Graham is, as my friend Greg Conniff says, an imperfect soul making great music.Īlso, Kiki’s House of Righteous Music, July 6, 2013. His life lessons are learned the hard, dumb way. The guy is like Raymond Carver crossed with Leonard Cohen. Twice he came as a solo act, once with his superb band the Fighting Cocks (I missed it) and another time in a fascinating side project - the Hobart Brothers and Lil’ Sis Hobart, with the estimable Freedy Johnston and Susan Cowsill - singing (mostly) songs about crap jobs and wasted youth. He drew tiny crowds - less than 20 people at Project Lodge and 40 or so at house concerts hosted by Kiki Schueler. That he can is why I would argue that, whether drinking or holding on to sobriety, Graham is among the greatest singer-songwriters working today.įrom his home in Austin, where he’s regarded as a legend (Graham played with Alejandro Escovedo in a revered punk band called the True Believers), he made four trips to Madison this year. How he manages to travel that raw emotional road in song night after night is a wonder.
Looking like the guy who hung drywall in your living room, he announced in his gravel-truck voice at his December show, “I don’t really trust you unless your life has burned to the ground twice and you started over. His songs of darkness and personal defeat are redeemed by jewel-like moments of hope and love. Putting a twist on Eugene O’Neill, Graham’s shows are often long night’s journeys into day. 13 with the Hobart Brothers and Lil’ Sis Hobart, Kiki’s House of Righteous Music, April 10 and Kiki’s House of Righteous Music, Dec. Like the compelling and scary songs of Jon Dee Graham. Yep, even if we live the most proper lives imaginable, those bad-boy songs resonate with us.
Am I telling a secret here? That all guys know deep down that temptation, chaos, despair and ruin are always lurking around the corner. I will ’fess up that I seem to be drawn - how to delicately put this? - to guy music, alt-country division. My original comments (lightly edited) are sometimes followed by italicized afterthoughts and music links. They are in roughly descending order of my liking. So here are my favorite shows in Madison from 2006 to 2015 at the end, I add the Milwaukee and Chicago shows. A critic I’m not: These year-end perambulations are a fan’s notes. For 10 years I’ve written a year-end summary of my favorite shows for Isthmus, a Madison weekly. Brought to tears by Beethoven’s 9th and Gorecki’s 3rd. Glimpsing the abyss with the fearless Jon Dee Graham. In jaw-dropping awe of masters like Yo-Yo Ma and Leonard Cohen. Lost in the shared sway of the cosmic boogie. I love being caught up in the moment of live music. Yeah, I got a music jones. About 500 concerts and shows’ worth over 10 years. It is dedicated to the memory of Clark Anderson, slide guitarist, union organizer and friend. This story first appeared on the Isthmus website.
0 kommentar(er)
