Music |
Emmylou Harris, Buddy Miller, Patty Griffin, Gillian Welch, David Rawlings "Summerstage," New York City, August 18
2004
By
Published: May 20, 2009
Category:
Country
Emmylou Harris, Buddy Miller, Patty Griffin, Gillian Welch, David Rawlings
"Summerstage," New York City , August 18, 2004
"No man is a hypocrite in his pleasures," noted Samuel Johnson, whom we thank both for his dictionary and his wisdom. In fact, that is the very premise of HeadButler.com — we serve what we love in the hope that you’ll sample the offerings and find toothsome nourishment and come back for more.
So the question for HB is not, "What do I like? but "How much do I like what I like?" Which, in the case of Live Performance, translates to: "How far will I travel to experience —–?"
In his youth, the name Butler slotted in was "Bob Dylan." And it was agreed in Butler ‘s circle: One would travel hundreds of miles to see Bob.
That was long ago. Butler has now seen Bob many times. No need to keep dipping into those waters, however deep and soul-cleansing.
The new Gold Standard for Butler and Mrs. B is Emmylou Harris. The Butlers have been living a hundred miles from New York this summer, the better for Baby Butler to breathe clean sea air and build her first sand castles. But once we learned that Emmylou was playing in an open-air theater in Central Park — and that Patty Griffin, Buddy Miller, Gillian Welch and David Rawlings were playing with her — we beat the sand out of our shoes and rushed in to the city.
What’s the big deal about Emmylou?
First, the talent. If you’re wavering on the question of a divine presence in American roots music, listen to Emmylou. Never in country music — or, for that matter, pop — have we heard a voice this pure. But a single flavor of anything gets old fast; what keeps Butler on the edge of his seat is the way her voice shifts, with no transition, to a hoarse, brokenhearted whisper. Suddenly we are in the realm of the tragic. No small art in that.
And then there’s her integrity. In thirty years, she’s never reached for the cheap hit, never posed for the suggestive picture, never betrayed her allegiance to the unfashionable music she loves. When her fame came, she was grace incarnate, using her name to sell tickets for concerts that raise money to ban landmines. And in live performance, she’s still low-key, no-nonsense — she’s the messenger, not the message.
So it was last night. Although she was the biggest star in this Angel Band, she came on first, backed by Buddy Miller on guitar. She sang "To Know Him Is To Love Him" — and did you know Phil Spector took the title of that song from his father’s grave? — and "Red Dirt Girl." She sang "O, Sister," a Dylan song from 1976," and "My Antonia" and more. Butler blinked away tears of joy and noticed that it was dark. And silent; this was a crowd of Those Who Know. As they sat on their blankets, they might as well have been in church.
Buddy Miller came next. For those who do not know him — and it’s easy not to; he wears a baseball cap pulled down low and has never made a fuss about himself — he is, very simply, the best guitarist in Nashville (and, maybe, parts West and North). His voice could be the best Butler knows. It’s certainly the most versatile. Otis Redding , Bob Dylan, Levon Helm, John Fogarty — they all flow through him.
Buddy played swamp rock guitar licks. He sang gospel and high lonesome heartbreak. He tore off a guitar solo that would have worked for Led Zeppelin. And closed with Willie Dixon’s "You Can’t Judge a Book (By Looking At Its Cover)."
Gillian Welch and David Rawlings are Authentic. To hear them is to go back to radio broadcasts from the 1930s and skinny women in knee-length dresses and men in cowboy suits and straw hats who start sentences with "ma’am." Does anyone play a better violin than David Rawlings? Is anyone’s voice more translucent than Gillian Welch’s?
Patty Griffin is all heart. Put a great band behind her, and she — dare Butler say it? — rocks. Proof that "alternative country," or whatever this music is called, can make you feel and tap you toe at the same time.
All evening long, Butler had been thinking about The Band, and the eternal power of that music: astonishing writing, brilliant musicianship and long hours of practice until every note, every word, was inevitable and right and (a word Butler rarely uses) perfect. The Band was about the Civil War and the Frontier and the days of the Traveling Carnival. And The Band was, equally, how that history and those myths play out in our lives.
Two hours after they began, Emmylou and Buddy and Gillian and Patty and David stood onstage together and sang "The Weight." And Butler crumbled. To hear voices raised, in harmony, in praise of all that is good and decent — "Put the load right on me!" — hey, it doesn’t happen often, does it? But when it does, wow, it feels great. Washed in the blood of the lamb, lifted up, annointed — fill in your own description. "Blessed" will do for Butler .
The tour is halfway through its 14-city journey across America .
How far will you travel to see it?
August 20, 2004 – Boston , MA (Harborlights)
August 21, 2004 – Gilford , NH (Meadowbrook)
August 22, 2004 – Burlington , VT (Green at Shelbourne Museum )
August 24, 2004 – Philadelphia , PA ( Mann Center )
August 25, 2004 – Cleveland , OH ( Tower City Amphitheater)
August 26, 2004 – Rochester , MI (Meadowbrook Music Festival)
August 28, 2004 – Denver , CO (Fillmore Auditorium)
August 29, 2004 – Salt Lake City , UT ( Red Butte Gardens)
