Thursday, October 18, 2012

Dr. John and The Blind Boys of Alabama

On October 16th, Tim and I went to see the afore mentioned musicians at The Smith Center, Las Vegas' new Carnegie Hall.

 I've been a big fan of Dr. John since the 70's, and unlike so many rock stars from "back in my day," (please say those words with an authoritative voice, perhaps one that sounds like your dad's) he brought "it" and them some to the stage.  Each member of his band is a talent in their own right too.  I particularly enjoyed Sara Morrow playing the trombone.  Typically guitar, piano, sax and many other instruments spring to mind before the trombone, but she just may be the one to change that thinking, as she makes her instrument sexy.

Sadly, so many rock musicians from the 70's perform loooooong, self-serving riffs, in an attempt to disguise the fact that their talent is gone.  This show was about entertaining the people who paid to see a legend that sounded better than he did when I was a kid.

Until that night, I'd not had the privilege of being entertained by the other headliner, "The Blind Boys of Alabama."  I must say that gratefully that has changed.  Dr. John played for a while and then four of the members of my new found friends came on stage and announced something along the lines of, they were not in the habit of playing for conservative audiences and they didn't plan to start.  Well it wasn't long before everyone was on their feet hootin', stompin' and clapin'.  I don't generally enjoy when, "Amazing Grace," is sung in any other way then the original form, but they sang my favorite hymn to the music of, "House of the Rising Sun," and it was genuinely AMAZING.

Dr. John's band played for them, let's call it Act 2, and in Act 3, he finished up the concert and even plucked a guitar for one melody (a gunshot wound to the hand decades ago forced him to stop playing the guitar and so he turned to the piano).  The finally brought the "Blind Boys," back out and if your spirit was not higher than ninety minutes ago when you walked into the center, well, you were probably dead.