Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, July 2, 1984: Difference between revisions
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But despite Thompson's stirring set (and despite an earlier, graceful performance by Jackson Browne and David Lindley), the Most Valuable Performer of the show was T-Bone Burnette, the Texas-born rocker who has been making moral-minded American music for over a decade now, and who Warner Bros. Records — In a textbook example of corporate stupidity — just dropped from their roster. Burnette (accompanied by guitarist Ry Cooder) made some joking references to Warners' decision during his solo set, just before performing a forceful cover of John Fogerty's "Lodi" — a song about rock destiny as a vision of recurrent, mundane bell. Beyond that, Bone performed mostly new material, which, with Cooder's embellishment, had more emotional wallop than anything else in the evening. Indeed, such songs as "Having a Wonderful Time (Wish You Were Her)" and "Hawaiian Blue Song" had such tremendous appeal, and such a resonant sense of loss and yearning about them, one can only hope he takes them in the studio soon and records them in the same direct, sparse manner that he brought to them on Saturday. | But despite Thompson's stirring set (and despite an earlier, graceful performance by Jackson Browne and David Lindley), the Most Valuable Performer of the show was T-Bone Burnette, the Texas-born rocker who has been making moral-minded American music for over a decade now, and who Warner Bros. Records — In a textbook example of corporate stupidity — just dropped from their roster. Burnette (accompanied by guitarist Ry Cooder) made some joking references to Warners' decision during his solo set, just before performing a forceful cover of John Fogerty's "Lodi" — a song about rock destiny as a vision of recurrent, mundane bell. Beyond that, Bone performed mostly new material, which, with Cooder's embellishment, had more emotional wallop than anything else in the evening. Indeed, such songs as "Having a Wonderful Time (Wish You Were Her)" and "Hawaiian Blue Song" had such tremendous appeal, and such a resonant sense of loss and yearning about them, one can only hope he takes them in the studio soon and records them in the same direct, sparse manner that he brought to them on Saturday. | ||
Burnette later performed in a duet with Warren Zevon the elusive hard-boiled rocker debuted a magnificent new song about "Boom Boom" Mancini) | Burnette later performed in a duet with Warren Zevon (the elusive hard-boiled rocker debuted a magnificent new song about "Boom Boom" Mancini), and then appeared with Elvis Costello for a rendition of George Jones' "I'm Ragged but Right," and with Costello and John Hiatt for Hiatt's "She Loves the Jerk" and George Jones' "She Thinks I Still Care." Burnette worked so effectively with so many artists because be has an unerring sense for the heart of a song, and a knack for making that sense into a credible, affecting performance that lifts music above technical prowess or emotional showiness, and instead makes it seem a work of heartfelt communication. Whether performing folk, country or rock, whether singing of a lost love or a lost America, Bone brings the gift of belief to his work — and that is clearly an attractive trait to artists as intelligent (and intractable) as Costello and Zevon. | ||
But then Burnette — who played extensively with Dylan's Rolling Thunder troupe — has had plenty of experience at this kind of roughhewn communal stuff. For hint, and indeed, for everybody who appeared at McCabe's on Saturday, the best rock or the best folk isn't music that Is simply a statement of ambition or arrogance or outrage, but a method of communicating one's most strongly held dreams and convictions to a real community of fellow travellers — both fans and performers Perhaps that's why, when the evening's stars came together at the end to sing a few country and R&B gems, Costello seized the impetus to close the night with a rave-up version of the Byrds' "So You Want to Be a Rock 'a' Roll Star" Maybe it was just a Yoke or maybe Just a reassertion of a restless dream, but Costello. Burnette and the rest were simply affirming that certain ideals die hard. | But then Burnette — who played extensively with Dylan's Rolling Thunder troupe — has had plenty of experience at this kind of roughhewn communal stuff. For hint, and indeed, for everybody who appeared at McCabe's on Saturday, the best rock or the best folk isn't music that Is simply a statement of ambition or arrogance or outrage, but a method of communicating one's most strongly held dreams and convictions to a real community of fellow travellers — both fans and performers Perhaps that's why, when the evening's stars came together at the end to sing a few country and R&B gems, Costello seized the impetus to close the night with a rave-up version of the Byrds' "So You Want to Be a Rock 'a' Roll Star" Maybe it was just a Yoke or maybe Just a reassertion of a restless dream, but Costello. Burnette and the rest were simply affirming that certain ideals die hard. |
Revision as of 00:14, 24 September 2016
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