LOCATION: 3rd and Lindsley, Nashville, TN
LINEUP: Karin, Linford, Devon Ashley, Rick Plant, Kim Taylor
REVIEW BY: bornagain
First of all, we have to express our sincere thanks and a God bless to the bartender who didn't know not to let us go ahead and come in and sit down. We had come REALLY early prepared to wait out in the cold, but we discovered that the door was open and walked inside to find about five folks having a late afternoon drink at the bar and the soundcheck in progress.
So ... after Karin finished, we introduced ourselves, explained that we came up from Alabama again (she remembered us being at the May show at this venue), and that the bartender let us come on in, and she said, "Hey, if you came up from Alabama, you can do what you want." We asked if she and Linford would go ahead and open the Christmas present we brought them. She was really touched about this and, immediately, took us back to the dressing room to get Linford so they could open it together. Unfortunately, the sound guy nabbed Linford before she got there, so we followed her and Linford back to the stage where she opened it while he was checking the sound for himself. As soon as she took it out, she turned to my wife and said, "I know exactly where I'm going to put it." They thanked us profusely, talked a little longer, then headed back to the dressing room, again.
We also talked with Rick Plant at some length before his soundcheck, and I asked him about his other work with Buddy Miller. What a nice guy! Sorry we didn't manage to talk with Devin. I love his touch on the drums, and he did some great backup singing to Karin.
A little later, when the band was sitting around in the club, I did ask Linford if they were going to play Moondance tonight, and he smiled and replied, "That's a pretty good idea... Is that a request?" I said, "That's definitely a request," and he answered, " We'll give that serious thought."
On with the show...
Lani Nash started her set, a little early, at 6:45. She performed with three backup singers that added some real presence to her songs. Her songs alternated between folk and blues rock and, at one point, she introduced a song as one she wrote thinking of Sheryl Crowe for it, and my wife said, "I was just thinking that she reminds me of Sheryl Crowe."
An aside:
During the drive up to Nashville, I said something to my wife about Kim Taylor opening for Over the Rhine again, and she told me that she'd read, earlier in the day, that plans had changed for that. When I asked her who was opening now, she said, "Amy somebody." I remembered reading that Amy Rigby was opening for them for the Taft shows, over the weekend, but when I asked my wife if it was her, she couldn't recall. I was really excited at that prospect, and it turned out to be the case. I have heard of Amy, off and on, for a long time, and was thrilled to get this chance. I met her at the merchandise table, getting out her cds, and I told her how excited we were for her to be there opening, and she seemed very pleased at that.
Back to the show...
Amy Rigby kicked off her set at 7:40, introducing her first song with remarks about how many singer/songwriter friends she has that are also substitute teachers. Then she blasted (and I do mean blasted) her way through Like Rasputin, a song drawing parallels between the historical figure and a girl who keeps bouncing back from what life throws at her. Amy clearly had friends in the audience who were shouting in response to some of her songs and remarks, but I wasn't sure if everyone knew what to make of her. Her songs were hilarious, most of the time, but she also punctuated her set with some very poignant stuff. We thought she was great and bought two of her cds, Little Fugitives (her latest) and an anthology called 18 Again.
Her set list (as best as I could guess it) was as follows:
Like Rasputin
Trouble with Jenny
Get Back in the Car (or maybe, Keep on Driving)
Are We Ever Gonna Have Sex, Again?
The Time He Loves Me Best
Keep It To Yourself
Don't Want to Talk About Love No More
The Summer of My Wasted Youth
Dancing with Joey Ramone
Men in Sandals
Balls
Don't Ever Change
I'm Gonna Ask and You're Gonna Tell
8:45 ... Over the Rhine takes the stage
We're seated right in front of Karin, and she is sporting a black outfit with fishnet stockings and red cowboy boots. Later in the show, she commented on them, saying that she didn't buy them in Nashville though, she'd got them in Portland, Oregon. Somebody from Portland gave a shout at that one. We could see Karin's set list from our table, and we noticed that they'd scribbled out their last encore and immediately before it was written in "Moondance (By Request)". We snagged her set list, after the show. I was sorry to see that they decided to omit Hush Now.
Their set list was as follows:
Drunkard's Prayer
Born
Anything At All
Looking Forward
All I Ever Get for Christmas is Blue (fantastic)
White Horse (a lovely new Christmas song, if you haven't heard it)
Etc. Whatever (Karin, Linford, and Rick all played guitar on this,
and it was beautiful)
Karin says, "Thanks to Scott and Harriet for driving up from Alabama and bringing us treats."
Extended piano solo from Linford
Little Did I Know
Trouble (Karin explained the origin of this song and the performance
was stellar)
I Want You to Be My Love
Show Me (this rocked, hard)
Here It Is (another new Christmas song that also rocked hard)
Son of a Preacher Man (backup vocals by Devin and another stellar performance)
Encores
Ohio
Karin calls Amy Rigby back to the stage for the next song and Rick comes up to the mic and says, "Hey, Buddy! It's three-chord blues if you want to come up and play!" Here comes Buddy Miller from the bar to the stage, the place goes crazy, and Karin says, "Wow! Now I'm going to be nervous."
Merry Christmas, Baby (brings down the house and they had to stop it there)
When we spoke with Karin and Linford after the show, they both apologized for leaving out Moondance and told us to remind them, the next time, and they'll play it then. How thoughtful is that? We also stopped at the bar, on our way out, and extended our thanks to Buddy for his surprise appearance and asked for an autograph. What an unassuming, humble guy! He shyly gave us the autograph, and he and Rick wished us a safe trip home.
Our deepest thanks to Karin, Linford, Rick, and Devin for a wonderful
evening of beautiful music.