Part 2 - Second leg - 15 to 29 May
EDEN HALL, GLENEDEN BEACH, OR, FRIDAY 13 MAY 2005
Friday the 13th was a lucky day for me, I finally got to see the Strawbs live! Eden Hall is a very small space and the audience was even smaller, only maybe 30 or 40 people but it made for a very intimate concert experience. Most people out here have never heard of the Strawbs (unbelievable as that may seem) and the concert wasn't well publicized - I only knew of it from Strawbsweb and I live in the area (about 50 miles away- out here that is the "area"!).
Anyway - no surprises here - the concert was awesome. The songs list included choice tunes from throughout their (at least Dave C's) career. The three guitars made for a wonderful sound and their voices were in great shape. I really enjoyed Dave C's intros to the songs.
To my mind the Strawbs' "golden age" included these three and it was great to see and hear them together, Dave Lambert's great contributions have always kept the band from being a little too one dimensional in my mind and he certainly did so again last night.
A couple of pleasant surprises - they played "Antique Suite" and "Hard, Hard Winter", two rather obscure favorites. My only regret is that they didn't play "Blue Angel". Overall a superb experience and one I never expected to witness out here on the edge of the continent.
FREIGHT AND SALVAGE COFFEE HOUSE, BERKELEY, CA, TUESDAY 10 MAY 2005
Photo from Demetrios Bogdanos - more
ACOUSTIC MUSIC SAN DIEGO, SAN DIEGO, CA, SUNDAY 8 MAY 2005
Photo by Jeff Utter.
For Mother's Day, my wife and I went to see the Strawbs, a 60s/70s band that is best described as a progressive British folk group. This was the "acoustic" version of the Strawbs with founder David Cousins, Chas Cronk, and Dave Lambert, three guitarists who sang with excellent harmonizing.
In short, they were wonderful. They have a gentle sound that nonetheless contains robust melodies and beautiful, if sometimes sentimental, lyrics. David Cousins is the Joyce Kilmer of the rock/folk set, with many songs about the seasons, trees, etc. as metaphors for human relations. My wife remarked she had not attended a concert in a long time where she heard so many touching songs for which one could hold hands and hear uplifting melodies. The setting was a local Methodist Church in east San Diego, which graciously provides Acoustic Music San Diego (a folk and folk-rock promotion entity) a space for artists.
Photo by Jeff Utter
PAINTED SKY STUDIO CONCERT SERIES, CAMBRIA CA, FRIDAY 6 MAY 2005
Photo by Bruce Bell - more