Rodney Crowell On a Sunday Afternoon

We haven't seen Rodney Crowell anywhere near as often as we would have liked to, so we snapped up tickets to see him at the City Winery in Boston on October 10th as soon as they were available.  Apparently so did a lot of other people, as most of the room was packed, though they had some open tables in the back.

Set time was 4:00, so we headed into Boston at about 3:15, thinking it would be a mellow afternoon with the Garden dark.  BUT ... it was a nice Fall weekend with the Marathon scheduled for the next day and the area was packed with tourists, and they had shut down Congress Street at Haymarket for construction.  We were finally able to get to a parking garage and then dashed over to City Winery, where we were slowed by them checking for vaccination, which we approved of heartily.

So we aren't sure if we missed a song, they were playing Earthbound as we were ushered to our great seats about 20 feet from the stage, center.  And Rodney had a fantastic band with him: Zachariah Hickman on bass and harmonica, Catherine Marx on keyboards, Eamon McLoughlin on mandolin and bouzouki, and Glen Caruba on percussion.  They all sang except for Glen and the arrangements of some of Rodney's best songs were fantastic, including great leads by Marx and McLoughlin.  Rodney mentioned that Zach had done some of the arranging, and he also took the Johnny Cash parts on I Walk the Line (Revisited), which requires some cojones.

Another great thing about the concert was that the sound was unusually good for City Winery.  For once they had it turned up loud enough and the fidelity and balance (we *were* in great seats for this) were fantastic.  Here's what I remember of the setlist, again, perhaps missing a first song:

• Earthbound
• Still Learning How to Fly
• The Weight of the World
• Ashes by Now
• Frankie Please
• Reckless
• East Houston Blues
• It Ain't Over Yet
• I Walk The Line (Revisited)
• Don’t Leave Me Now
• Something Has to Change
• This Body Isn’t All There Is to Who I Am
• I Ain't Livin' Long Like This
• 'Til I Gain Control Again

Because this was an early show he told us up front that he had to be off the stage by 5:30, and so he cut short his setlist.  But he said that we probably wanted to get home and watch the baseball game anyway.  I could have watched him and that great band for hours, he's written so many amazing songs.  He only did two from his new record, but that's fine with me.

Back to the car and got right on 93, leaving the tourist ferment behind.  And the Red Sox beat Tampa Bay in extra innings in the ALDS!