Tony Joe White 10/22/2010 at Cafe Nine, New Haven, Connecticut

The last time Polk Salad Annie was heard live on stage in New Haven was 35 years ago, when Elvis Presley sang it at the Colisuem, just a block away from Cafe Nine on the corner State and Crown Streets, where Tony Joe White sang his biggest hit tonight.

He walked through the crowd holding his old brown Fender Stratocaster, sat on a chair in a black cowboy hat and sang in a sleepy drawl with atmospheric guitar straight out of the swamp. Three songs into his set he brought out his drummer, saying "it's gonna get steamy in here now" and it did. He launched into a smoking driving "Undercover Agent for the Blues."

You can only see a bit of him from some spots in the back of the barroom but his sound fills the room. His propulsive guitar pulls the vocals along for the ride. In most songs he hits an effects pedal for a noisy electric lead, distortion fuzzed out and flanged.

"We're going to take it down to the swamp now," he says. "This song's about two boys" and starts singing "The river was dark and muddy...."

Tony Joe White is like a redneck John Lee Hooker. He played songs with Tejas/Train Kept a Rollin rhythms. Mike the sound guy has it just right, with understated power absorbed by the bodies and clarity over the chatter. Loud enough, but you can still carry on a conversation. Vocals and guitar nicely balanced. Guitar tone is both twangy and round...until he rips into a big delay-effect distorted lead.

He played his hits towards the end of the set. White grooves on Steamy Windows. Rainy Night in Georgia is quiet and soft, gentle, with an almost jazzy guitar sound. And then the moment comes. Polk Salad Annie. What can I say? He introduced it with the traditional, practiced rap and rocked it out. One more bluesy groove to close out the set and he's gone after a fat hour.

Jayke Orvis and Friends @ Cafe Nine 10/3/2010

Jayke Orvis + Friends are not for the faint of heart. Dark and dangerous, they may not be for purists, with their tattoos and piercings and dreadlocks, but they tore it up.

Rachel Brooke sings City of Shame like a young Loretta Lynn. She's a little woman with a big guitar. Singing murder songs. Her capoed guitar sounds bright and old-timey.

James Hunnicutt opened. He had a bigger guitar sound--his Martin sounded fat and round, to match the sweat-stain where his strumming forearm rested. He mixed up originals and covers, including The Misfits' Halloween and an couple of Hank Williams songs. Gotta know the canon if you are going to plow this field. He did a nice job with Lefty Frizell's Long Black Veil. It's a killer song that works better with Johnny Cash's deeper gravel voice but he made it his own, segueing powerfully into his own composition.

Jayke Orvis promises to be interesting. Nominally bluegrass-sounding on myspace, his band is setting up beat-up doghouse bass [that's Johnny Lawless with his bass in the photo], banjo, and gold-tone Les Paul electric guitar, with Hunnicutt tuning the Les Paul. And a guy in hillbilly dreads. That would be Mr. Orvis.

"OK we're gonna start. Here's a song." Yes it is.

This is rotgut redeye punk bluegrass. They can play as fast as anyone. And they're loud (except that it's the first sound check I've sat through where the musicians kept asking for the monitors to be turned down. Good sign.). Tattoos, piercings, stickers on the mando and the flat-out best version of Shady Grove I've heard, fast dark and deep. As raw and non-traditional as it might be, it's also the most authentic, hitting minor key notes on the mandolin. Orvis's voice is as old as the hills and he shreds his mandolin. It's not pretty but it's real. Two songs later he sang about killing his ex-girlfriend, dragging her out the door and burying her in the backyard. Perfect.

1. Instumental
2. Shady Grove
3. Thunderbolts + Lightning
4. Gone Forever More ("Here's a song about killing you're ex-girlfriend")
5.
6. (This song has a hot-rod lincoln feel to it)
7. Dreadful Sinner ("What does it take to become a righteous man"--sounds ancient)
8. (Switches to acoustic guitar-"now I'm going away"--hunnicutt tasty flatpick lead work)
9. Empty Bottles on a Broken Shelf
10. Feelings Like This ("How do you feel when you're all alone..." Hunnicutt on electric guitar fits right in. "Little plastic baggies all over the floor...")
11. ("Song's about divorce, about the very last night beofre..." Duet w/ Rachel--closes song with pretty unison riffing on mando + acoustic guitar)
12. Hank Williams" Kaw-Liga. Jayke on guitar Rachel + James harmony.
13. Alone with You (Faron Young tune sung by James)
14. ("Oh my time has come I gotta go" -- a capella with handclaps)
15. Yankee Taste [instumental]
16. Raise the Moon (Last song. "Gonna have a party gonna raise the moon, we all know that he's coming soon")