I had the joy of attending a house concert last weekend.  What a wonderful, intimate event.  The only thing better than the combination of good friends and good music is when your good friends play good music.  So, in a departure from my usual screediness please indulge this review, support the arts, and should you share my sentiment, the artist...

 If you want, listen to this while you read:  Brother Can You Spare A Dime - Live



Singer songwriter guitarist Clay Riness said his goal with his "Covered Up" concert was to surprise.  His aim, he said, was to have his audience shaking their heads and saying “I never would have pegged him for that song”.  Surprise is typically induced by either fright or delight.  Frightful it was most certainly not, yet to call this concert delightful would be an understatement. Inspired is the word that comes to mind. 

An otherwise trustful reader may be rightfully suspect about my objectivity regarding Clay since we’ve been friends for over thirty years.  But the coin of a long-term friendship has two sides, avid supporter and honest critic. In other words, the loyalty of a true friend dictates that if I thought the concert sucked I would have to tell him.  Even though I haven’t seen Clay perform publicly for years I was confident that conversation would not have to take place -– mostly.

The pre concert promo teased ballads and tunes from Americana’s legendary elite, Charlie Pool, Jimmy Webb, Jerry Jeff Walker, and Yip Harburg (Brother Can You Spare A Dime?) to name a few, so, no surprises there.  Neil Diamond’s Solitary Man may have raised an eyebrow or two, but given his career body of work, and much of it acoustic, it offered only feint surprise.  This audience was peppered with more than a few musicians, and many folkophiles. So the challenge commenced.

Pulling cuts from side B 45’s and obscure albums Riness treated the intimate gathering to an amazingly diverse repertoire, all interlaced with the stories behind the songs and artists and how they influenced his musical self-education and songwriting, the latter of which is an impressive body of work in it’s own right. 

(here are his 3 latest recordings:  Best Of Four  Little Windows  Little Black Dress )

Singing someone else’s songs is standard fare and pretty straightforward so, of course, this is not what the purist Riness had in mind.  The theme was songs that influenced Riness; but the real beauty of this concert was his influence on the songs. We witnessed an artistic interpretation true to the spirit of the original but with just a hint of Clayness.  In every case it was pronounced yet subtle, fresh yet respectful.  Technically and spiritually Riness treated these tunes as if they were his own - - and for that afternoon, they were.

It takes a good deal of confidence to reinterpret classic material, but a bucket load of talent to actually make them better.  This listener was moved from tears of laughter to tears of sadness in a matter of minutes as Riness shared his version of Avril Lavinge’s 2003 pop hit Complicated and then transitioned right into the Stephan Foster folk classic Hard Times.  

Yeah, you read it right, Avril Lavigne, yes that Avril Lavigne, the pop flavor of the month sometime after Brittany but before Miley.  And that surprise thing - - mission accomplished. Oh yeah.   

It takes imagination to even conceive of a transition like that let alone pull it off. Riness sort of laughed it off quipping, “there you go, two pop hits two centuries apart.” More than just another folk singer doing cover tunes the audience was shown how, in the hands of a master, how a song begins evolving from a pop hit to Americana. 

Riness is a Heartland treasure, great American and good friend. Check out his Weary Wolf blog to the right. 

related links

Yip Harburg
Jerry Jeff Walker Official Home Page
www.jimmywebb.com 
Stephen Foster - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia