Bill O Writes

If you went to Dr. John’s concert at the Cape Cod Melody Tent Aug. 28 and arrived too late to catch the opening act, you were in the right place at the wrong time.

The show openers, the Blind Boys of Alabama, weren’t just the best opening act I’ve seen among dozens of shows at the Melody Tent over the years. The gospel group put on a performance that was better than anything I’ve seen by all but one or two headliners at the Tent. At the end of their hour-long set, I said to the person next to me, “If they came out and said Dr. John had the flu and the show was over, I’d still feel like this was an amazing show.” He agreed.

But we got to see Dr. John, too. More on that in a moment.

The Blind Boys of Alabama formed in 1939 at the Alabama School for the Negro Deaf and Blind in Talladega, Ala. Since then the group has recorded on everything from 78s to 8-tracks to CDs, with an evolving membership. Jimmy Carter is the last founding member to tour steadily (Clarence Fountain goes on the road as his health allows). They’ve recorded with everyone from Solomon Burke and Aaron Neville to Ben Harper and Lou Reed

The three vocalists these days are Carter, “Bishop” Billy Bowers and Ben Moore (they and drummer Eric “Ricky” McKinnie” are blind). Each of the singers has a distinctive style. Bowers is a soul belter, Moore is more of a smooth soul & R&B singer, while Carter has a more gritty sound. They take turns on lead vocals and back each other up with some harmonizing that shows the results of years of touring together.

The opened with “Up Above My Head (I Hear Music in the Air),” which appeared on last year’s “Duets” CD (on the disc, they perform it with Randy Travis), but things really took off with the next song, a cover of Curtis Mayfield’s “People Get Ready.” From there it was just one jaw-dropper after another: a rocking version of Norman Greenbaum’s “Spirit in the Sky,” a funky twist on Tom Waits’ “Way Down in the Hole” (used as the first-season theme music for HBO’s “The Wire”), a mind-blowing version of “Amazing Grace” set to the tune of “The House of the Rising Sun.”

During one song, an aide helped Carter off the stage and he made his way up and down aisles and across rows, shaking hands and singing all the while. It was impressive and inspiring stuff.

That’s a tough act to follow, and Dr. John’s laidback effort was a letdown after the high energy of the Blind Boys of Alabama. His delivery of “Right Place Wrong Time” was far less frenetic than the recording that was a Top 10 hit in 1973.

Dr. John and his band, the Lower 911 (he called them “the funkiest band this side of heaven”), opened with “My Indian Red,” turning it into a medley with snippets from “Iko Iko” and “Down By the Riverside,” offering an instant introduction to his style of New Orleans R&B. “The show-closing “Potnah,” one of four songs from the recently released “Tribal” CD, had a cool “Take Me to the River” vibe.

Five years after Hurricane Katrina and months after the Deepwater Horizon explosion, “Save Our Wetlands” and Black Gold, two protest songs on Dr. John’s 2008 CD, “The City That Care Forgot,” have more resonance than ever. He got more playful later in the show with “Let the Good Times Roll” and “Accentuate the Positive.”

It was a solid performance, but it was one of those rare nights when the opening was so startlingly good that the headliner ended up being a second thought.

Last night’s Peter Frampton concert kind of reminded me of hanging out in a van when I was in high school. There were some people I knew, some people who looked kind of familiar and some people I’d never seen before. Most of the guys around me were playing air guitar. There was the smell of pot in the air, at least until some guy wearing way too much cheap cologne sat next to me.

But high school was a long time ago. How long ago was that? I was in high school biology class when my best friend told me about this great new album – a double album! – his older brother had bought, something called “Frampton Comes Alive!”

And how long ago was that? Frampton’s bass player, John Regan, has played with him for 31 years, but still joined Frampton’s band too late for the glory years.

Not that there haven’t been some high points along the way. Frampton’s 2006 CD, “Fingerprints,” won a Grammy for Best Pop Instrumental Album. Frampton played four songs off that CD, including a cover of Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun” that was one of the night’s highlights.

Frampton drew from the start and most recent parts of his career. The show began with a Humble Pie song (“Four Day Creep”) and ended with another (“I Don’t Need No Doctor”). Along with the songs from “Fingerprints,” Frampton played two from “Thank You, Mr. Churchill,” a new CD released in April. “Restraint,” he says, is a song about “greedy pigs,” and it’s a little heavier sonically and lyrically than anything on “Frampton Comes Alive!” while “Vaudeville Nanna and the Banjolele” is a sweet memoir about his youth.

But of course, what people came to hear were the songs from his monstrously successful 1976 double album, and he delivered, playing eight of its 14 songs during two hour-long sets. Frampton seemed a little sluggish during some early songs, and it wasn’t until the fifth song, “Lines on My Face,” that (to borrow a phrase) Frampton came alive.

As talented as he is, Frampton’s not a show-off. His keyboard player, Rob Arthur, who played a third guitar on some songs, offered more dramatics than his boss. Frampton let backup guitarist Adam Lester play the lead parts at times. Drummer Dan Wojciechowski also deserves a nod for his sometime frenetic playing.

While Frampton engaged in some amusing chatter, he seemed happiest when he was letting his guitar do the talking; the extended shredding on “(I’ll Give You) Money” was another of the show’s highlight. The audience went nuts when he used the Framptone talkbox on “Show Me the Way,” “Black Hole Sun” and “Do You Feel Like We Do.”

Frampton doesn’t go for visual flash. He wore blue jeans and a black T-shirt with a large grey peace sign on it. His hairline is receding and what remains is closely cropped and white. He looks like any other semi-gracefully aging Baby Boomer.

But all you had to do was close your eyes and it was 1976 all over again.

I was a rock and roll guy before I started listening to George Throrogood. When I was a teenager, about the only blues song I knew was B.B. King’s “The Thrill Is Gone.”

But then the Boston radio stations started playing Thorogood’s first two LPs and through his blues-rock I became familiar with Robert Johnson, Willie Dixon, Elmore James and John Lee Hooker, who became one of my blues favorites.

Throrogood went on to break out of the Boston scene. He toured as an opening act for the Rolling Stones in 1982 (a live recording from a post-tour show back in Boston was recently released by Rounder Records), the same year that his “Bad to the Bone” became a monster MTV hit.

Nearly three decades later, “the worldwide touring machine” (as he was introduced) still knows how to win over a crowd. In front of me at the Aug. 4 show at the Cape Cod Melody Tent, two young women who spent the night doing sultry dances to the music had seats adjacent to a family of four that included a father and son wearing matching “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer” T-shirts.

Thorogood took the stage wearing sunglasses (which he took off midway through the first song), a bandana, a black sleeveless shirt, black pants and white cowboy boots – an outfit that pretty much screams “I’m a badass musician.” And if you didn’t get the point, he moved around with duck walks and twirls and jabbing steps. It’s barely an exaggeration to say he had a different gesture for every note he played.

Midway through the show, he stared into the reflection of the bass drum, combed his hair and pursed his lips. He introduced “Born Lover,” a Muddy Waters song that’s on Thorogood’s latest CD, “The Dirty Dozen,” by saying his guitarist dedicated the song to all the ladies in the house, his bass player and drummer dedicated it to all the girls in the house, but he dedicated it to all the women in the house. Bad to the bone, indeed.

Thorogood doesn’t just expect an audience reaction; he demands one, using hand motions to coax a little more noise from his fans. He served up “Who Do You Love” with rattlesnake tongue flicks and mock stuttered his way through the “bad” in “Bad to the Bone.” While he saved that song for last (“Foreplay is over. It’s time to get down to business,” he said as an introduction), it was an earlier song, “Move It On Over,” that was the highlight of the night, as his band, the Destroyers, provided a churning backdrop for Thorogood’s guitar fireworks.

Opener Tom Hambridge has worked with Thorogood, Buddy Guy, Susan Tedeschi, Meat Loaf and others as a writer and producer. One of his songs, Gretchen Wilson’s version of “I Got Your Country Right Here,” is being released as a radio single this week.

Hambridge played a nice range, from some blues-rock in the styles of Thorogood and ZZ Top to the Lynyrd Skynyrd-esque “Nineteen.” His backing band, the Rattlesnakes, included Sal Baglio (formerly of Boston legends the Stompers) and Jim Scoppa, who added some swampy style on one song. Judging from the line at the merchandise booth after his set, Hambridge made a big impression on Thorogood’s fans.

Those of us who went to Barnstable High in the ’70s or ’80s know the McGarrys, a family with 10 kids. Kate’s a jazz singer who earned a Grammy nomination last year. Eddie is a firefighter who put out a terrific CD of original folk-rock songs. Neil is an actor who’s appeared on many Cape stages.

Then there’s Allen, who recently returned from a hiatus and is performing 6-8:30 p.m. Fridays at the Island Merchant in Hyannis.

I haven’t been able to get there in time for a full gig, but I’ve caught the end portion of three shows. Do yourself a favor and get over there some Friday.

Some years back it seemed like half the pubs in Hyannis had a guy who stood up at one end of the room and played songs by Jimmy Buffett and James Taylor, along with an obligatory cover of “Brown-Eyed Girl.”

Allen McGarry is not one of those guys.

He plays songs by some of the great contemporary songwriters, but he digs a little deeper. He covers the Boss, for example, but it’s “One Step Back,” a gem from Springsteen’s under-appreciated “Tunnel of Love” album. It’s a bold choice, because McGarry’s playing to a Friday night dinner-date crowd, and the song is all about romantic pain.

Some of McGarry’s other covers include Paul Simon’s “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard,” Bruce Cockburn’s Pacing the Cage,” the Waterboys’ “Fisherman’s Blues” and Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s “From the Beginning.” He’s experimenting with different arrangements of Pat Benatar’s “Love Is a Battlefield” (another fine date night selection!), giving it a Spanish guitar feel the last time I heard it.

McGarry has a soothing voice and an impressive but understated touch with the guitar.  On and off-stage, he’s a charming, likable guy. His shows are a great way to kick off a Cape Cod summer weekend.

Some highlights from the Cape Cod Rhythm and Roots Festival at the Cotuit Center for the Arts (July 10).

“I want to introduce the band before we continue the assault on tonight’s music,” Barrence Whitfield said midway through his set with the Monkey Hips. “Don’t be afraid to dance to any of these songs because they want you to.” I bought one of Whitfield’s LPs in 1984 or ’85, but it’s taken me until now to see him in action. My loss. On “Bip Bop Bip,” Go Ahead and Burn” and other originals and a cover of “I Put a Spell on You,” Whitfield showed himself to be an amazing soul man. Whether he was howling, screaming or crooning, Whitfield was riveting.

Cape-based band Tripping Lily has long been one of my favorite local bands, but they’ve taken it up a notch since I last saw them do a full show. The harmony vocals of Monica Rizzio and Demetrius and Alex Becrelis are still at the core of the quintet’s sound, which finds a thoroughly satisfying middle ground between pop and bluegrass. The recent addition of banjo player Gary Dawson enriches the group’s sound.

Randy & the Oak Trees is another Cape band that keeps getting better and better. The group combines Sun Studio rockabilly, Wanda Jackson’s sass and the Stray Cats’ playfulness. The rhythm section of Ron Siegel on stand-up bass and Liam Hogg with his loose swagger on drums provides a solid foundation. Guitar player Dave Harmon gives things some Blasters-style edge. Boom-voiced Randy McDonald and the charming Sarah Swain take turns on lead vocals. Just plain fun.

Danielle Miragila’s voice is a bit reminiscent of Bonnie Raitt’s, but Miraglia’s blues style is rootsier than Raitts’ and more rocking than Rory Block’s. Her cover of Bob Dylan’s “Meet Me in the Morning” – part Son House, part Black Keys – was one of the best moments of the day.

I remember seeing the Boogaloo Swamis about 15 years ago when they did some Mardi Gras shows at the community hall in Marstons Mills. The cajun/zydeco group is still one of Boston’s most entertaining bands. Mickey Bones is a maniacal frontman for the high-energy band.

Other performers: 3 Cats and a Dog, Crab Grass, The Mighty Houserockers, Les Sampou, The Boston Boys and Mwalim.

There’s a new entry on my list of favorite Cape bands.

I saw the Flakes, a quintet of mid-20s guys, perform recently at the Lost Dog in Orleans. I first caught the group when they performed two songs (covers of Christmas songs by the Ramones and Ronnie Spector) at a holiday fundraiser for the homeless last December and I was greatly impressed. When I finally had a chance to see them do a full show, they met my expectations (which were high).

The band’s sound is three parts Americana roots rock and one part New Wave. It’s a really cool mix that works perfectly on a bunch of well-chosen covers. The Flakes play songs by the legends, but for the most part they pick lesser-known songs, or at least songs that haven’t been played to death by other cover bands: “Lip Service” by Elvis Costello, “Hang Fire” by the Rolling Stones and “The Kids Are Alright” by the Who.

Most of the band’s songs date back to the ‘60s and ‘70s, which means the songs are older than the performers. I think Wilco’s “Outtasite (Outta Mind)” from 1996 is the most recent song I heard. The band pulls out some real gems: “Temptation Eyes” by the Grass Roots, “Fisherman’s Blues” by the Waterboys and “When I Write the Book” by Rockpile, among others. I’m guessing someone in the band has access to a really fine, vintage vinyl collection.

Part of what’s impressive about the Flakes is that they sound great, but their sound is hard to describe. They sound a little like early R.E.M. but faster. They sound like the Byrds but less twangy. They sound like early Elvis Costello but with a Cape Cod accent. They sound a little like Vampire Weekend but with the Afro-pop vibe subtracted.

It’s a mix that works well, even when the songs are a little more familiar (“Satisfaction” by the Stones, “Wild World” by Cat Stevens and “Shop Around” by the Miracles).

The Flakes will be back at the Lost Dog in Orleans on June 25, July 23 and Aug. 6 and 20. They also have some gigs coming up at Joe’s Bar & Grille in Orleans on July 9 and Aug. 13, and the Flying Fish Cafe in Wellfleet on July 16.

How do you like your soul music?

Old-school style? Aretha Franklin is a master of that, as she proved on “Chain of Fools.”

With a little bit of funk? Franklin can do that, as she showed with an energetic version of “Think.”

With a sexy R&B attitude? She can do that, too, as she demonstrated with a cover of “It’s Just Your Love,” a song written by Luther Vandross.

Franklin opened her June 18 show at the Cape Cod Melody Tent with “Respect,” the only one of her four dozen Top 40 hits to make it to No. 1 on the charts. It seemed like she was holding back a little on the song, and, sure enough, she apologized multiple times for being hindered by a cold.

No problem. If her voice was at 95 percent – or even 90 – of her late-1960s prime, she can still outsing any of today’s pop divas. Franklin may not have Mariah Carey’s range, but she has a hugely greater feel for how to use vocal showmanship to make an emotional point.

Franklin’s singing is aimed more at your soul than your ears. At times she stood with one hand resting on the piano, as if she needed just a little support to pour that much emotion into a song.

The Queen of Soul looked elegant in a black taffeta sleeveless gown with a long, ostrich-feather-trimmed train. A veil-thin scarf was draped over her arms and a string of fat pearls disappeared into her cleavage.

Franklin’ set list was a little heavy on ballads. The highlight among them was a cover of “The Way We Were.” Accompanying herself on the piano, she sang it with so much passion and made it so personal that you could easily forget that some other iconic singer (Barbra somebody?) once recorded it.

Another highlight was a cover of “New York, New York.” It takes some guts to sing that song in Red Sox country, but the crowd loved her gentle, jazzy version. When she sang “If I can make it there,” it was with a certain dreaminess, as opposed to Frank Sinatra’s cockiness, which helped make the song her own.

Late in the show she sang the opera aria “Nessun Dorma,” a song that she added to her repertoire after she filled in at the 1998 Grammy Awards with less than half an hour’s notice for the ailing Luciano Pavarotti. In concert a dozen years later, it’s still stirring stuff and compelling evidence that Rolling Stone magazine made the right choice when it placed her at the very top of its list of the 100 greatest singers of all time.

South Shore singer Les Sampou opened the show with a selection of songs from her new CD, “Lonesomeville.” Sampou is a blues singer at heart, but mixes things up by bringing in a folk sound on some songs and rocking out on others. Mark Cunningham, who added some standout slide guitar work on several songs, shared the vocals with her on “Lonely Nights & Lonely Days.” The joint vocals on the ballad emphasized the point that an ache in your heart is something that can befall anyone. Sampou showed a lighter, more playful touch with her closing song, “My My My.”

Sampou has played in just about every coffeehouse on the Cape, and it was good to see her connecting with a larger audience at the Melody Tent. She’ll perform Aug. 7 at the Cape Cod Rhythm and Roots Festival at the Cotuit Center for the Arts.

Toots Hibbert doesn’t take any time to build the pace when he hits the stage. The reggae legend ripped right into his best-known song, “Pressure Drop,” when Toots & the Maytals performed on June 5 at the Cape Cod Melody Tent.

“Pressure Drop” appeared on the 1972 soundtrack “The Harder They Come,” which introduced many American listeners to the Maytals. It provided an instant sing-along – “It is you-oo-oo, oh yeah-ah-ah” – at the Melody Tent.

The pace and energy rarely flagged for the rest of the 92-minute concert. The seats at the Melody Tent may have been the most underutilized chairs in town, as most people in the audience spent the entire show on their feet.

It was the last show of a U.S. tour, and Hibbert’s band showed all of the tight musicianship you’d expect from a stint on the road, but none of the nonchalance you might find on the last night. The highlight of the night was “Funky Kingston,” with its irresistible beat, one of the band’s most recognizable songs. The concert version is an extended jam, with most of the band members getting a turn to solo.

Hibbert’s thick Jamaican accent made the lyrics of the Kingsmen’s old garage-rock song “Louie Louie” even more indecipherable, but the message of John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads” got through. Whether you’re from Jamaica, Hyannis or anywhere else, a longing for home is a universal sentiment.

While Toots & the Maytals is one of the world’s most prominent reggae bands, it’s easy to overlook that there’s a strong funk flavor to the group’s sound. Hibbert, who is 64, even showed a few James Brown moves on “Country Roads.”

More highlights: “Reggae Got Soul,” “54-46 Was My Number,” “Sweet and Dandy” and the always fun “Monkey Man.” During a newer song, “Light Your Light,” Hibbert invited the audience to help illuminate the arena. There were far more cell phones than lighters swaying in the air. Times change.

Opening the show was the Martha’s Vineyard-based musical collective Entrain, which played a 40-minute set. Entrain kicked things off by having all seven members jamming on percussion instruments. From there the band played songs that drew on all kinds of rhythms, pulling from the music of Africa, Jamaica and New Orleans, along with some Bo Diddley beats.

The guys in Entrain are a versatile bunch. New member Kose Yamaguchi plays saxophone and clarinet. Keyboard player Tony Falcetti picked up the accordion on a couple of songs. Sam Holmstock played congas on most songs, but also played trombone and washboard.

After 17 years, it’s good to see Entrain is not just surviving, but thriving.

The audience was a mix of boomers and young adults, as well as some boomers who were there with their teenage or young adult children. There was also a guy dressed as a pirate (or maybe he really is a pirate).

Faces in the crowd: Todd and Beth Marcus, owners of Cape Cod Beer; Joe and Bev Dunn, owners of the Island Merchant restaurant in Hyannis (nice to see them having a night off), Hyannis artist Meaghann Kenney and Little Beach Gallery owner Jen Villa. And was that expert baseball commentator Peter Gammons?

You pretty much know what you’re going to get when you see the lead guitarist in Groovy Afternoon — a long-haired guy wearing a fringe vest and a tie-dyed shirt.  A glance at the band’s logo — which uses two bare feet as the o-o in Groovy — confirms that it’s flashback time.

Unlike some cover bands, which focus on recent hits you’re tired of, Groovy Afternoon plays songs you never get tired of: no-dispute classics from the ’60s and ’70s. Last night’s show at Tommy Doyle’s Irish Pub in Hyannis included “Paint It Black” by the Rolling Stones, “Voodoo Child” by Jimi Hendrix, “Born to Be Wild” by Steppenwolf and a medley of the Who’s “Pinball Wizard” and “Won’t Get Fooled Again.”

Lead singer Christine Mascott gets help from three band members on backing vocals, but she doesn’t need it. Merging a voice reminiscent of Janis Joplin’s with Grace Slick’s stage mannerisms, Mascott is a compelling frontwoman for the quintet. Her husband, Paul Mascott, ably recreates the guitar work of Hendrix, Pete Townshend and Jimmy Page. Tracy Ferrie, who played with Stryper,  is the most animated bass player I’ve ever seen, holding his instrument upside down on some songs and spinning in circles on another. Andrew Ianniello, a veteran of the local music scene who was one of the co-founders of 57 Heavy,  plays drums with just a notch less ferocity than Keith Moon. Rhythm guitarist Byrd helps give the band a full sound.

The band members have the confidence (or is it nerve?) and the skill to take on iconic songs and even extend the instrumental breaks on some of them. As for Christine Mascott, she’s got a classic rock voice that can handle covering songs made legendary by Roger Daltrey, John Fogerty and Lennon and McCartney. Early in last night’s third set she tore into “Ramble On,” a Led Zeppelin song that the band recently added it to its set list, with such passion that it was hard to believe she’d have anything left for the rest of the show. But she followed it up with covers of songs by CSN&Y, the Stones, the Monkees, Cream and the Guess Who.

If I have one quibble, it’s that “Ohio,” a CSN&Y song about the killing of four college students at Kent State in 1970, may be an important song of the era, but it’s a definite bummer as pub music.

The band has a bunch of gigs lined up for the summer, including some free, outdoors all-ages shows that are part of the Citizens Bank Summer Concert Series. As they said back in the day, far out!

Click here for a link to Groovy Afternoon’s web site and here for a link to the band’s Facebook page.

Kind of funny how I started and ended the month at the Island Merchant in Hyannis. I celebrated New Year’s Eve (and the first hour of Jan. 1) with some friends, watching my favorite local band, the Greenheads. Last night I couldn’t get there until 11:30, but I was there until closing time (the first hour of Jan. 31), watching my favorite new local band,What Would Johnny Do?

WWJD is a pretty good reggae band, but they’re a great cover band. I’ve seen way too many bands that take songs we’ve heard a zillion times and play them just the way we’re used to hearing them.

WWJD does not do that.  The quartet takes classic songs by Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, Kris Kristofferson and other, and gives them a reggae arrangement. That’s clever.

It wouldn’t work if the band didn’t have the skill to pull it off. Carl Hedin on bass and Lucas Ferreira on drums are a tight rhythm section, an essential for any reggae band. Josh Ayala can play mellow grooves on guitar and he can rock out when it’s needed. And then there’s the sultry Melissa Barbosa on vocals. She’s known as a soul belter from her previous bands, but she also can deliver a smooth ballad.

Last night the band played a bunch of Bob Marley songs, in honor of the upcoming anniversary of his birth (Feb. 6, 1945). Randy Frost of the Somers Frost Band was sitting in. It’s easy to take this guy for granted, because he doesn’t try to call attention to himself. He’s like a receiver who makes an incredible touchdown catch, tosses the ball to the ref and jogs off the field without a dance or a trademarked gesture. But while he may be low-key in his style, Frost is one of the best players on the Cape. Any band is better with him in it.

I got there in time to see a Marley tribute (”No Woman, No Cry,” “Wait in Vain,” “Exodus”). They followed that with “Me and Bobby  McGee,” starting it slow and soft and building to a ska frenzy. Next up was Johnny Cash’s “Orange Blossom Special,” with some Chuck Berry-style guitar riffs thrown in.

Next up was my favorite song by the band, a cover of Dylan’s “It Ain’t Me, Babe.” In the hands of WWJD, it’s dark and stormy, a bad storm on the horizon. After that came Marley’s “Hammer” and Willie Nelson’s “Whiskey River.”

Check out the band’s MySpace page for a list of upcoming shows.