Ryan Bingham & band @ Whelans 9th Nov 2012

 

Having a new album to tour brings Ryan Bingham back to Dublin for a sold out show in Whelans. With his new three-piece band he has lost of none of the dynamics and overdrive that has been such a part and parcel of his live oeuvre.

The timbre of his voice is still one of a much older person, with a lifetime of experience. Yet Bingham is still young and draws his wry observations of a world he has encountered, first or second-hand, as he travels and performs. His fourteen song set included a selection of songs taken from all his four albums as he seems to discount a low key, independent debut.

From the current album, Tomorrowland, he naturally played a large selection which included Western Shore, Flower Bomb, Never Far Behind, Guess Who's Knocking and Too Deep To Fill. Earlier albums were represented by Dylan's Hard Rain, Southside of Heaven, Sunrise, Sunshine and Tell My Mother I Miss Her So. These were delivered with a variety of electric guitars that included a couple of Telecasters, a Gibson SG and a Les Paul as well as a host of effects pedals.

For a large part of the set Ryan led the sound on twelve and six string acoustic guitars. The latter lost a string mid-set, though he carried on playing with the offending string hanging loose, much like the band, who backed Bingham with a sense of accomplished abandon. Drummer Matt Sherrod, who played on the new album, with bassist Kelly Sherrod  provided a solid rhythmic foundation for Bingham and guitarist Evan Weatherford to weave a rough but colourful cloth of hard guitars that was more rock than roots, although several songs were delivered in a subtler context.

The first two encores showed that Ryan Bingham is a very capable solo performer with his versions of Hallelujah and The Weary Kind, an obvious audience favourite which wasn't on the original set list and had not been included in the set on his last visit. The final encore song was a duel between both guitarists using glass slides for a climaxing and mesmerizing Bread and Water that left the mixed age audience well satisfied with their night out. 

Review by Stephen Rapid. Photography by Ronnie Norton

Justin Townes Earle @ Whelans - Wed. 5th September 2012

Tall, bespectacled and full of pent up energy,  Justin Townes Earle walks onto Whelans’ stag and asks how everyone’s doing. He begins his first song, Memphis In The Rain, from his current album Nothing’s Going To Change The Way You Feel about Me Now. From that album he also included the title song and Maria amongst others. In fact he plays songs from most of his albums but nothing I recognize from his debut. Earle says that when he made that album all he wanted to do was play honky-tonk music, but he soon realized that  what was called “country music” had nothing to do with what he liked or wanted to play. That when 12 bar had been taken out of country music and country  had lost its way. 12 bar and the blues are still fundamental to Earle’s music live.

His songs are rooted in restlessness and the travails of traveling. This was highlighted by titles like Movin’ On, One More Night in Brooklyn and Wanderin’. The latter he prefaced by an intro that explained that Woody Guthrie “talked the way we talk and wrote the way we talk” so his songs are straight forward and have a universality which is missing from most of the current crop of singer/songwriters. Earle’s songs are rooted in his own experience with They Killed John Henry, a tribute to his grandfather. Mama’s Eyes was dedicated to his mother “she’s my hero” he told us, saying  that she wore cut-off shorts and lived her live and that “no-one fucked me up, I’m just fucked up”. He is intense and insightful, prefacing his song with some well chosen words. He saved some of those for a section of the audience who sang along with the choruses of several song. He thanked them for the participation, but told them they sounded like a bunch of drunken pirates  and would they ever “fuck off”. Likewise he asked those who decided to clap along to stop as it was messing with his head. (and therefore his timing) — not that there wasn't humour and self-deprecation involved too in both song and in the introductions. He wasn't acting all high and mighty, rather he wanted to put on the show the way he wanted to without unnecessary interference.

He also played, as well as his own strong songs, a number of covers including one he had learned from his Dad called variously Cadillac Blues and Big Car Blues. This again emphasized his own effective rhythmic guitar style, which if there was any criticism of the evening, mentioned by some, was that the tempo and delivery was a little repetitive over a long set. But that was not a view held by the majority of  this younger than usual audience who took Earle to their collective hearts. He had just finished playing dates in the UK with  his band and hoped that he could return with them soon. That should be something special for both sides of the stage

Hank 3 live @ The Button Factory - June 24th 2012

 

A three hour set was divided, as normally, between Hank 3's "kuntry" and his heavier metal tendencies in the second half of the show. On stage at 7.30 Hank and the band gave their usual hi-energy renditions of a range of songs taken from the last few albums which included Six Pack Of Beer, Life Of Sin, Trooper's Holler, Rebel Within, Country Heroes and Dick In Dixie.With barely a moment to take breath one song ran straight into another, with most delivered at break-neck pace. Since his last visit his band has gone through many changes but this current band can deliver the songs with a large degree of skill and verve. Fundamental to this was the powerhouse drumming of Shaun Williams who was as at ease with the subtle swing of classic country as he was with the more forceful material where his drumming sounded added a depth that sounded like thunder. He was aided in driving the band by upright bassist and backing vocalist Zach Shedd. The music was given it's country textures by the trio of fine players that are David McElfresh on fiddle, Daniel Mason on banjo and long-time band member, producer and upright steel guitarist Andy Gibson. Gibson is a sonic showman adept at playing old school steel, as on the cover version on Hank 3 grandfather's ("the hillbilly Shakespeare") I'll Never Get Out OF This World Alive to delivering the atmospherics of some the more recent material. The focus of the show though is undoubtably Hank 3 and although he says little between songs other than short summations of the songs themes they played. He communicates through the music and his overall stance. He is dressed in his usual multi-patched trousers, cowboy boots, customized waistcoat and cowboy hat and commands the respect of the mixed audience. There are the older obvious country fans, metal heads and all points in between. Lots of devil hand salutes abound from the front rows. Everyone seemed to be enjoying the first hour and a half though once the lights went down and the stage was left to Hank and drummer Williams there tended to be a polarization of opinion. Some loved all parts of the show but others found the second section of the show a step too far and retired gracefully. But fair play to Hank 3, he does his own thing and gives it his all in his three hour set and no one should feel short changed. Hank 3 has created a sub-genre and plays with obvious passion and commitment for his fans and so deserves all the credit that comes his way. Still a rebel within and a rebel without.

Live photographs by Steve Rapid

Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers live @ the 02 June 7th 2012

A packed O2 Theatre welcomed Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers with a great cheer as the band launched straight into Listen To Her Heart. The excitment spread through those standing on the ground level, as well as to those seated in the balconies. All were treated to what amounted to a greatest hits set along with a couple of tracks from their current Mojo album and the odd surprise. The main one being a full-on version of Fleetwood Mac's Peter Green's Oh Well, done to perfection with the heavy riff well to the fore.The Traveling Wilbury's Handle With Care was another welcome choice. The amount of guitars on display was dizzying Mike Campbell didn't use the same guitar twice until eight songs into the set, and they even did one with matching Gibson Firebirds! By the third number in the crowd were singing along with songs like Don't Back Down. Here Comes My Girl, Yer So Bad, Learning To Fly, Runnin' Down A Dream and others all went over well. Petty told the audience that it had been too long since the band's last visit and how happy he was to be in Dublin. He mentioned that the previous day, while walking around, he had met some Spamish fans which led the crowd to burst into a sponteneous sing along of Ole, Ole, Ole which seemed to baffle, not understandably, both Petty and Campbell. So after a moment of confusion it was "back to the show" and they carried on with Free Falling and a extended guitar workout on It's Good To Be King with Petty, Campbell and Scott Thurston all on guitars. There were also slower songs, like Something Good Coming, that featured both Petty and Campbell on acoustic guitars. There was a balance between the hard and heavy, the immediatly catchy chart hits and the slower acoustic songs that all worked well. That the core of this band has been together for thirty years shows in the ease and skill that they deliver these songs. The rhythm section of the man Petty called "my favourite drummer" and like "standing in front of a freight train" Steve Ferrone and bassist Ron Blair anchored and drove the sound. While Thurston added guitar, harmonica, keyboards and harmony vocals. Heartbreaker mainstay Benmount Tench was a keyboard master who added colour and depth to the sound. Mike Campbell again reaffirmed his outstanding talent as lead guitarist. These guys didn't seem to be going through the motions and they were enjoying themselves and fed off the audience's response which was with them from the word go. It was a wide-ranging age group, though it weighed heavily toward the 40plus end of the spectrum. They called the band back for an encore of Mary Jane's Last Dance, and American Girl and then everyone went home on a high note.

Review and above stage-screen photo by Stephen Rapid