She Who Must Be Obeyed and I drove to Little Rock last night to see Robert Plant and the Band of Joy perform at Robinson Center Music Hall. Great Show! The latest incarnation of Band of Joy is Robert Plant, Patty Griffin (wow!), Buddy Miller, Darrell Scott, Byron House, and Marco Giovino.
The show opened with brothers Cody and Luther Dickinson of the North Mississippi All-Stars. They are sons of the late, great Jim Dickinson, a Little Rock-born musician/producer who raised his boys in north Mississippi (hence the name). Cody and Luther were incredible. Excellent high-volume blues from just two people!
Perhaps the best moment of the evening for me was the recorded music played after Cody and Luther’s set, while Band of Joy was setting up. It started out with blues and gospel and then gradually transitioned to what we used to call “Arabic music” (while scanning through the FM channels looking for rock-and-roll). It had more modern rhythms and instrumentation than I remember, but it was still nearly a half-hour of people singing the Arabic language. In downtown Little Rock! Not sure who else “got it” but I had a silly grin on my face the rest of the evening…
Rolling Stones tour announcement: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/13316/68226
A review of last night’s show: http://www.robertplant.com/press/robert-plant-pleases-with-still-strong-voice/
Set list: http://www.tightbutloose.co.uk/tblweb09/?p=5755
PS — Discovering Patty Griffin was like rediscovering Mavis Staples (with the Blind Boys of Alabama) after seeing her very briefly in “The Last Waltz.” In both cases, the names sounded vaguely familiar at the time of the show and it wasn’t until later that a bit of web-surfing helped me appreciate why these people were so very good…
2 comments
Love the review Dad!! You and your love for anything Arabic makes me smile. Keep up the good writing 🙂 Jen
I saw Plant a few years back when he was the keynote at SXSW. his interview was very good and he referred to following the blues note in his music over the years, referring to the influence of the blues on his music. He made the comment that he had been sitting in Antone’s the previous evening between Hubert Sumlin (guitar player for Howlin’ Wolf) and Pinetop Perkins (everyone’s piano player) and thinking ‘how the f*** did I get here?’, referring to the awe and respect he held for these two blues legends.
I got turned on to Patty Griffin a few years ago with her CD 10,000 Kisses. There is an excellent tune on there sung entirely in Spanish. I have no idea what she is singing but it MOVED me. The raw emotion that comes through is amazing. Just goes to show you, music is a universal language.
Buddy Miller is another I’ve been familiar with for awhile. He is a prolific songwriter and certainly not a bad guitarist either. He has some really good stuff recorded, too much to even begin to describe. One of my favorite tunes of his is off one of his last two discs, can’t remember which, called Gasoline and Matches.
I’ll be checking out the other members of the BOJ now.