Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit @ Òran Mór, Glasgow - Saturday 17 May 2014

The petite Erin McKeown, all the way from Fredricksburg, Virginia, walked on stage, plugged her electric guitar in and kicked off her set whilst many of the audience were still chatting and trying to get a drink at the bar at the rear of the venue. However, by halfway through the first song many had hushed and were making their way to the stage to hear her 'stuff'. Looking a little like Imelda May (it was the hair that did it!) Erin powered through her support set and played some fascinating, fuzzed up guitar accompanying her singing and the songs were interesting lyrically. Although a multi-instrumentalist, tonight Erin stuck to her guitar and sang some great songs, I especially liked the one about Judy Garland (one of the many she has written about the lady), The Jailer and the humorous one about American cities Rhode Island Is Famous For You on which she played some cool jazz style guitar! 

Check out Erin's web site @ www.erinmckeown.com and you can download a copy of her album Civics.

Jason and the lads where up next and there was a real feeling of anticipation around us, I for one was psyched up for the show as Òran Mór is one of my favourite Glasgow venues and I hadn't seen Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit before. I was not to be disappointed, let me tell you! Incidentally, the venue's name Òran Mór is Gaelic for 'great melody of life' or 'big song' and so was very appropriate.

On stage tonight we had (from our left to right) Sadler Vaden (guitar), Jimbo Hart (bass), Chad Gamble (drums), Jason Isbell (guitar & vocals) & Derry DeBorja (keyboards). The stage at Òran Mór is small and it helped the band connect and play some fine stuff. They were so tight that one would have struggled to get a rizla paper between them! Throughout the set Sadler played so gratifyingly good solos and backed up Jason's guitar work to wonderful effect. And so, at the end of the opener Flying Over Water there was a well deserved explosion of cheering, hollering and general bonhomie and so the band knew that they were in for a great night too.

Jason, looking a tad like a young Orson Welles, sang some superb vocals and played some top notch solos on both electric and acoustic guitars. It is no wonder that (for me) he was a seminal member of the Drive-By Truckers (2001-2007) and tonight he was to perform a number of DBT/JI songs which come from that band's most fertile period. Perhaps my favourite on the night was Goddamn Lonely Love on which Jason played out the song with a great guitar solo and the audience went 'bat shit'! Many of the other songs came from Jason's 2013 album Southeastern and credit to the 400 Unit that they were note perfect throughout, well to my ears anyway! 

Talking of the 400 Unit, the name comes the "400 Unit" a former colloquial name of a psychiatric ward in Florence, Alabama. Appropriate? You may think so but I couldn't possibly comment! The band state that their influences include "Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Prince, Led Zeppelin, Free, The Faces, Neutral Milk Hotel, Beatles, Stones, Crowded House, Merle Haggard, Queen, Nirvana, Derek and the Dominos etc", (I've checked out Neutral Milk Hotel and enjoyed them!) so quite an international background and their songs certainly travel well beyond the boundaries of the Southern States. In fact so good are many of the songs that Jason was nominated for best song, best album and best artist of the year for 2014 in the Americana Music Associations honours awards. Yip he is that good and perhaps much credit should also go to Mrs Isbell - Amanda Shires, the Texan singer and violin player who help Jason back onto the 'righteous path'. Behind every great man......

Writing about the song Decoration Day, based on a story about Jason's family members, Nick Rynerson attests that Isbell has "done what a long line of storytellers have done before him: giving us tangible truth in a beautiful, unquantifiable parable". (You can see Nick Rynerson's article about the song @ www.patheos.com....) Certainly the lyrics make one think about the human condition:

It’s Decoration Day 

and I’ve got a family in Mobile Bay 

and they’ve never seen my Daddy’s grave. 

But that don’t bother me, it ain’t marked anyway. 

Cause I got dead brothers in Lauderdale south 

and I got dead brothers in east Tennessee. 

My Daddy got shot right in front of his house 

he had no one to fall on but me. 

In addition to the music we also saw a humorous side to Jason Isbell, for example when he recounted a story about Chet Atkins being praised for the fabulous music his guitar produced to which he retorted on placing the guitar back in a stand "So, how's it doing now?"! And on another occasion thanking us for enjoying the new songs so much, he likened it to the feeling one gets when the neighbours meet the youngest kids, and thinking what if they don't like them? Well no fears on that score, as neighbours - albeit on the other side of a rather large pond - we loved the new kids and we would love him to brings them around again! 

On a musical note, the 5 guys on stage all contributed greatly to a grand night. From Sadler's fine solos on Decoration Day, Heart On A String and some smooth slide guitar on Cover Me Up, to Jimbo Hart's studied playing on the heart rending Elephant and his pounding and pulsating playing on Never Gonna Change, to Chad Gamble's subtle brush work on Stockholm, Travelling Alone & Codeine and his general drumming on the likes of 

Different Days and Derry Deborja's sympathetic keyboards on Relatively Easy, Songs That She Sang In The Shower and his "gypsy typewriter" (accordion) on New South Wales. Then finally, we had Jason Isbell whose singing was especially powerful on Cover Me Up and his guitar playing ranged from delicate on Goddamn Lonely Love to grunge on Never Gonna Change.

I mentioned earlier that I consider Jason Isbell to have been an integral part of the DBTs and tonight he showed just how well he plays guitar and sings superbly written songs. Perhaps the best song of the night was the emotive, moving and desperately sad Elephant from his current album. It is another example of how he is able, like Springsteen, to tell a deep and meaningful story in a few short verses.

She said Andy you crack me up,

Seagrams in a coffee cup,

sharecropper eyes and her hair almost all gone.

When she was drunk she made cancer jokes,

she made up her own doctor's notes,

surrounded by her family, I saw that she was dying alone.

It brings to mind some of the songs on Ryan Adams' Love Is Hell album which deals with the same tragic, personal loss. On a lighter note, Super 8 could have been written by Adams and was a great song to end the show on, being as it is, a great rock n' roll song with a catchy sing-a-long chorus. The audience danced and sang along as the show came to a rocking finale. Indeed, Jason explained that due to the curfew they would forgo the usual leaving stage, wait, return and play an encore part of the show and they blasted straight into Super 8 after the last song I wish to highlight, the wonderful Outfit. This is another autobiographical number and was written for Jason's dad who was a house painter to trade.

You wanna grow up to paint houses like me

With a trailer in my yard till you're 23

You wanna feel old after 42 years

Keep dropping the hammer and grinding the gear

The song is packed full of good advice and gives a nod to John Lennon with the line "Don't tell them you're bigger than Jesus" and advises one "Don't worry about losing your accent, cause a Southern Man tells better jokes"! And so the curtain came down metaphorically on another cracking gig. We had danced and sang. We had laughed and been brought near to tears and as we left the crypt of the former Kelvinside Parish Church, and spilled out onto Great Western Road we had a new musical experience to look back on with joy and delight.

 

ªThank you and good nightª

If the video link above doesn't work listen to Elephant here:

Set List

21:00

Flying Over Water

Stockholm
Tour Of Duty 
Decoration Day (Drive-By Truckers cover) 
Goddamn Lonely Love (Drive-By Truckers cover)
Heart On A String (Candi Staton cover)
Different Days
Live Oak
Alabama Pines
Cover Me Up
Relatively Easy
Songs That She Sang In The Shower 
New South Wales
Codeine 
Travelling Alone
Elephant 
Never Gonna Change (Drive-By Truckers cover)
Outfit (Drive-By Truckers cover)

(pretend) Encore 

21:55
Super 8

Drive-By Truckers @ O2 ABC, Glasgow Sunday 11 May 2014

The support act on the night were the 4 piece Heartless Bastards, who also supported the Drive-by Truckers back in 2004 according to vocalist Erika Wennerstrom. They are a garage, rock, grunge band from Cincinnati, Ohio, and they started the night off at around 7:30, running through a short, energetic, pumped up set. I really enjoyed the guitar work by both Erika and Mark Nathan and the extended live work out on several of their songs, particularly Simple Feeling, got the sparse crowd energised. Jesse Ebaugh (bass) and Dave Colvin (drums) kept things pounding along purposefully and many of the audience seemed enthusiastic and appreciative of the set. I also liked the final number, Low Low Low I think, which had a heavy country feel to it and it brought the first part of the gig to a fine ending.

By now the hall was starting to fill up and the age range was as diverse as I have seen for a while, a sure sign that the main event appeals to all comers! Also, and against current trends, the DBTs bounded onto the stage at about 20:40, some twenty minutes earlier than might have been expected. Patterson Hood later advised that their previous gig had had a tight curfew and that explained the eager start, they had a lot to get through after all!

So with a new album to promote, their tenth since 1998's debut Gangstabilly, it was perhaps inevitable that they would kick things off with track one from the current record English Oceans. What was immediately obvious was just how much Jay Gonzalez adds to the live sound. His guitar and keyboard work was fantastic and really augmented the sound, filling out, lifting up, driving on and generally enhancing the sonic experience. When one considers the ability of both Patterson and Mike on guitar, that is a compliment indeed.

The two front men traded songs, each singing lead in turn and occasionally helping out on duets and this is another of the bands real plus points for me. Mike and Patterson have very strong and distinctly different voices and so they can tell very different stories within the same band structure. Another major plus is the 3 three guitar set up which also allows great diversity to emerge in any given song. Indeed in several songs, Hell No, I Ain't Happy, Ronnie & Neil and Grand Canyon as examples, the trading between Mike, Jay and Patterson was mesmeric and awesome. I guess modelling oneself on Lynyrd Skynyrd makes great sense even if you call yourselves "Betamax Guillotine"!

So, for those who are new to the Drive-By Truckers, here is a brief précis: Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley formed the band in 1996 in that hot bed of music ingenuity Athens, Georgia (sometimes called the Liverpool of the South) and home to R.E.M and the B 52's amongst others and a cauldron for Appalachian bluegrass. The two lads had previously been members of Adam's House Cat, and an album called Town Burned Down exists and I would urge you to check it out if possible as you can hear the seeds of what was to blossom in to DBTs. Over the intervening years folk have come and gone and they all added to the band as they built their reputation. I would like to highlight two former members in particular, (formerly husband and wife) singer/songwriter/guitarist Jason Isbell (who will be in Glasgow on 17 May 2014) and bassist and vocalist Shonna Tucker of whom Hood said "her charm and spark will be irreplaceable and her part in our last decade of this band's history is indisputable." I for one will miss her vocal talents as her singing added another glorious dimension to the ensemble (check out her wonderful rendition of the Eddie Hinton song Where's Eddie from the Go-Go Boots album). So that brings us to today's lineup: Patterson Hood – guitar, vocals, bass, banjo, mandolin (1996 – present), Mike Cooley – guitar, vocals, bass, banjo, harmonica (1996 – present), Brad Morgan – drums (1999 – present), Jay Gonzalez – keyboards, guitar, vocals (2008 – present), Matt Patton – bass, vocals (2012 – present) and a damned fine band they make too in my humble opinion!

Next out the traps was When He's Gone on which Jay played some wonderful organ parts and my companion Nadia (a DBTs virgin!) said it reminded her of Neil Young which is not surprising as the great man gets a few name checks in the band's back catalogue, not least star billing on Ronnie & Neil on which Mike played some grand guitar with added "wah wah"!

 (Check out this link to an article about the song:)

I would also like to highlight Jay's keyboard work, both piano and organ, on Drag The Lake Charlie, Primer Coat, 72 (This Highway's Mean) and Marry Me on which he played piano left handed and guitar right!

Another stand out for me was Putting People On The Moon during which Brad, looking like a latter-day Otis Gibbs (if that's possible!), played some mighty fine, steady, stentorian drumming on the extended workout. The song includes the following lyrics:

“Mary Alice got cancer just like everybody here
Seems everyone I know is gettin’ cancer every year
And we can’t afford no insurance, I been 10 years unemployed
So she didn’t get no chemo so our lives they was destroyed
And nothing ever changes, the cemetery gets more full
And now over there in Huntsville, even NASA’s shut down too
Another joker in the White House, said a change was coming ‘round
but I’m still working at the Wal-Mart and Mary Alice in the ground.”

This brings me to another thing that attracts me to this band, the lyrics. They are often thought provoking (as above), laugh out loud as in Cartoon Gold or Get Downtown, or just telling stories about weird and wonderful folks as in When Walter Went Crazy or Drag The Lake Charlie.

Meanwhile, Matt Patton keep the beat rocking along as he worked up a sweat pounding out rhythms on his bass. I really enjoyed his playing on Uncle Frank and Grand Canyon and his playing and backing vocals on Hell No, I Ain't Happy added an extra dimension to the song which also included three great guitar solos from Jay, Patterson and Mike.

There was also a rather surreal moment during Girls Who Smoke when the lighting crew shone lights on the oversized glitter ball suspended above our heads sending shards of light out amongst the audience picking out a shaved head here, a grey haired old gezzer there and numerous bouncin' an boppin' folk all having a great time.

Then The guys took us back to the early days with Ronnie & Neil, 72 (This Highway's Mean) and 18 Wheels Of Love which Patterson dedicated to his wife Rebecca and his Mum (for Mother's Day) and her man Chester, a DBTs fan. This nostalgic episode extended into the encore when the band played three more older tunes including Let There Be Rock during which Patterson sang that he never saw the Clash, but he did see the Replacements and R.E.M! Then coming full circle they closed with the last song from the current album Grand Canyon. This turned into a lengthy mesmerising number and at one point Jay and Patterson were sitting on the stage trading guitar licks and rasping guitar necks over each other! As the instrumental part of the song became mantra-esque Patterson took his leave, followed shortly thereafter by Mike leaving the rest of the guys to play out the song. Then Jay set his guitar up to produce fuzzed up feed back and he too left the stage allowing Brad and Matt to pound out an accompanying beat. We were groovin', movin', ecstatic and exhilarated as Matt took his bow and headed off stage right leaving Brad to hold the beat under a blaze of light, then finally he too, left us as Jay's guitar continued to feed back and the lights went down on a wonderful night of great lyrics, wonderful singing, fantastic guitar playing, fabulous keyboards, energetic bass and beat perfect drumming. The audiences were delighted and we all trudged out onto Sauchiehall Street eagerly discussing the personal highlights from a memorable gig. One that will surely be a year highlight.

Cheers lads, and haste ye back.

20:40
Shit Shots Count
When He's Gone
Gravity's Gone
Drag The Lake Charlie
Primer Coat
My Sweet Annette
Uncle Frank
Putting People On The Moon
Made Up English Oceans
Girls Who Smoke
Hearing Jimmy Loud
Ronnie & Neil
72 (This Highway's Mean)
18 Wheels Of Love
Marry Me
Hell No, I Ain't Happy
22:02

Encore
22:09
3 Dimes Down
Let There Be Rock
Zip City
Grand Canyon

22:35

The John Butler Trio @ O2 Academy, Eglinton Street, Glasgow. Saturday 26 April 2014

I first heard The John Butler Trio in my local about 3 years ago and have enjoyed much of their music since. I have been especially interested in John's guitar technique and his ability to play the instrument has clear resonances of the late, great Jimi Hendrix.

And so it was with much anticipation that, on a balmy, late spring evening, we approached the venue, passed through the ever increasing ranks of security and found ourselves a good vantage point to take in the show. If you have read my previous blogs, you may recall that the venue is a former 'picture hall' which still possesses some of it's former grandeur and has become a regular on the live music circuit in Glasgow. The downstairs section was filling up and a real buzz was evident long before the band appeared at 21:00.

The various bars were doing a grand trade as the audience geared up and fuelled up for a great night ahead.  So before we get to the main course, here is a little entrée:

The John Butler Trio is an Australian roots, blues, funk, rock, folk and jam band led by virtuoso guitarist and vocalist John Butler (born in L. A. County in California). They formed in Fremantle, Australia on 27 December 1998 and have produced six studio albums and released three live albums to date. The trio has been big in Australia for the past decade, however, it seems that at long last the rest of the world is catching up, particularly fuelled on by the live shows and tonight was to be no exception.

From the outset John Butler bamboozled and perplexed us on Revolution from 2010s April Uprising album as he drew out the sound of strings and electric guitar from his acoustic instrument!  The other two band members Byron Luiters (bass, keyboards & vocals) and Grant Gerathy (drums, percussion & vocals) were an integral part of the sound. Byron pumped out a solid grounding over which Grant and John wove their blend of magical, musical tapestry. Grant, who hails from Byron Bay, New South Wales (a magical place where I have had the pleasure of watching the sun rise!) previously played with Byron in Ray Mann Three before they teamed up with JB. Serendipity, surely!

 

 

Looking like an antipodean version of Mathew Houck (Phosphorescent), JB stood as the left hand book end, with Byron Luiters the right, to Grant Gerathy stationed in the back and middle of the stage. JB was surrounded by a plethora of gadgets which enabled him to make his banjo sound like an acoustic guitar, his acoustic guitar sound like his electric guitar and his electric guitar sound like, well, his electric guitar on speed at times! There is a feeling of the master class to some of his playing, I don't mean that in a negative way, but I found myself often trying to work out how he achieved certain sounds, rather than just wallowing in it and groovin'.

 

The audience in front of me certainly were propelled along by the music which in turns was pseudo reggae, hard rock, Celtic and bluesy. It is no surprise to discover that the band's musical influences include: Black Sabbath, Bob Marley, Paul Kelly, The Meters, De LA Soul, Rage Against The Machine, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Jimi Hendrix, Beastie Boys and Jane’s Addiction to note but a few. I was bowled along by it all, however, some of the songs were given extended workouts without adding much to the overall merit of the song in my humble opinion.

On a positive note, I really enjoyed Grant's laid back, country, rail road rhythm drumming on Spring To Come the opener from the current album Flesh And Blood; Byron's thrumming, strumming double bass playing on Better Than from 2007's album Grand National and JB's mock reggae and extended psychedelic guitar blazing on Blame It On Me the longest track from the current album.

However, the highlight really had to be John's solo acoustic section where he (predictably?) played a staggering version of Ocean from 1998's John Butler. The original is a 12 minute 28 second masterpiece and was the first song of his that I heard and so I was doubly pleased to hear it played live, sublime! This piece has tinges of Raga within it, the Indian classical music which literally means "colour, hue" but also "beauty, melody" which describe the tune perfectly. Incidentally, I suspect that playing this tune takes some major powers of concentration and focus and it was the first time that I have seen the style of playing (since Hendrix) where much of the work is done by the 'left' hand on the neck of the guitar, and the body provides the percussion. (John Gomm is a fine exponent of the style as well).

There was one more highlight for me and that was the drum beat intro to Devil Woman, another from the current album, and it really got the audience dancing along to the staccato guitar cords and mantra-esque chanted chorus.

At around 22:30 the band left the stage after the funky Zebra and, following a short interval, they returned to perform a 15 minute, 2 song encore starting the second part of the show with the second track from the latest album and culminating with 2007's Funky Tonight. These three songs stoked the audience into a swirling, grooving, vibrating mass and finally, after some 90 minutes, the band left the stage to rapturous applause. Another throng of happy, satiated music fans shuffled out of the O2 Academy and onto Eglington Street and the warmth of a late spring night in Glasgow.

 

 

Set List

21:00

Revolution

Used To Get High
Cold Wind
I'd Do Anything (Soldier's Lament)
Spring To Come
Only One
Hoe Down
Better Than
Blame It On Me
Pickapart
Ocean (Solo)
Don't Wanna See Your Face
Devil Woman
How You Sleep At Night
Zebra

22:30

Encore

Livin' In The City

Funky Tonight

10:50