Reg's Show Review...

[Kory]

Here are some photos I took from the Dress Circle. All four Acts are included.

http://flickr.com/photos/rasims1/sets/72157594542440715/

Nice shots, thanks for sharing!

[LaurieBlue]

Griffin's set an eye-opener at Reg's Coffee House concert
Posted by Mary Colurso February 18, 2007 16:05
http://www.blogs.al.com/birminghamnews/scene/default.asp?item=497697

When four acts appear on a concert bill, arrangement of their sets is everything -- and it's always appropriate to save the best for last.

Scott Register, a savvy music consumer, kept that in mind Saturday nightduring a show he organized at the Alabama Theatre.

This series of performances, which started at 7 p.m., was intended to celebrate the 10th anniversary of his radio program, Reg's Coffee House.

Register's fondness for singer-songwriters was reflected in the lineup, which included Stoll Vaughan, Matthew Perryman Jones and Jim James of My Morning Jacket.

Excitement built slowly throughout the well-paced evening, which was capped by a transcendent headliner: Patty Griffin. Think you've seen Griffin before? Probably not the way she performed at 10 p.m.

Griffin's previous shows here -- at Five Points South Music Hall and at City Stages -- paled in comparison to this vibrant, soulful set. It proved that she has come into her own, fully and finally, and evolved into a blissfully balanced frontwoman.

For more than an hour, Griffin, 42, offered a stunning blend of folk, rock, pop, country and blues, held snugly in the pocket of a three-member band.

Guitarist Doug Lancio, drummer Michael Longoria and bassist-cellist Bryn Davies clustered around Griffin and lifted her up, artistically and emotionally.

With their help, she performed songs such as "Burgundy Shoes," "Heavenly Day," "Stay on the Ride," "Trapeze" and "No Bad News." They ranged from reflective ballads to torchy love songs to defiantly percussive Americana anthems.

All of those numbers can be found on Griffin's confident new CD, "Children Running Through." Her voice, always a lovely instrument, has taken on added strength and conviction. You can hear it on the disc, which displays a muscular yet poetic form of storytelling.

In concert, Griffin's twang seemed more pronounced than usual, but that was a good thing, harking back to Patsy Cline and other rip-out-your-heart country divas.

It's unusual for a live performance to flow in such a consistently satisfying way -- no low spots, no unevenness --but Griffin and her crew accomplished it easily at the Alabama.

She alternated between acoustic guitar and piano, handling each with graceful proficiency.

In the past, Griffin's shows here were perfectly fine, but lacked some magic ingredient that she now produces in abundance. Let's not analyze it too much, but simply appreciate the dynamic artist on stage and hope she returns again soon.

[Don Dante]

Covers

Sam Cooke - That's Heaven To Me
Jimmie Rodgers(?) - Nobody Knows But Me
Jimmie Rodgers(?) - Mississippi River Blues** (played on his soundcheck)

:D

fantastic picks!  i am a sucker for any and all sam cooke.
thanks for the notes and review of the show!  i would love to hear the omnichord version of anytime.  i can't even imagine it. sounds like jim played a pretty long set.

Can't double-check because I am at work and have no audio (booo), but pretty sure this last KCRW session has the omnichord Anytime.  Tonight, WAWM, and a couple others are omnichord I think.  Anytime is my favorite one actually since it is so different.

http://www.archive.org/details/mmj2006-10-27.Jim_and_Carl_KCRW_Los_Angeles

[megisnotreal]

meg?

Meg wasn't able to, unfortunately. We had an open seat for her, too.


:'(

ah!

ah, god!

i was so depressed all weekend, and now i see that i missed sam cooke covers.
!!????????????????!

this hurts.  :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'( :'(

[BH]

Here ya go, Ms. Yvon.  This is a great sounding session Jim did on XM Radio in 2005.  It also included a great version of Off The Record and a solo Wordless Chorus.  I can't think of any other show when Jim did an acoustic Wordless Chorus but I am sure I am forgetting something.  Anyway, enjoy....

http://www.savefile.com/files/503236

[EAZYE]

Thanks for posting BH ;D

[Don Dante]

Looking for to this BH.  Can you tell me the date on this and the order of the three tracks?

[BH]

Looking for to this BH.  Can you tell me the date on this and the order of the three tracks?

I can't find that info.  My tracks don't show a date.  Maybe somebody can help me?  I'll look around.  

[aMD]

Looking for to this BH.  Can you tell me the date on this and the order of the three tracks?

I can't find that info.  My tracks don't show a date.  Maybe somebody can help me?  I'll look around.  

I saved it as 10-13-05.

I don't know if that's the recording date, the broadcast date, or both.  They played Philly the day before and after so I'm going to guess it's both the broadcast date and date of performance and that it was recorded in Philly.  My tracks say the order is Anytime, Off the Record, and then Wordless Chorus, but that's not definite either.

[LaurieBlue]

http://curtispalmer.wordpress.com/2007/02/18/java-concert-letdown/

Just goes to show you, everyone has an opinion, and definitely different tastes, and viewpoints.

"Stoll Vaughan was up first.  When Reg announced his name in running through the lineup, no one so much as raised a voice or clapped two hands together in support of his visit to Birmingham."

Sad, and very disappointing.  

[steelyB]

http://regscoffeehouse.com/

This is what Reg had to say about Jimmy ...

As the evening continued to build, Jim James took the stage, Omni Chord in hand and acoustic guitars by his side, to the thunderous applause of his adoring fans. The guy is literally becoming a cult leader and in the setting of the theater, it was as if he was preaching to the masses and they were hanging on his every note. Jim James (and My Morning Jacket) will change the music world for the better. It is only a matter of time. If you have never seen Jim perform acoustic, you should. It will give you a whole new appreciation for his songs, lyrics and voice. Highlights of the set included "Gideon" and "I Will Be There When You Die" but to be honest with you, they were all incredible renditions as Jim fed off of the atmosphere and was totally in the zone the entire set.

[cmccubbin@work]

Here's my response to Curtis Palmer:

Curtis McCubbin // Feb 23rd 2007 at 2:53 pm

What kind of music do you like? Jim James fronts one of the most creative and dynamic bands, My Morning Jacket, that exist in the world today. His voice is short of angellic. Not many male vocalists can hit notes that high! Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but to say it was dreadful is somewhat hard to understand. Why did you dislike it so much?

[steelyB]

I posted a message to him too - my comment is "awaiting moderation."

[HeroDesignStudio]

It's good to see that the Reg's show was reviewed so well by all the audience members on this site. I would have loved to attend the show. I have never seen Jim play a solo performance and I bet at the Alabama Theatre it was probably pretty amazing.

I have worked with Reg for a couple of years now and I know that he and his partner really believe in Jim and MMJ. So I'm sure having Jim there to celebrate the ten year anniversary was a great feeling for him. I work on the RCH website and will let all of you know if we post any recordings from the show on the website. I was lucky enough to be commissioned to a do a gig poster for the show that you can see here: http://www.gigposters.com/poster/77496_Patty_Griffin.html .The show's beneficiary was a local animal shelter that Reg is a board member of. We donated some test prints that Reg had all of the bands autograph and then the prints were auctioned off. The autographed test prints raised generous amount of donations for the shelter. So thanks to anyone who may have purchased one and a special thanks to Jim for signing them.

Seems like it was a great event! Thought I would tell some of the behind the scenes of the gig.

Mark

[steelyB]

I bought one your posters - very nice - getting it framed. I've done a couple posters for Widespread Panic in the past and am itching to do one for MMJ ... just waiting to be asked ...  ;)

[fitzcarraldo]

Hey Mark. I have one of your prints from Stand's Mercury Lounge gig from November.  Real Classy work you guys do!  :)

[HeroDesignStudio]

Thanks Guys! Appreciate it!

Glad to know there are some Stand fans out there and yes doing a poster for MMJ is a honor. There are so many great ones. My personal favorite is this one by Todd Slater: http://www.gigposters.com/poster/55567_My_Morning_Jacket.html AMAZING!!! This is one of those classics where it's one of my favorite bands done by one of my favorite poster artist.

[Angry Ewok]

Hey, you did a great job on the poster - my buddy put his in the empty seat beside us during the show, and we were constantly hearing compliments.

[MMJCOBRA]

Hey..I somehow missed that awesome poster at the show!!  Do you have any left over for a reasonable resale?

Lemme know.

Thanks.

[Remmi]

Hey guys and gals I finally got my videos up on YouTube.  I shot these from the mezzanine, so it's a pretty good vantage point, but I was using my little Canon Elph, so the quality is pretty poor.  Nonetheless I put 'em up and they're fun to watch, especially if you couldn't make it to Bham for the show.  Here's a link to "At Dawn," from there you should be able to find the rest by clicking "More From this User."  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8Pt0pcE1DE

Cheers.