My Inclination

Jakob Dylan @ The Variety Playhouse

I have a good friend that I love spending time with and one of the things that we enjoy talking about is music. She told me that she had gone and seen Bob Dylan last year, and I was so jealous. It’s not often that you get to see a legend singing live on stage. So I told her that I had seen somewhere that Jakob Dylan was coming to Atlanta to play a concert. When I found the information later, I emailed it to her. I had earlier told her about the record player I bought after getting Shawn Mullins vinyl record (see 3/8/08 Blog), and let her know that any albums she had, I could convert to MP3’s or CD’s. So I get an email from her saying that she wanted to have some CD’s made of Bob Dylan albums that she had and that she had bought tickets to the Jakob Dylan concert and wanted to know if I wanted to go. This was awesome. She was taking a trip and wanted to have the CD’s for the long drive so she dropped the albums off to me on a Wednesday. I made the CD’s and gave them to her the next day. The Bob Dylan albums were amazing and in pretty decent shape. The first one was “Self Portrait” a double album from 1970. The 2nd one was “Desire” from 1976. It was cool to hear these albums since there were several great songs that aren’t on any of the compilations I have. The CD’s came out pretty good. There were a few skips, but that’s probably to be expected from 30+ year old vinyl.

The Jakob Dylan concert was at the Variety Playhouse in Little Five Points. Little Five Points is an eclectic place. It has always been since I started going there as a teen. It hasn’t changed too much. And what’s cool is everyone there gets along. We were able to grab dinner near the venue and walk down the street to catch the show. I had been to the Variety Playhouse back in November to see Shawn Mullins, so I recommended sitting in one of the sections off on one side. If we wanted to, we could aways go down in front of the stage. So we grabbed a seat and waited for the opening act. There wasn’t any notice of who the opening act was going to be, so we didn’t know what to expect. We weren’t sitting too long when 2 guys and a girl come out from back stage and announce that they are “Anna Kramer and the Lost Cause“. Once they started playing, my friend said, “Oh, we’re going to want to stand up for this”. So, we jumped up and ran down in front of the stage. They were amazing. It’s incredible how much sound was coming from this group of 3. The songs had tones of all types of music. It had a kinda rock-a-billy style. They definitely put on an rockin’ show. Not quite what you expect from an local group asked to be an opening act at the last minute.

We ended up just staying where we were for Jakob, since we were right down front, real close to the stage. After a short break, Jakob and his band came out. It was kinda neat how leisurely it was. Jakob’s performance was as if it was with a bunch of friends just sitting around. And since we were right up front, within feet of him, we caught a lot of the nuances of the performance.
Jakob’s set-list (as listed online and from what I remember):

*All Day and All Night
*Something Good This Way Comes
*Everybody Pays As They Go
*Here Comes Now
*Evil Is Alive and Well
*This End of the Telescope
*The Beautiful Side of Somewhere
*Here He Comes (Confessions of a Drunken Marionette) [Jakob alone]
*Mourning Train [Jakob alone]
*War Is Kind [Jakob alone]
*Three Marlenas
*Will It Grow
*Closer To You
*I Wish I Felt Nothing
*Empire In My Mind
Encores:
*From the Bottom of My Heart
*On Up The Mountain
*How Good It Can Get

Jakob’s performance was excellent. It was a really cool concert. Between songs Jakob would talk with the audience as if he knew the people. It was a pretty comfortable interaction. At one point he looked over and read what was written on two girl’s shirts saying, “There is love in my creation”. He first realized that they both had the same shirt and saying. Then he commented on how that was a great line and then he questioned them asking, “did I write that?” Then he asked what song it was. And was told or realized that it was from his song, “I Told You I Couldn’t Stop”. It was a pretty funny moment. Another moment someone yelled out that they loved him and he seemed to trip over the lyrics of the song. It was an amazing night of music spent with a great friend. What more could you ask for?

Posted by Tom under Jakob Dylan,Main Blog,Variety Playhouse | Comments (0)

Audrey Spillman @ 12th & Porter

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So Audrey Spillman was down in Atlanta for the 500 Songs for Kids in May and I told her that I saw that she was performing in June on a Saturday and that I would try and get up to Nashville for the show. I had driven up before for her “Next Big Nashville“ show and it wasn’t a bad drive.

I started out from Atlanta early afternoon, knowing I had plenty of time to get there with the show starting late, and with the time change from EST to CST. I completely forgot that this was the same weekend that Bonnaroo was going on (signs warned on possible traffic), but traffic wasn’t bad going through Manchester, TN. It takes about 4 hours to get there so I made it to Nashville around dinner time. I grabbed a bite to eat and hung out until around the time when the show was about to start.

Since I had time, I located the venue and tried to find where I could park. 12^th & Porter is an odd place. It’s in an industrial area next to an auto body shop and other warehouses. When it got close to the start of the show I parked at the gravel lot at the end of the street and head into 12th & Porter. From my first impression, the place seemed like a dump; a dive bar. Garage door windows, concrete floor, odd chairs, tables strewn about and a plywood stage. This was an odd bar. I didn’t have to pay a cover to get in the front door, so I wasn’t exactly sure how this was going to end up. I purchased a beer and people-watched. I didn’t hear any music, so I assumed the show had not started.

As I’m sitting there I notice a line forming, a guy taking money and people going through a door off to the side of the bar. I originally assumed this was a bathroom entrance. After awhile (although it seemed strange to pay to go to the bathroom), I jump in line, pay the man and head back behind the door. Like Dorothy entering OZ, I exit a dreary colorless hole-in-the-wall into a nice colorful music venue. There’s another bar, a private balcony, large stage, huge speakers and tons of stage lights. I found a spot to watch off to the side. Kristi Neumann started the concert followed by Sarah Silva. They were good. I liked the songs and will have to listen to them again when I get a chance.

I took a break while the opening acts were singing to see if I recognized anyone up front in the bar. Before I had a chance to recognize someone, I hear, “Tom!”. It’s Audrey. She’s at a table, chatting with some friends. I get a hug and we talk a bit. I know she’ll be getting ready to go on soon, so we don’t talk too long. I head back into the venue and they start setting up the stage for Audrey. Then I recognize someone tuning a guitar off on the left side of the stage. It was Matthew Perryman Jones. This was unexpected. I knew that Matthew and Audrey knew each other, worked together in the studio and co-wrote some songs together. But I didn’t expect to see him at her show. I think the last I heard he was somewhere on the west coast touring. So Matthew recognizes me and jumps down off stage to talk to me. We continue our conversation from his show at Smith’s Olde Bar and I tell him that I remember him from High School. He seems surprised that I would drive to Nashville from Atlanta to see Audrey. Shortly thereafter, Audrey started her performance. As always, she was amazing. The new band she had was good and made all her great songs better. There were a few songs I had forgotten about. I forgot how good “Comfort You” and “Flood” were. Since these songs weren’t on the CD that I had of her music, I had not heard them in a while. Halfway through, Matthew jumped up on stage, grabbed his guitar and performs with Audrey for the rest of the show.

It was a great concert. Not like what I had expected and definitely worth the drive. I hung around afterward and talked with Patrick Lochridge’s parents. They remembered me from the Eddie’s Attic show on 11/13/07. Audrey came out shortly thereafter and I told her how great the show was. She told me that she would be recording an EP soon and planned to perform at Eddie’s Attic in August. She was hoping to have the CD ready in time to make the performance a CD release show. I talked to Matthew before leaving and found out that he would have his new CD out soon and that he would be back down in Atlanta performing at Eddie’s Attic with a group of performers. It would be called the 10 out of Tenn, for the ten singers from Tennessee.

Posted by Tom under 12th & Porter,Audrey Spillman,Main Blog | Comments (0)