Guest Book

Randy covered Birmingham last night, but wanted to add another perspective/observation. Frankly, I had some mixed feelings going into yesterday. Last year, I sat down and prepared quite a lengthy letter to the management of City Stages complete with diagrams of suggestions as well as a suggested list of acts. My top 3? you guessed it. So, I should be very happy right?? Well, in this give and take world we live in, I knew going in this gig would not be "An Evening With" as far as the Brothers go. Cant be, because of time constraints and the audience itself. Shows like City Stages are excellent for tribute bands like ONE member of the Grass Roots performing their hits, but to expect folks who have not heard the ABB in a while-or at all-to get a true sense of the depth of this Band would have been asking perhaps too much within a single set. Well, I must admit, the Brothers gave quite a bit more than I expected last night. Warren and Derek came out absolutely on fire last night. And I have to tell you, the Band really reached out a few times and strung their asses WWWAAAYYYY out there...to the point I saw folks who stopped dead in their tracks dancing because they could not hear the One any longer...there was no One...and Butchie/JJ/Marc threw out the 'ol life raft and brought the guys back in. Of course, I love that in this band, cause these guys are the only ones in rock music today who really do this. So, the Brothers played the hits, like the Verizon Commercial Song and Midnight Rider. Homage to the old while Gilded Splinters and Rocking Horse appealed to peacheads. Good set choices given the venue and the crowd. Taylor Hicks sat in as Randy mentioned. He aint Ace or Topper, but if the kid will study the roots of blues, he will continue to improve his trade. It was fun to see him up there, if for anything else its so wierd what a difference a year makes. Last year, at this very same venue, Taylor could not buy a spot on that stage...now he is living his dream. Good for Taylor! Gregg smiled, so it was worth it as far as I am concerned. My beautiful Mara and I sat WWWAAAYYY back near the Smokeless tobacco spit parlor to watch Oteil/Derek/Brothers. Off to ourselves, we simply enjoyed the evening, watching folks go by. Like the Slipknots. This family was a HOOT I tell you! I'm over here, eating 7 dollar corn dogs, trying to choke them down with 3.50 bottled water and observing the wildlife walk by. Too funny, these outdoor festival venues. I want to make another observation about the Brothers last night. I have been studying their music for 30-plus years, and I am noticing increasing complexity to their playing. I guess what I am trying to say is that the bar is being raised, even more so than where is has been. Derek in particular is contributing to this observation. COnsider this to the fact the train wrecks are not there, and you really have something. I only point this out because the music world normally attibutes such things to the jazz greats, and rock music, by and large, has not been credited with being complex in structure. Personally, I would like to see the Brothers get more credit for the complexity within their arrangements..in particular at this time in their careers.