Dave Alvin & The Guilty Women – The Blue Note – Columbia, MO – August 20th, 2009

I think the headline for this one was that Dave was very good, but the Women were even better!  Dave had some kick-ass moments, but overall I got the feeling that it was a bit of an off night for him although friends Bobby Lloyd Hicks, Lou Whitney and D. Clinton Thompson of The Skeletons were in the audience.   The Guilty Women, meanwhile kicked ass! 

Dave was good and professional, he gave decent singing performance and his guitar playing was both soulful and rockin’ on both acoustic and electric guitars, but he just seemed to have a less than “100%” night, which is OK, because I know that he can’t be absolutely top-notch every night. 

As an interesting twist, California’s Burning had a very tasteful a cappella introduction by several band members singing the chorus line from California Bloodlines, which Dave had covered on his West of The West record a few years ago. 

In typical Dave Alvin tongue-in-cheek fashion, Dave introduced Christy McWilson for Weight of The World, saying she was “born in Whittier, CA, currently residing in the over-saturated, over-caffeinated, over-opinionated….city of Seattle, Washington.”

During Boss of The Blues, Christy McWilson came out into the audience to dance and watch Sarah Brown’s solo.  I was standing not far from the stage and all of a sudden Christy appeared next to me like a gypsy showing up to survey Grandma’s silver, except that she had an innocent smile on her face.

Dave played his Martin acoustic guitar through Potter’s Field, and then started playing his Fender Stratocaster starting with a spirited version of Haley’s Comet on which the vocals needed to be mixed a bit louder by the sound engineer.   The band had Fourth of July written on their set list (between Ashgroove and Dry River) and attached to stage monitors, but they didn’t play it.   

Cindy Cashdollar is one of the best lap steel players alive today, and so enjoyable to watch and hear.   Amy Ferris on fiddle and Christy McWilson on co-lead vocals at various times during the show were jumping around on the stage like manic crazed banshees to the delight of the audience and other band members too.  And on Dry River, Cindy on steel, and Lisa Pankratz on drums, put on one of the most blazing musical duels that I’ve seen in several years while the rest of the band just stood over on the right side of the stage watching.  Lisa once again proved to be a very powerful, capable drummer and Cindy had exceedingly warm, and at the same time, bad-ass tone from her lap steel slide – especially during Weight of The World and Dry River.   Sorry, I can’t tell you the brand of the lap steel used on those two songs, but I know it wasn’t her Gibson.  And Sarah Brown was, as usual, her very competent and tastefully professional self on electric bass.

The show lasted about 95 minutes and tickets were $15.  You should have been there to see it!

Marie Marie
California’s Burning (with California Bloodlines intro)
Downey Girl
Weight of the World
Here in California
Abilene
Boss of the Blues
Potter’s Field
Haley’s Comet
Ashgrove
Dry River

encore:
Man of Somebody’s Dreams
Que Será, Será