Awesome concert.

You might think you don’t know any Joe Henry songs, but it’s really that you don’t necessarily know any of the songs he wrote for himself; you certainly know songs he wrote for other people (Loudon Wainwright among others). He told a great story about a song he wrote he thought would be perfect for Mavis Staples (I think, although I may be remembering the wrong name…). And he played it for her…and she said “Oh that’s just fine, Joe Henry. Just fine… What else ya got?”

I know you’ve heard the song he wrote with his sister in law “Don’t Tell Me”. When he introduced it, he said “I wrote this with a friend of mine, and we both recorded it. I recorded it as a tango…and she recorded it as a hit. Don’t know why I didn’t think of that!” But then he also pointed out “I own just as many fancy Italian shoes as she does but I can still walk down the street without bodyguards!”

He’s an old-school showman with a seriously talented bass/drums duo backing him up; moving from piano to guitar; telling stories; completely at ease. Unusual voice, not a squeaker like Dylan, but still quite distinctive. Totally entertaining.

This is the second time I’ve gone to Over the Rhine’s “Holiday” concert. Always a good choice for this time of year. Great blues-y laidback sounds. Sometimes contemplative, sometimes sassy and upbeat. Great new instrumental piece dedicated to Charles Schulz (in the Vince Guaraldi tradition).