The fiancee and I caught Clint Maedgen and Strings at the Ogden last night. It was a great show with an interview in the middle by Allison Fensterstock* between tiny sets. We love string instruments. I realize that Nola is a brass city and, lord do I love trumpets and sousas, but there is something about bowed strings that reaches deep down into the ethereal soul of a human.
A huge highlight of the evening for me was a rendition of the Jane’s Addiction song “Summertime Rolls.” This tune was overplayed in the cassette deck of my Honda Prelude many consecutive nights in the early ’90s. It later came to reach a “don’t even look at it” status due to the chords and melodies becoming too intertwined with the glorious moments and youthful zeitgeist I endured with it as the soundtrack. So I had to shelve it so later listening would not interfere with the synapses in that cavern of my mind connecting THAT song with THOSE events.
My fiancee thinks I am crazy for this but there are many CDs that I will only listen to every few years in a nostalgic mood because if I listen once to often, the connection in my head might switch to the later event and I will lose that rush of emotion that connects the song to previous experience. I understand this is sort of a kooky concept but I swear by it and I know I have read some science that backs it up.
Anyway, back on track, Clint sang it with just him and vibraphonist Mike Dillon and it was damn sublime, the original, stripped down, melodic bass line was replaced with soothing vibraphone and serene vocals bouncing off the stark and open foyer of the Ogden, man, it was a joy. The ecstasy of the original was matched and, since it wasn’t a cassette deck but a live performance, even surpassed.
Video is below. Enjoy.
* Who I noticed also has an article on Al Green in a recent issue of Paste. Try to get past the Scarlett Johansson feature where she opines about how Barack Obama, Bob Dylan and others are her surrogate fathers and just read about Rev Al and the other great stories in that issue.
Oh Yeah. Right in da’Pocket. Really. Definitely separates the sheep from the extremely talented musician, eh? Whoa.
It’s the voice for me.
Keep this up and you might bring me in from da’cold, Noble Vargonaught.
Editilla
ps-if you want, when you copy video code, you can just change the Width to about 400 and the Height to about 340 and it fits pretty snug on mine. Don’t know about yours. Make sure you do both of them in da’code or it won’t play.
Editilla,
You totally fixed an annoying design flaw in this template that had bothered me for months.. Exalt!
Love it! The combination of the vibraphone and his voice is magical. Thanks for sharing.
Going now to read the Paste article. I luvs me some Reverend Green!
Well since you brought it up, yer ho’so humble Editilla lives in the birthplace of Al Green’s Full Gospel Tabernacle.
Scary Holy Place. Scary you ax? Yeah, because there are no arguments here fo’da atheists, no neoconflicts, no problems at all. Nothing but the Love. You hear it in the parking lot when you get out of the car because there is no way to come to this place early. God is always there waiting–and if God’s busy then Al Green himself will take your hand…and if he’s on tour, one of his relatives might be the assistant pastor…and even if they were on that long train, then every member down to the youngest child can take you there…and you might just not want to leave again.
I have seen German communists crying in their car afterwards. Scary.
Black bands in Memphis are the closest thing we have to Treme cohesion. There is a reason for that well explained in the book: Sacred Spaces, by Tom Rankin:
http://www.amazon.com/Sacred-Space-Photographs-Mississippi-Delta/dp/0878056416
Most of those churches are within a few miles of our family’s land in the Mississippi delta. That might help some with’me.
But of course:
http://www.algreenmusic.com/fullgospeltabernacle.html
http://www.backroadsofamericanmusic.com/archive/2007/09/28/al-green-s-full-gospel-tabernacle.aspx
Al is for real. That is what is so scary. Good scary.
Jus’sayin…
Editilla
Still workin’on the thingy so that links don’t stretch across your cool layout. D’OH! Sorry.
I’m probably going to switch themes in the fall because this one’s purty but it’s a tad dysfunctional. Sorta like some of my ex-girlfriends. Whoa!