Live at the Linda

Dreadnought 0701

 

David Grier hasn't been to this town: ever, in a long time, since can't recall when. So many towns and only so many hours in "What's one guy toting a guitar going to do? Live at the Linda is what; a set in a box. With excellent sound quality, it offers an intimate concert complete with unvarnished Emcee intro, David's song introductions and funny stories, the requisite jokes (David laughs at all of them) and the sincere audience appreciation for David's magnicent performance.

 

Performance, as in: not just playing. More than technique more than navigation and brilliant use and balance of harmonics, slides and bass notes. David's a powerful communicator with his guitar so in his handsold saws everyone has heard a thousand times before: "Red Haired Boy", "Crossing the Cumberlands" or Bonaparte's Retreat" are reborn: rich and dazzling.

 

David's included five of his own tunes in the set, gems. "Have You Ever Been to England" crisp with a hint of the Isle in the melody; "As it Rolls to the Sea" buoyant and fluid. The other three are sensuous, "Road to Hope" bluesy, dreamy; "High Atop Princess Cove" romantic and "The End of a Good Day" content and lovely. Through the traditional and original is a medley of "America the Beautiful/Yesterday" - beautiful indeed and elegant - and all the more so as it follows an uber-corn joke. And maybe that's the point because David plays the contradiction in reverse later: after an extraordinary interpretation of "Killing Me Softly" where you think "wow, what a sensitive guy" there's a Dolly Parton story - and you think: "wow, what a..."

 

Live at the Linda - with its splendid music and artful structure even with or perhaps especially with the stories acting like the sorbet - is highly recommended.