It's happened before and I hope it'll happen again: The Bull Run announced a great act and I called right away and got tickets at the front table. This time is was the incredible Jim Lauderdale, a musician that no one should miss. So we were very psyched when we showed up there on a Sunday, November 11th, as was everyone at our packed table and the 20 or so tables around it.
Unfortunately, that was it! The Sawtelle Room is never at its best on a Sunday night, but it was shocking how small the crowd was for a veteran Nashville singer-songwriter who's authored more hits than you can sic a dog on. Oh well, this made it a very "intimate" performance and that's what the Bull Run excels at.
The opener was Martin and Kelly (Jilly Martin and Ryan Brooks Kelly), and they were really very professional (they were on the back stairs, waiting to rush on, while I took a quick bathroom break). They had a great mix of covers ("I know this song!") and originals, and they had some distinctive elements, like her rhythm guitar, some of her lead vocals (nice range), and some of his harmonies. Kelly could be criticized for too often going flat or losing the emotional thread of the song while he was taking the lead ... could use a good producer. But they climaxed the set with their potential hit, Gonna Kiss You, and they possibly aren't that far from a breakthrough in the modern country world.
Another interlude and of course a bunch of us middle-aged guys rushed downstairs for another bathroom break. Jim (who'd visited our table in mufti earlier) was down there in his country finery (a purple suit with yin/yang designs) and I asked him if he minded if I took a piss before his show. He told me no, that I'd have to get back up there and hold it in. You can guess which way I went.
Jim came on eventually and seemed in fine voice (he'd had a cold earlier in the week) and spirits and he was as incredible as ever. He played a set of 4 or so songs from his new record, including Time Flies and Where the Cars Go By Fast (which could use some more verses!). He also did a couple from London Southern and a couple that will be on the record he plans to release in the Spring (!!! how prolific *is* this guy??).
He asked for requests and we were ready ... pretty much. One woman asked him for "That Martian song" and he was thrown for a loop, then figured she must mean Planet Of Love and he played that.
I asked for Like Him and he did that, and then Lost In the Lonesome Pines (perhaps the song of the night) from the Ralph Stanley collaborations (my line when a woman asked for a Stanley song was, "Yeah like Like Him"). Another person requested Whisper and that's one of my favorite songs of his too. He did a sing-along of Headed For the Hills from his collaborations with Robert Hunter. He did Forgive and Forget and Halfway Down (made famous by Patty Loveless). And then he closed with The King Of Broken Hearts and encored with the Buddy and Jim song, Hole In My Head!
Very fun night and he was done by 10 on the dot so we got home not too late for a Sunday.
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