wehideandseek wrote:

09:24 PM, Feb 03, 2009 |

Date of Concert: 1/12/2005 | Location: Cave Creek, Tucson & Flagstaff AZ USA

January 12, 2005 Cave Creek Coffee Company, Cave Creek AZ

Pieta Brown & Bo Ramsey - support
Nobody's Rose
I Never Told
Precious Game
Even When
Red Apple Juice
Out In A Field
Crying Oh
Tell Me How

~Greg & Bo~
Whatever It Was
Think About You
A Little Place In The Country
Prodigal Son
Got So Evil
Ballingall Hotel
Billy From The Hills
Goodwill
Poor Backslider
The Ballad Of Sam Stone
Love Sick
If I Had Known
China
Betty Ann

{This Little Light Of Mine} * w/ Pieta Brown


January 13, 2005 Berger Performing Arts Center, AZ
School For the Deaf and Blind, Tucson AZ

~Pieta & Bo~
Nobody's Rose
I Never Told
Out In A Field
Precious Game
Red Apple Juice
Tell Me How
Crying Oh
Even When
Hey Run

~Greg & Bo~
Rexroth's Daughter
Kind-Hearted Woman Blues
One Wrong Turn
Lately
Betty Ann
Driftless
Billy From The Hills
Love Sick
China
Got So Evil
Where Are You Tonight?
Verona Road

{This Little Light Of Mine}


January 14, 2005 The Orpheum Theater, Flagstaff AZ

~Pieta & Bo~
Nobody's Rose
I Never Told
Out In A Field
Red Apple Juice
Tell Me How
Precious Game
Crying Oh
Even When


~Greg & Bo~
Out Of Luck
Almost Out Of Gas
Small Dark Movie
Why Do You Even Say That?
Dream City
One Wrong Turn
Samson and Delilah
Living In A Prayer
On Top Of Old Smoky
Mattie Price
Are The Good Times Really Over For Good?
Jackson
Funny Fellow
Got So Evil

{This Little Light Of Mine}

{Railroad Bill > I Shall Not Be Moved}

Another Southwest tour come and gone: like the blinding snowstorms and torrential downpours that flood our dry washes; leaving us dazed at it's beautiful ferocity and happily content at the nourishment it brought.
After a good full day o work the Volvo raced me down to Cave Creek in record time. I was very excited to see this venue as they produce / share the routing of
many of the same artists we do in Flagstaff. Dave and Anita, the proprietors of the CCCC, have done an amazing job of putting a little sleepy ranch town
outside of Phoenix on touring musicians' radar.

The layout is a café when you enter, opening up into a restaurant which then spills out and over a large porch into a backyard blend of bleachers, fire-rings, hay bales and a low wooden stage. Corrugated metal and old barn wood encircle the stage and embrace a large cottonwood tree, which upon tilting one's head back, permits a perfect panorama of stargazing and limb-swaying. The food is superb.

The sound engineer Gus dialed things in nicely (an all JBL system provided a crisp, clean sound to match the night air). For most it was a tad chilly, but this
altitude-attuned boy was digging the cool desert air; CCCC provided blankets and vertical propane heaters so I think everyone kept warm enough.

Pieta and Bo looked a tad chilly when first taking the stage, yet after running through a number or two fingers and hands appeared to have warmed up
sufficiently. Nothing new appeared in their set list but each tune was delivered with an intensity that made it unique to this night alone.

Bo bobbing and weaving like a trout on hook, Pieta reeling him in and letting
out the slack to witness the dance. I admit to being a little spoiled and perhaps jaded when a performer doesn't mix up their spiel...but hey, it's their spiel
and when played so well I don't care. It's noticeable when those of lesser talent than Mssr Ramsey and Ms Brown fumble through rigidly choreographed delivery. This duo is an obvious exception to my stereotype.
Upon learning that Bo was on this tour, reclaiming his role as side-man, accompanist, electric-gun-slinger, telepathic-communicator, he-of-the-five-gallon-hat-dance my mind turned to the raw songs I longed for in his absence. The synergy of his emotion entangled and entwined w/ Greg's is what
all legendary duos strive for: Ella and Louis, Mick and Keith, Chubby and Hubby.

"Whatever" to open was a warm shot of brown liquor to ward off the cold. "Ballingall" was apropos in it's spooky delivery of creeping chords and wraith-like moaning. And "Billy" had the crunch that is at once threatening and comforting. "Goodwill" provided a needed mirthful release. "Love Sick" was a pleasure to witness and the proceedings came to a close w/ the one-two-three
combination of "Known > China > Betty Ann" leaving us in wistful state of gratitude, contemplation and laughter. "Light" didn't emerge as a full-blown sing
along as methinks most Phoenicians vocal chords were beginning to frost over.

A scant few hours of sleep later it was rise and blur up the hill to Flag to put in a few hours work and such.

The Berger is one of the most sonically pure halls in Arizona. Nestled amidst the verdant campus of a special school for the hearing and sight impaired, it is an aural oasis in which I love to immerse. A sold out house was treated to another emotional set by Pieta and Bo, during which she regaled us of her time in Tucson and her first band (which took her middle name). Again, the dua was warmly received and it seems logical that her career trajectory will continue upwards. Standouts included "Crying Oh" and "Red".

Tucson's literary elite and denizens of the UofA's English department could be seen knowingly nodding along to the "Rexroth's" opener and were immediately
schooled in the canon of Robert Johnson. "Turn" invoked the spirit of Rainer Ptacek with a haunted reading of bent chords and loping phrases. "Lately"
and "Where" were more than welcome on my ear and heart's pallet: amongst heartache there is rarer a better companion than such tunes...
I finally got my first "Verona" and was immediately transported into the
grassy median of Wisconsin roadways from years ago. A coupla magical years were well-spent in Madison and I love it when memories are so strongly evoked when least expected through song.

Here we should take a slight detour and reflect on the musical genius that was Rainer Ptacek. Please do yourselves and the world a favour and seek him out. A live recording [on my birthday] in June of ‘97 is a good place to begin. His albums are another missing piece in the evolution of blues; his progenies are the modern desert stylings of Calexico, Richard Buckner, Rum Tenor. And his equals? Well, they are in the pantheon of blues pickers: John Hurt, Fred McDowell come to mind. The next day he was all I listened to after KXCI's reception entered Jesus Radio-land during my drive back home. Phenomenal.

The Orpheum wasn't as full as last year but with thankfully a less boisterous crowd. We are nothing but celebrants in this lil mountain town and admittedly
get carried away. But we really do strive for "The Higher the Altitude, The
Lower The Attitude". The bar did produce a low murmur throughout the evening but the energy of the performance easily washed it into the background. This
night had that honest hand-woven sound of _Over And Under_.

I mentioned earlier the plugged-in-grit that I so desire from Bo and Greg. It was delivered by my hands down favourite pairing of an opener, "" and "Gas".
With this the night got off with a mean, kicking start. My mind felt at times like the cinder-leached snowbanks along our streets: dirty and pure. The delivery of guitar and voice were emotionally engaging throughout the night, hitting a peak with "Smoky" a tune transformed into love found anew and regaling in the
triumph of overcoming past defeats of the soul. "Funny Fellow" was quite scathing and I think is evolving from a kiss-off song into one that can produce moments of honest reflection in the listener's soul.

The double encore beamed with appreciation. The past week saw Edgar "Preacher" Killen finally arrested on murder charges from the slaying of the three voter-registration activists in Mississippi in 1964. This was the eve of Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. Lord knows trouble abounds in our lives and world. How poignant to close out the evening with "I Shall Not Be
Moved".