Paul!

I loved the Paul S show last night.  It was fun and raucous and interesting.  I was thinking of you because there were so many different styles of music in evidence, it would have been a great class.  I wish that it were clearer in my mind because my thoughts are a bit disconnected.

The guests included Olu Dara, Gillian Welch, Amos Lee, the Roches, Josh Groban and a group called Grizzly Bear.  They all took a couple (or more) Paul songs and made them their own.  I won’t too much about the Roches–as K said, they were there playing the part of Art G and they harmonize beautifully.

Olu Dara is a group I had heard of but never seen.  They sang 50 ways…and Slip Slidin’ away in a funky, bluesy, jazzy style.  It was in a very oral tradition–the songs became stories.  During 50 ways, he said, “Make a new plan, Stan?  Who’s Stan?  I ain’t Stan…what’s this woman talkin’ about?”  My personal favorite was the riff on “Ya don’t need to be coy, Roy.”  He said, “Coy?  What’s that?  So I went to the dictionary and look it up  C–O–Y…thas a cute little word.”  They got big applause.  After the applause, Olu Dara looks into the first couple of rows and says to someone, “I heard you lean down and tell your girlfriend  ‘that’s not how the song goes…that ain’t the fuckin’ song’  –but you just applauded…so…does that mean we OK now?”  The whole thing was fantastic.

For me, a painful part of the concert was J0sh Gr0ban.  Ick ick ick.  All these 50 and 60-somethings, who seemed to have come expressly to see him, were there screaming like he was the Beatles or Elvis.  He’s so icky.  He sang America and Jerusalem in that overly techniqued (new word) pseudo-operatic style that I dislike so much.  The woman to my right was totally swooning over every word.  K and I were being snide.

Josh:  The reason I love Paul’s songs is that they are still so relevent and meaningful…

Me:  As opposed to relevant and meaningless

K: [giggles]

J0sh fan to the right:  [shoots daggers at me from her eyeballs]

Another home run performance was Gillian Welch, who sang a few selections with her musical partner and then with Paul.  They sang the Boxer and Mrs Robinson together.  Her voice is stunning and she does great harmonies in that country/bluegrassy style.  Watching her perform made me want to get all her music.  And she’s beautiful too.

I can’t remember what Paul sang alone with his band…I think it was Me and Julio at the beginning and 4 or 5 selections at the end.  It was a great concert–there was much applause and cheering–we cheered them, they cheered us.  It was lovely.  I wish I could go get some Olu Dara and Gillian Welch CDs and listen all day long.

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