Does that make her crazy? Possibly.

Some people think it may be because of a yet to be disclosed scandal. That would be a relief.

I’m more afraid it’s in advance of a senate bid: scrape together a veneer of national and international experience, and then go for the presidency.

Please let me be wrong.

A deeply troubled and deeply talented soul has passed through. Whatever else may or may not be true of this enigma, there’s no doubt about the creativity he left this world. Both in his words and in his life, he forced us to rethink how we drew our boundaries.

Can’t embed this, but it’s the song on my mind, so I’ll leave it as a link, a video that’s got the pop, the thought, the song, the dance, the humor, the innocense and the otherwise: Black or White

He was a unique talent and I hope his soul finds peace.

For the past couple of years, I’ve been going to a small blues festival near me in Greeley, CO. Most years, there’s someone in particular I’m wanting to catch. This year, that wasn’t the case, but I went anyway because it seemed like a good way to spend a beautiful day. The festival takes place in a rodeo stadium. After catching some OK acts while I caught up on some magazine reading, I wandered down to the under-bleacher area to grab a bite to eat and look in on the Blues School that takes place there. In years past, I’d scored a couple of free harmonicas and, best of all, played some blues kazoo. Who knows, maybe this year I’d get a drum kit or something?

Schedule said it would be kids’ performance coming up. That sounded like it could be pretty dodgy, but I’d heard some pretty good kids on youtube, and even heard a good girl guitar player at this place last year, so it seemed as good a place as any to finish my spumoni. Sure enough, the kids were good, and that girl was back. This time, I caught her name - Michaela Rae. She shared lead guitar duties with another kid whose name I didn’t catch. Too bad, because he was really good, too. It was interesting to watch the contrast in demeanor. He wasn’t flashy, but like most musicians, he really showed in his face and body what his mind was thinking and his guitar was doing. Michaela was more of the stoic sort - body totally still, face totally passive, only her hands and her sound were going crazy. Think Derek Trucks, if Derek Trucks was a skinny little 14 year old girl (and not near his present powers yet).

Blues has a structure that encourages early success, I think. I don’t mean that to diminish some of the fantastic kids we hear from time to time. I just mean that it’s forms naturally lessen some of the technical barriers to music making so that creativity can be expressed even before someone has mastered their instrument or musical theory. I think that’s why you hear blues prodigies so much more often than, say, rock prodigies or, omg, jazz prodigies. Will Michaela make it? I don’t know, but it’s always fun to hear a kid go after it. Michaela’s cut a record, and hear are a couple of tracks. She rightly identifies herself as a guitarist, not a singer, so we’ll stick to some instrumental tracks:

Come to Mama

…and with Umphreys McGee, New Year’s Eve, 2008. She was swinging to the end:

(and this makes me think I need to check out more Umphreys McGee

It’s more rock and less blues than his first album. Davy Knowles‘ voice is stronger (in every sense) than before. On first listen, I felt I was missing Knowles’ guitar. On second listen, it’s there, of course, but not as prominent as I would like. Whereas live and on “Roll Away”, we often rode into a song on a wave of great guitar work, on this album, it’s used more as an instrumental response to the lyric. Some very fine work, but missing some flavor that made the BDS sound. Probably premature to complain, though - surely no one’s sound should be cast in stone based on their debut album. I’m still not convinced that having separate bands for touring and recording is a good idea, though. But again, I’ve not heard the new touring band. At the Oakland Beck gig, he was very psyched about the new bassist and drummer - a duo from Seattle whose names I don’t yet know.
(samples after the jump)

Not having the liner notes, I can’t say much about the production. Bass and drummer are said to have worked extensively with Jackson Browne. Producer is Peter Frampton. It’s not the almost live sound of the first album, but I like the sound a lot. Haven’t digested it all yet. Here’s a sample to get you started:

Coming Up for Air

George Harrison’s “Hear Me Lord”, the only cover on the album:
Hear Me Lord

A song heard often on tour last year:
Tear Down the Walls

Davy previewed this last song on Youtube a few months ago and has been playing it (and several other tracks) on tour with Jeff Beck this spring. Glad to hear he kept with the acoustic resonator for this:
Saving Myself

The album is set for wide release on June 16th, but is available on US iTunes now. Tell me what you think or know.

In early September, I got a chance to hear him open for The Blind Boys of Alabama at the Gothic Theater in Denver. He’s a great live performer and the show was fantastic. It was one of my most highly anticipated shows for the year, and it did not disappoint, at least not the show itself. The Gothic is another funky old converted theater, ideally set up for listening, wandering, dancing: everything you’d want to do at a show. Thorn came out rocking and had the crowd on their feet the whole time.

I didn’t post about it at the time, though, because I was majorlly bummed to find that I had screwed up my recording. While the good tracks are pretty good, there was this God-awful screech of a sound in a few places. Consulting with more experienced tapers, we came to the conclusion that it was cell phone interference. Attempts to adequately remove or mitigate it weren’t successful, so I just turned my back on the recording in order to retain my memories of an otherwise great evening.

But looking back, I decided to share the decent parts of the recording, since the bulk was quite decent. So here it is. Given Thorn’s rocking spiritual vibe in places, it’s ironic that the one track that was totally screwed was track number 13. I guess the Devil came out to play.

Below is the set list with a few samples so you can hear what you’re getting. As always, get yourself to Thorn’s site or to iTunes, support him and buy. Besides the usual reasons for doing this, here are two more: (1) that way you can replace the missing track in this set list so that the banter in track 12 makes sense, and (2) well, listen to track 10 and you’ll know why.

FLAC files
VBR Mp3 files

1. A Heart with Four Wheel Drive*
2. I’m Still Here#

3. Crutches
4. banter: boxing
5. I’d Rather be a Hammer than a Nail
6. banter: Pop Tart
7. Rise Up
8. band introduction
9. I Have a Good Day
10. banter: buy the CD
11. What Have You Done to Lift Somebody Up
12. banter: reading material
13. A Long Way to Tupelo^
14. Ain’t Love Strange

15. banter: tent revivals
16. Mission Temple Firework Stand

* Thorn’s vocal mic was turned off for a few seconds, and then brought up by the sound man: the one audio problem on this that wasn’t my fault.
# Significant cell interference in instrumental outro, cut and faded in post processing
^ Significant cell interference in vocal, track not included in upload

Unlike his shows with his band, Knowles’ set was all acoustic, including some slide work and a nice resonator of some sort. It was a mix of covers and new stuff, and “Come Home”, from his debut album. Despite the yakker dudes, I taped. Not great audio, but if you’re curious, here it is. A couple of samples:

John Hiatt’s Lift Up Every Stone

Riverbed

Saving Myself

I really enjoyed hearing Davy’s considerable acoustic chops, but it makes me look forward to hearing the new stuff electrified and with the new band this summer.

Here’s the whole set. I cut the banter sections separately in to make it easier to avoid the worst of the side chat.

Davy Knowles (opening for Jeff Beck)
Fox Theater, Oakland, CA
April 23, 2009

source: SP-CMC-20>Edirol R-09HR (44.1/24bit)
conversion: R09HR>Audacity (gain, conversion to 16bit)>xACT(flac conversion)
location: center, about 10 feet in front of soundboard
taper: boolz (c2what@gmail.com)

FLAC files
VBR MP3 files

Set list:
1. Intro
2. Lift Up Every Stone
3. banter
4. Riverbed
5. banter
6. As the Crow Flies
7. chat
8. Slow Turning
9. Saving Myself
10. Come Home
11. banter
12. Out on the Western Plain