squeaky voices

Well, I have been to a few concerts lately and I thought I should do a concert blog. I must admit that I’ve had writers block about this post because it’s the first concert blog since my brother did an excellent write-up about a Tom Russell concert he went to, and I can’t think of anything that’s gonna make this one as good. But here we go anyways.

First up, a show last week with Amy LaVere and Langhorne Slim. Wikipedia describes Amy Lavere’s music as “a blend of classic country, gypsy jazz, and southern soul,” but we all know that we can’t always trust Wikipedia, primarily because they used a comma after the second item in a repeating series and according to AP style, that shouldn’t be done. Wikipedia also notes that she has been in movies, including “Walk the Line” (as Wanda Jackson) and “Black Snake Moan”.

I have a copy of Amy LaVere’s latest album which is called “Anchors and Anvils,” which starts with a song about killing one’s lover and features on the cover a picture of Amy Lavere holding a sparkly gun. I need to get a gun like that. A sparkly one. That’s the kind of gun I could cling to in these times when I’m bitter. In concert Amy plays an upright bass and that also looked pretty bad-ass.

I found Langhorne Slim’s CD in the Seattle Public Library a few years ago and I had never heard of the guy but I couldn’t resist this cover:

So I borrowed the CD from the library and have always liked it. There are some songs on there that are good for jumping around. But he’s way better in concert. I would go so far as to say he is kick-ass in concert. Wikipedia does not provide a description of the music as it does for Amy Lavere (it does offer the fun facts that his real name is Sean Scolnick and his birthday is August 20) so all I can do is offer you this video to see for yourself: http://youtube.com/watch?v=zehZX3UJKOY. I think he’s going somewhere, so much so that when I was standing behind him at the bar, I contemplated stealing the receipt that he’d just signed. But I didn’t.

So if you watched the video, you might notice that he has kind of a squeaky voice. So did Amy Lavere in her little between-song banter. But in my house, the ultimate in squeaky voices is Nanci Griffith, who has inspired my parents to go around the house saying “thank you very much” or “thank you kindly” in high voices. Cause that’s what Nanci Griffith does. She used to teach kindergarten and my dad thinks she never really lost that high-voiced way of talking to children. Just in her talking, not so much in the singing.

Anyways, this weekend I went to Black Mountain, NC with my dad to see Nanci Griffith at the LEAF Festival. I think LEAF stands for L’hippie E’hippie A’hippie F’hippie. I’m just kidding, hippies. You’re all nice people, it’s just that there were an awful lot of you at the LEAF festival, and most of you had spent the previous two days camping together. I just wasn’t ready for all of you. Sorry I didn’t make it for the drum circle. I just came for Nanci.

Nanci put on a great show despite very heavy winds (tornados were ripping across the state), a hand injury that left her unable to play the guitar (for only the second show in her life, she said) and barbeque smoke that would sometimes render her unable to sing or speak. According to her, every time she turned to one side of the stage, the smoke from the nearby concession stands would go down her throat. Maybe it was the smoke, but she didn’t sound as squeaky this time.

But this barbeque smoke had a benefit for me, because I was sitting on the other side of the concession stands, so she was looking over my way a lot. I’d like to think we made eye contact and created a sort of mind meld. I was commanding her with my mind meld to play “Across the Great Divide” and that happened, so all I can say is watch out, I think I might have discovered some mind meld capabilities.

Nanci has this song called “It’s a Hard Life Wherever You Go” and she said that if she has her way in November, she’ll stop singing the song because Barack Obama will make everything better. Dad said that was a good enough reason for him not to vote for Barack Obama because he would rather she keep singing the song. It is a good song, but I don’t know why Nanci Griffith’s endorsement is not enough for my dad to support Barack Obama. Doesn’t he know that celebrity endorsements are supposed to decide things for us? They’re like the super-super-delegates.