By: David Rachac
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Dan Israel and the Cultivators at the Turf Club - Photo by David de Young
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On a cold and snowy Saturday night, the Turf Club played host to Dan Israel’s release party for his latest CD, with special guests Mike Nicolai and Big Ditch Road rounding out the bill.
In the last couple of years, Dan Israel has lived somewhat of a musically split existence. On one hand, he has recorded two CDs, playing most of the instruments himself while recording them in his basement studio. He won two Minnesota Music Awards (Best American Roots Recording and Song of the Year) for his 2004 solo release time I get home. And he started playing solo a lot more, including high-profile opening gigs for Todd Snider at the Cedar and Iris Dement at the Fitzgerald, as well as being named as Best Acoustic Performer by City Pages.
At the same time, he and the Cultivators (Kris Bowring on bass and Dave Russ on drums) have continued to play gigs all over town, as well as large festival shows like Taste of Minnesota and the State Fair. So maybe it wasn’t a total surprise when the band started out a little shaky when playing four songs off of Israel’s latest CD, simply titled Dan Israel. Although songs like “Good Times” and “Question” had the same Costello-meets-Stones pop crunch that made 2003’s Love Ain’t A Cliché such a treat, Dan and the Cultivators were a little slow to get a groove going, a combination of equipment problems and not having played the songs together very much.
It didn’t help matters that the snow plowing company decided that everyone needed to be out of the Turf Club parking lot NOW so it could be plowed, so there were a lot of people running to their cars, and Dave Russ threw his keys to a friend to get his vehicle moved. But once the commotion died down and they played “Brings You Back” from time I get home, they seemed to get on track.
After playing “Shadows” off of 1999’s Mama’s Kitchen, they embraced Neil Young’s “Cinnamon Girl” in all of its ragged glory (it isn’t a proper Cultivators show unless there is at least one Dylan/Who/Neil cover), and finished the first half of the set with the Stones-y“Turnin’ It Down,” before sliding into a solo set by Israel. He started the solo set with the electric “Plenty,” a play-on-words about a certain Midwestern governor (“My friends will get plenty/You don’t get any”), before finishing with two acoustic songs, the last one an ode to his newborn son.
Coming back from their break, Dan and the Cultivators performed three uptempo rockers, including “Waiting So Long,” which was recently re-recorded by local siren JoAnna James. I was anticipating that we would be hearing more songs off of Time I Get Home, which had several songs in rotation at the Current, but Dan realized they were running late, so they quickly ended their set with the Stones’ “Dead Flowers,” featuring Martin Devaney and Big Ditch Road’s Darin Wald on background vocals.
Big Ditch Road finished the night, but perhaps as a nod to Dan on his special night, kept the set list short and mostly low-key. The two new songs they played, “Detroit City Bound” and “Underlight” are starting to show muscle with repeated performances, turning slightly from the darkness of Suicide Note Reader’s Companion – but only slightly. Their evolution from pure alt-country towards more of an indie-rock sound continues to be intriguing to watch.
Set List:
Good Times
Cold Cold Winter
Question
2822
Brings You Back
Shadows
Cinnamon Girl
Mystery Train
Turnin' it Down
Plenty
One Last Time
Every Single Day
Waiting So Long
Feet in the Water
All Alone
Dead Flowers
Location Info:
The Turf Club
Artist Info: Big Ditch Road, Dan Israel, Mike Nicolai
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