Before playing “Waymore’s Blues,” an old Waylon Jennings number, recently at Union Stage, SG Goodman told the audience, “Country is everywhere, and we’re about to have an old-school honky tonkin’.”
Like many contemporary female artists — Margo Price, Nikki Lane, and Shannon McNally come to mind — Goodman takes inspiration from country outlaws. But she puts her on unique spin on it, filtered through her experiences as a queer woman.
Autumn is underway in The District — unless, that is, you recently were at a Reneé Rapp concert at The Anthem, where audience members traveled through all four seasons. Reneé played a sold-out bill of her Snow Hard Feelings Tour, with openers Towa Bird and her frequent collaborator and producer, Alexander23. The tour was promoting her album, Snow Angel.
A recent show at The Hamilton Live was a homecoming for all-female bluegrass group Della Mae. Fiddler Kimber Ludiker and Avril Smith, the band’s original guitarist, live in Silver Spring, Maryland. Smith works in the District as a labor organizer.
Making the leap from musician to labor organizer might not seem like such a change when you consider Della Mae’s material. They are a stridently political and feminist band. Their passion for labor issues was clear on “Boston Town” and a cover of the country classic “Sixteen Tons.” They covered the classic protest song “Ohio,” about the shooting of four students at Kent State University by the National Guard, and they closed their set with the feminist anthem, “Headlight,” written in response to the sexual assault allegations made against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanagh.
Della Mae told the audience, “love one another, believe one another, support one another.”
“Music is the language of us all…”
That memorable line from The Cat Empire’s “How to Explain,” the second song of their recent DC set, appropriately encapsulated the atmosphere in a fairly packed 930 Club.
Kings of Convenience — the Norwegian duo of Eirik Glambeck Boe and Erlend Oyehave — are now on a USA tour, marking their first time stateside since 2011.
Recently, the gents performed for a sold-out show at 9:30 Club, and Nalinee Darmrong was there to photograph the soundcheck!
In a two-and-a-half tour de force at Capital One Hall recently, Lucinda Williams delivered a career retrospective. A unique American life, Lucinda’s story touched on not only her life, but on the history of popular music since the birth of rock ‘n’ roll. And it showed that Williams is a survivor.
The child of poet and academic Miller Williams, Lucinda grew up all over the Deep South. Her father exposed her to literature and music. Williams started off her set by recounting how, when her family was living in Macon, her father took her downtown to see a blind preacher and blues-gospel singer, Blind Pearly Brown, which inspired her song of that name.
Falco and Book Deliver Intimate Jerry Garcia Tribute Show at The Hamilton Live
Words By Dan Rozman
Photos by Mark Raker
The minimalist jam band duo of The Infamous Stringdusters members Andy Falco on guitar and Travis Book on upright bass recently brought Jerry Garcia’s music to life with an intimate, impromptu tribute show at The Hamilton Live in DC. As part of their Falco and Book Play Jerry Garcia Tour, the tie-dye suit wearing twosome played a detailed 15-song setlist of Garcia and Hunter penned Grateful Dead classics that felt like a cozy living room jam session.
When she opened for Lissie last year at the 9:30 Club, Canadian indie-folk artist Cat Clyde stunned the audience with an incredible solo electric set. People in the audience were comparing her to Sinead O’Connor.
When I heard that Clyde was playing a full set at the Songbyrd Music House recently, I was excited to see what she could do, especially with a band. I was generously rewarded with a show that exceeded expectations.
Anticipating a Fugees reunion in 2023 is filled with nostalgia and excitement. This iconic hip-hop group, consisting of Lauryn Hill, Wyclef Jean, and Pras Michel, hasn’t graced the same stage for the past 16 years. But they recently made a remarkable comeback during the 25th Anniversary of The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill Tour at the Capital One Arena in DC, an event I couldn’t afford to miss.
Depeche Mode returned for an arena concert in DC for the first time in six years, and the band were simultaneously the same band and a very different act in their recent performance at Capital One Arena.
Same because they engendered extraordinary loyalty and fervor among dedicated admirers who go to lengths for Depeche Mode’s signature combination of blues-influenced rock guitar and haute electronic dance synthesizers.
Different because they have lost a founding member — Andrew Fletcher, at the age of 60 — since their last visit. And while the steady anchor provided by Fletch was missing, surviving founders Dave Gahan and Martin Gore infused the space there and beyond with pure *joy*.
