Blind Boys and Dr. John at the Tent
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.
August 29th, 2010 at 5:31 pm
Excellent review, but I’m gonna quibble on two minor (and of course debatable) points.
First, as great as the Blind Boys were last night, this would be an average performance at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, where I’ve caught these guys before. Both venues have a tent atmosphere, but this band gets an even more intense audience involvement thing going in a tent that seats nearly 4000 and has much better sound — that is an unforgettable total immersion experience. The Melody Tent muddy sound and ban on dancing, and its cramped seats, just can’t compete. But then again, Fest kinda spoils you for any other venue.
Second, while it is unfortunately true that the good doctor sorta mailed it in, I was very pleasantly surprised by the updated arrangement of “Gilded Splinters,” a song which at its worst can wallow in ’60s gris gris night tripper nostalgia, but which the Lower 911 rescued and updated in a great way.