Lindsay Fuller, The Holyfelds, The Starlings @ Conor Byrne

Last night Anne and I went down to Ballard to the old familiar Conor Byrne Pub.  I had a very pleasant surprise, and fell in love with the opening band – Lindsay Fuller.  I’ll blog a review of her new album very soon.

We were there to see the Starlings play.  Moe and Aimee (bass and drums, harmonica and vocals) are back from their bicycle tour and so it was a chance to see the starters in the game.  They sounded great, and it was a fun time.  The new CD will soon be out and you can check it out your own selves.  Highlights were Fallen Days (For the one on the run) and Apple Tree.  Anne and I had no choice but to shake a tail feather.

OK, so back to Lindsay Fuller.  The usual Conor Byrne racket made it hard to hear unless you were up front, and the usual no-one cares unless you are “famous” factor meant that a lot of people missed seeing two of Seattle’s finest musicians backing her up – Jeff Fielder on dobro and nylon string guitar, and Rebecca Young on electric bass.  Jeff also sang some well-blended background vocals.

There were obviously some people in the know, given the cluster-fuck of cameras and recorders.  Even with this indicator for the more astute beer drinkers, that strange semi-circular realm of death which no living person should enter still glared ominously at the crowd from just in front of the monitors.  I’ll admit Lindsay has been described as “intense” (thanks Mike), and perhaps that is why nobody wanted to get up there, or maybe like me they were trying to get in the cone of sound from the PA just to hear the music.  The music was great.

In the middle was The Holyfelds who brought some danceable energy and searing harmonies to the stage.  They also brought an autoharp, which I must admit gives me the heebie jeebies, however given the aforementioned hullabaloo I couldn’t really hear it, or the dobro for that matter.  Ahhh bad sound, why do you haunt me?

http://www.lindsayfuller.com/home/

http://www.myspace.com/goodcountrypeople

Help me out with a link for the Holyfelds will ya?

I'm looking for, a song I heard today

Last night, Farfetcher, as promised went down to the Conor Byrne pub, and played a little Willie. Nelson that is – and sadly I must report the Willie jokes were of only lower caliber than the above hobbling horse. The evening was long (it was a tribute night) so I’ll forgo the usual listing of all the bands, and skip to the good (slightly better) bits.

First of all – Ballard Ave is now just about as bad as Capitol Hill on a Friday – there is nowhere to park, at all. Ride a bike people, take a bus. Oh right, the buses stop running too early and you can’t get home without dropping 30 bones on a cab. Fair enough, but would you mind trading in for a smaller car?

Anyways, Anne and I were traveling light, she in her tall and shiny boots, me tall, and shiny due to the western shirt Mike (Silverhands) gave me, not sequined but sort of shiny polka dotted. I had a capo, a guitar cable, and a set list.

Mike, Tom Parker (Starlings), and I used to get together every Tuesday, back before the infamous 6 month Starlings tour began, and play old country songs and folkie bits whilst consuming fifths of Jameson, Powers, or if someone was feeling rich we’d switch nations and share in the Aberlour. We call this grouping the ‘Pennylifters’ which is an Iowan term for ‘underwear thieves’, in the same way that what you may call a “Banana Hammock” is known as a “Budgie Smuggler” in Australia. This fine evening we were joined by BC Campbell on piano (a Pennylifters debut!) and Greg from Zoe Muth’s Lost High Rollers on the skins. The usual 3 guitar attack thus could be altered, meaning I was playing Tom’s Martin acoustic, Mike on the Fender Bass, and Tom on Hohner harps. A freakin band man!

We got up on stage, and said hello to Country Dave who was emcee. He managed to wait through all our faffing about as we got settled in, and then begin to rattle of ‘Willie Facts’ once we were ready to go. He figured it out eventually and off we went.

The sound out front was supposedly pretty good, but on stage it was actually funny how bad it was. I was grinning at Tom as I broke into “Mr Record Man” – my current favorite Willie Nelson song, and realized I could not hear myself at all. The fear in this situation of course is that you are sounding like a person singing along too loudly with headphones on – think Eddie Murphy doing “Roxanne” in what was that ‘The Golden Child’? At the same time, something was ringing in the monitors low, giving the impression of a windstorm on stage. Now I can truly say I understand why what you might call “Feedback” the British engineers call “Howlaround.”

We turned that crowd on anyways! ‘To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before’ got the dancers back up out of their seats, then ‘Good Hearted Woman’ had the sing along going. “Gone Gone Gone”, I have no idea if I played that lick right, but I was beating hell out of that guitar. Great fun, back slaps and handshakes as we climbed back down. Here’s a link:

http://www.myspace.com/pennylifters