Thanks to everyone for the kind words about last week’s cover story on Griff Luneburg and the Cactus Café. Griff related that he was even asked to autograph a copy or two, something that he had to think about for a second before proceeding as it was totally out of his element. Saturday’s Joe Ely & Joel Guzman show at the Cactus was as special as predicted. I’ve seen Ely too many times to count and keep going back because he reinvents himself and reconfigures his songs while continuing to soar. After Joe spoke about the thrill of being in Clear Lake, Iowa last week for the 50th anniversary concert of fellow Lubbockite Buddy Holly, they were joined by opener Rosie Flores for an encore of Holly tunes that thrilled the rest of us.
Last night marked the return of Fred Eaglesmith to the venue that’s celebrating its 30th anniversary. We arrived early and to our delight found Southpaw Jones onstage. Jones’ off kilter songs about Fatty Arbuckle, girls with amnesia, and the last living Beatle brought their intended chuckle. His similarity to They Might Be Giants is much more pronounced live than it is on record, although as a solo artist, his sense of reality is much more fractured and intense.
Eaglesmith led a youthful trio through more than a few fan favorites (“Wilder Than Her,” “Alcohol and Pills”) while managing to get in couple from his latest, Tinderbox, including the megaphone assisted “Get On Your Knees.”
Musically, he’s similar to the gruff and tumble of Jon Dee Graham and Robert Earl Keen, but Eaglesmith’s between song rants were stream of conscious rambles that combined politics, religion, and good old-fashioned absurdity-of-life jokes. Over the course of two sets, he convincingly proved why he’s the equal of such master storytellers as John Prine and Loudon Wainwright. If you missed him this time around, Fred returns to the Old Settler’s Music Festival in April.
This article appears in February 6 • 2009.