Kevin Gordon @ The Garage - Winston Salem, NC

Kevin Gordon came out to play at this little tiny bar in Winston Salem last night. He seems to come through about 2-3 times a year, and I really don't know why. This town sucks. It sucks mighty Morphin Monkey Ass. People will not come out to see live music. They wouldn't come out if you were giving away free beer and free blowjobs. The Garage is a cool place, but the people in this town suck.

We have no local radio that plays any of Gordon's music, I ain't even sure if they play him on the Satellite, and that's a damned shame as well. Originally from somewhere in Louisiana, Gordon now makes his home over in East Nashville, where all the other bohemian musicians live. He's the Southern version of Bruce Springsteen, except he's better than Springsteen, he has more soul, more groove, more inner Negro, at least to my ears.

His songs have been recorded by a bunch of different people including Levon Helm and Keith Richards., Lucinda Williams and others I just can't think of off the top of my head. I've been a fan for a long time.

My 10 year old daughter is also a fan. In fact she told me last night that I needed to take her to the club to go see him play, she didn't care what I had planned, she really wanted to go. So, We get dressed, I fill up the truck, and stop off at the ATM., and hit the drive-thru window for a quick burger and head for teh club. . Cover is $8 a piece. It's a fair price. We get to catch the opening act, Athens, Georgia's Richard Shefrey. My daughter tells me that she didn't like him. that he sounded like he was drunk. I thought he did okay. Lots of energy, which was impressive to me, especially since nobody seemed to be paying any attention to him. I've had those kinds of gigs before and know first hand how hard they can be. After he finished at 10, we had to wait until 10:40 pm for Gordon to start. Buy this time, my daughter is leaning on me, snuggling in, falling asleep. If I recall correctly, She fell asleep last time he played too.

Kevin Gordon rocked the house. I mean he set the place on fire. He played as a trio along with drummer Paul Griffith and bassist Ron Eoff. They were tight as hell and throwing down. There were maybe 10 of us that were there to see him play. He acted like there were a 1000 of us instead. He took requests, he played selections off of all of his albums. To be honest, I was disappointed that the room wasn't sold out. The place only holds about 100 folks tops. Gordon should be playing 500-700 seaters and selling them out. Like I said, this town sucks. People started filing in for the last band on teh schedule, a local band called the Bo Stevens. They are a good band and it was the lead singers birthday, but damned if it didn't seem like they were all part of some hipster scene. Rockabilly kids with saddle shoes and ducktails and shit. They were more interested in talking than listening. I wanted to take a hammer and start hitting people in the forehead, dropping them like cows in the slaughterhouse. You fuckers go outside to talk, I'm trying to listen to Kevin Gordon.

I enjoyed myself. My 10 year old daughter is asleep in my arms. A drunk chick in front of me is showing me the tattoos on her tits, adn Kevin Gordon is playing a bunch of my favorite songs ("Duece and a Quarter", "Burning The Churchhouse Down", "24 Diamonds", "Watching the Sun Go Down,")

Look, I could give you a set list, but unless you were familiar with they guy, it wouldn't mean anything to you. Instead, what I'll do is post his website info as well as his MySpace page and his facebook info. Check him out, I think you'll dig him. Kind of a an articulate blues player without all the wankerery. It's more about the songs than it is about how much he can bend a guitar string (and he's a damned fine guitar player). Think Lightning, Think Jimmy Reed, Think Fred McDowell.

Thanks Kevin for playing our shitty little town.


http://www.kevingordon.net/

Kevin Gordon on Myspace (Music & Videos here!!)

Kevin Gordon on Facebook

Update on my kid

That talent show post down there? That's about 4 years old. Yes, I still got teeth problems, but my little girl is 10 years old now and in the 4th grade. Not only is she in the 4th grade, but she is in an Academically Gifted program where she excels in science & math. The teachers tell us that she reads on a 9th grade level. She makes straight "A's" She draws all the time. She likes to read as well as write. She listens to music that I think sucks. (My Chemical Romance & Fall Out Boy) but my parents said the same thing about my Alice Cooper albums. In her defense, she likes going to shows with me and always expects me to get her backstage. She's seen Dolly Parton, John Cowan (a few times) Mike Marshall & Chris Thile (who she referred to as "The Guys who don't comb their hair") , Kevin Gordon, and Michael Doucet. She really likes live music and I often catch her playing with one of my guitars.

My daughter is also charming and cuter than Hell and she knows it. When people tell her how cute she is, it pisses her off. She says that she has no control over being cute, it just happened. She would rather people tell her how smart she is. She's much more proud of being smart than she is of being cute.

So how did something like this spring forth from my loins? Where did this one sperm come from that was able to produce such a good-looking intellectually gifted-super creative creature? How did that one super sperm out-swim all the super retarded gun toting hillbilly sperm that it was surrounded by? Oh I know she's my kid. She curses just like I do. She's as hard headed as I am. She does a lot of the same retarded stuff that I do. Don't let that sweet, innocent, cherubic face fool you. She's got some BigDumbHick in her.

My daughter rocks. She's got a good head on her shoulders. I can't think of too many bad things to say about her except when her blood sugar gets low, she gets evil, to the point where I'm usually about ready to drop kick her ass over the top of the house. She's getting ready to go through puberty and I'm afraid that it's going to kill one of us. I'm not ready for my kid to get boobies. I'm not looking forward to having to shoot people for paying too much attention to those boobies when they do show up, and if you don't think I'll kill your ass graveyard dead, you don't know me very well.

10 years old. Where has the time gone? How ccome it went by so fast?

Throw Down Your Heart

I’ve been writing a bio for Casey Dreissen who’s new CD, Oog which comes out on May 12, 2009. I finally finished it and sent it to him. A couple of days later I called him up and he told me that he was going to be playing in Durham NC with Bela Fleck and a bunch of African Musicians. He invited me to come out and told me that he would put me on the guest list. Actually he told me that I HAD to come out because this was something incredible and not to be missed. I’m unemployed. It’s only about 75 miles away. I ain’t got nothing better to do. So I hopped in the truck and I drove out there. He was right. The show was incredible.
The performers were:
Bela Fleck - USA
Vusi Mahlasela - South Africa
Toumani Diabate - Mali
John Kitime - Tanzania
Anania Ngoliga - Tanzania
d’Gary - Madagascar
Mario - Madagascar
Casey Dreissen - USA
The tour was in support of a Cd and Documentary called Throw Down Your Heart about Bela’s journey to Africa to trace back the origins of the banjo, and his subsequent collaborations with African musicians.
The show was structured so that each artist would come out and do a couple of tunes, then Bela would come out and duet with them. There were a variety of instruments being played from traditional acoustic guitar to the Kora a harp-like traditional African instrument.
The thing that struck me was how little I know about Africa and the different musical traditions there. Tarzan movies, and the occasional 15 second news blip about famine and inter-tribal violence does not an education about Africa make. Africa is just as diverse a continent as is Europe or Asia or North America. Different regions, different tribes, different traditions, different musical stylings.
The musicians involved with this tour were all mind-blowingly talented. They were also all extremely intelligent and personable people. Vusi Mahlasela speaks 17 different languages. That’s right SEVENTEEN. He is a UN Musical Ambassador and does all different type of Human Right work.
The percussionist Mario works as a fisherman when he is not on tour. I sometimes get to feeling sorry for myself and thinking I got it bad. I got no job. No prospects for a job. I got a bunch of minor medical crap going on. But I got a House to live in. I got electricity. I have clean water. I own four guitars and a couple of mandolins. One of these guys made his first guitar out of fishing line and a 5-gallon tin that held cooking oil. The percussionist Mario was playing an evaporated milk can filled with glass, and getting incredible tone and rhythms out of it. Vusi Mahlasela told about being 11 years old and organizing protests against Apartheid and how the police would come drag kids out of their houses and night and beat and often kill these kids just because they wanted to speak their own language instead of Afrikaans. He talked about the importance of Forgiveness and the power that it held and how we all need to wear Forgiveness like a crown. Anania Ngoliga a blind musician played a kalimba or thumb piano in such a way that it seemed impossible for one person to be getting all of that out of such an instrument. In fact, most people would be hard pressed to get all of that out of a traditional 88-key piano. Him and Fleck did a call and response duet that had the entire audience spellbound, and the joy on everyone’s face was just incredible and infectious as well.
These guys are all Rock Stars at home, Springsteen and Clapton level Rock Stars. Toumani Diabate is known as the prince of the Kora and has collaborated with Taj Mahal, Peter Gabriel, Bjork, Spain’s flamenco-fusion band Ketama, and countless jazz musicians.
Here is the trailer for the documentary. You DON’T want to miss seeing this.





For those who are interested, I also found the following YouTube links:
Vusi Mahlasela - http://www.youtube.comwatch?v=LW0SMk-HJ3M
Toumani Diabate - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DEKQjj6Ga0
D’Gary - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aYOpLWqiMk