Sadly, only the die-hard discerning punters turned up for the gig at Jagz last
night. Despite this, the splendid American acoustic duo started on time (UK
performers please note, no peeping out of the band room to count the house before
deigning to appear!).
Matt was on first, he described his style accurately as part blues, part singer-songwriter. Despite American Airlines losing their luggage their guitars made it OK, so he was playing his signature Langejans acoustic and a National Steel. He opened with his own “Things Are Coming My Way” and “Weekday Blues” followed by Woody Guthrie's “Vigilante Man”, Blind Lemon's “Deep Ellum Blues”, his own instrumental “Red Square Blues” and Django's “Tears”, finishing with his own “New Casey Jones”.
Matt
has an effortless guitar style and a pleasant voice, more Josh White than Bukka
White. Next up was Dan , who played two resonators and a small bodied acoustic
and concentrated on pre-war blues (very much my sort of thing). The Adnam's
Broadside must have kicked in about then as my notes don't list any titles but
he played from the repertoire of Furry Lewis, Willie Dixon, Mississippi Fred,
Blind Willie Johnson, Blind Lemon and Robert Johnson.
A great gruff blues voice and percussive style. Matt came back to join him on harp for “Play With Your Poodle”, lap steel for Big Bill's “Key to the Highway” and they finished with a 2 acoustic guitar version of Leroy Carr's “How Long”.
A great evening that deserved a bigger audience. Both men were gracious to the punters and to the sound man (nice to see someone thanking the sound man instead of just complaining!). I bought a CD from both, had a chat with Dan about our mutual affection for Fred McDowell (who influenced his playing especially on “Good Morning Little Schoolgirl”) and got a chance to thank Matt as well.
Roger Shrigley