Good Times

Originally uploaded by bodhi47.

Last night, 9:30 Club in DC. I had never heard of this cat Derek Trucks. Got there early and nearly tripped over the taper's section, so I figured another band trying to take over from the Dead, or Widespread or even Phish. The opening act was late but worth the wait. This little girl with a really big voice came out and played for about 30:00 with a keyboard player. You can check out Shannon Mcnally here. She was down home, charming and sang her ass off. The turnaround time was minimal and then the man came out. He looks so freaking young but came across as totally involved in the act of locking in with the band. Second surprise was that the drummer (Yonrico Scott) was the first professional drummer I had ever worked with at Doppler Studios in Atlanta. He still smacked those drums solid for about 2 hours. He and Todd Smallie (bass) were totally locked in. A nice surprise was the keyboard player Kofi Burbridge. He added a level energy that was hard to beat and got the crowd charged up. The singer Mike Mattison had an incredible range and a whole lot of soul, but the best part of the show was the guitar playing. A slide player with an awesome sense of rhythm and a willingness to let everyone have some limelight, Derek made that guitar sing. Playing everything from boogey shuffles to some outside jazz the band charged the crowd up and then fed off the energy and paid it back even more. The records are good, but they gave me what I've been missing in shows I've seen in the last ten years. That's a band that enjoys playing with and off each other and not really worrying about if they played the record or not. Catch them live if you can, buy the record as a distant second if you can't see them. It's worth every penny.