Entertainment For Lively Minds
Lyle Lovett, John Hiatt, Joe Ely...
Posted by mikethep on 15 October 2010 - 11:12pm.
...It really doesn't get any better, just been watching 3 great great singers doing their thing - catch it on iPlayer before it disappears.
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Two outta three ain't bad
I thought Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt were excellent; Joe Ely, though, was a big disappointment. His songs were samey and his voice pleasant but lacking much impact. Good lyrics, maybe he's better with a band, as he was when I saw him about twenty years ago. Lyle's Simple Song was the highlight for me, a brilliant song.
I like Joe
I only caught a bit of this last night but I enjoyed Joe's contributions the most but then I have a lot of his albums (the latest one is very very good) so I was already familiar with them (and perhaps more importantly, with his style these days). He was very very good 20 years ago though - I was lucky enough to catch him in Austin when I was passing through and it was better than his London gigs I've been to. As he plays there a lot, he could have been going through the motions, he wasn't.
Really good
I really enjoed it too. I know what Rosbif means about Joe - but he is moreof a live band leader, and in a noisy bar he would really shine. Maybe not the right environment for him. Lyle was staggeringly good, great voice, songs, presence. The full package. I am a massive John Hiatt fan and I enjoyed him - particularly I didn't realise what a good guitarist he is, not so much the blues noodling but the acoustic guitar groove he got going. He didn't do my favourite songs though. I always though "Master of disaster" was a bit Hiatt lite really. I would have loved "Perfectly good guitar", Tennessee plates" or "Don't think about her (when you're trying to drive) as alternatives. Or "Memphis in the meantime". Or quite a few others.
Couldn't help thinking
how like the current Nick Lowe John Hiatt is. If the BBC do another series of this it would be great to see a more Anglo-centric version, perhaps reuniting Nick Lowe and John Hiatt in a mini-Little Village line-up.
Three good men and true
Mrs Black and I saw all of Joe's shows on Cayamo Cruise 2009. He played in the non-ticketed venue, accompanied by a fantastic Tex-Mex accordianist called Joel Guzman. Joe did 3 shows during the cruise, of an hour each and I bet he didn't repeat more than 2 or 3 songs. He must have performed 40 different songs during the week, which is a fair body of work. He was wonderfully engaging on stage and was probably our favourite artist of the cruise
Lovett and Hiatt have been on Cayamo every year since it started in 2008, but are both taking next year out. Lyle's band shows are fantastic, as he always has top notch players and arrangements. Hiatt played solo the first year (he did "Have a little faith in me" on piano) but on the following 2 years he showed up with a terrific band and really blew the house down
Magic!
I've been looking forward to this for a couple of months.
Lovett's *baby* is the perfect example of the FPO(Fun Prevention Officer)in "My Baby Don't Tolerate".....no? And how does he play with these picks on each finger? I play a version of "She's No Lady" but I don't have the balls to play it as slow as he does.
There's a bonus clip on the website of all 3 playing "Blowin' Down The Road". They omit the "I'm going where the women dress like men" verse.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00v9lhz#clips
Lyle Lovett - one of the great voices...
and a very cool dude.
Just watched this on the iPlayer. Another fantastic episode. They've all been hugely enjoyable in subtly different ways. My GLW, who's not particularly au fait with any of these gents, commented that they seemed the most natural performers of any she's seen in the series so far.
Have to say I'm not looking forward hugely to the next instalment - David Gray, KT Tunstall and Ray LaMontagne - but I'll certainly try to watch it with an open mind. Great series.
Your missus's unbiased opinion is probably correct.
I don't mean to take away anything from the performances of any of the previous artists in this series but Friday's show was the one(for me) where they were most together(know what I mean now Twangothan?).
My ears don't work as well as they used to but at the beginning of the show, someone said they'd been doing this type of thing since 19??. I know the 3 of them(along with Guy Clark)have been doing this type of show together for over 20 years.
I've never seen Joe Ely live but I've seen each of the others I've mentioned twice each. These guys are artists...career artists. They're not rock stars or pop stars. They don't run off stage if a seagull shits or they get hit on the head by a plastic beer glass. They don't give a monkey's if someone records them or takes photos of them at the show. If there was a fire or a full scale riot in the place....they'd keep on playing.
Give your GLW a glass of wine from me.
I have "White Ladder" by David Gray but other than that I know nothing of him. I have most of KT's output and all of Ray Lamontagne's. I am really looking forward to next week's show.
In my dreams there are another 2 shows featuring Dylan/Waits/ Forbert/Earle/Gauthier/Costello.
Errr, no
I thought they were great but a few solos from Hiatt doth not "together" make. Some good vocal interplay on the first between Hiatt and Lyle. Joe contributed nothing to the other two other than the odd word here or there. The first one worked better as a combination of three talents, for me. They all sang together, played solos, etc. But hey, they were all brilliant. It's like arguing about whether Marston's Pedigree is better than Wadsworths 6X.
the comment about doing this a lot I took to refer to the long standing songwriters' evenings in Nashville eg at the Bluebird Cafe. I've been and it's brilliant. I just found this stunner from two of my faves, Buddy and Julie Miller...
I somehow completely missed this on the "real" telly
so thanks. My Hiatt fixation (inspired way back in the day, I think, by a Q magazine review) continues undimmed. I now have to purchase some Lovett. Any pointers?
"Pontiac"
His second album is indispensible. The others are all good too but that's the one to start with.
If you don't want to spend any money yet....
....almost everything he's done is on Spotify. He's been on UK TV 2 or 3 times in the last couple of years and the latest Jools sessions and the Abbey Road thing can be seen on youtube. His own website has probably a dozen full length videos that can be watched.
Of the 4 songs he did last Friday night, the first 3 can be found on the album "Pontiac". The other is on the album of the same name "My Baby Don't Tolerate".
There is a compliation album called "Anthology Vol 1" but almost all of it can be found on his first 3 albums.
Pontiac
is almost worth getting for the title track alone - if you like your vignettes a bit dark. Some of the most important things about him to my mind are his voice, sense of humour and the sheer range of material he performs.
I personally have a soft spot for "Joshua Judges Ruth" - "North Dakota" in particular, but perhaps something like "She's Leaving Me Because She Really Wants To" for a bit of the wry lightness of touch he's really good for.
There's a broad range of material - and styles - on "Lyle Lovett live in Texas". Perhaps this would make an alternative starting point, as it covers a lot more than the first three albums.
That's a fantastic
overview. Thanks both.