By: David Rachac
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A mainstay of the Austin music scene, singer/songwriter Jon Dee Graham has had a long and storied past. From forming the True Believers with Alejandro Escovedo to collaborating with the likes of John Doe, Michelle Shocked and Kelly Willis, it seemed like there should have been a fuller house than the mostly-empty 400 Bar, even if it was a Monday night. Although Graham did not seem perturbed by this (in fact, he graciously thanked everyone for attending), I was a little disappointed – his fifth CD release Full is a beautiful mix of roots-rock and ballads that should be filling venues all over, especially in Minneapolis, an area that has been very supportive of Americana over the years.
Every review of a Jon Dee Graham CD or show seems to have an obligatory reference to Tom Waits, and while it is predictable and clichéd, damned if it isn’t a good starting point. His gruff, smoky voice and songs about bad luck and the darker side of life certainly evoke Waits’ persona, but Graham’s songs are more hopeful and the music edges closer to the acoustic-driven rock of John Hiatt or Will Kimbrough. With Graham playing acoustic guitar and a stripped down rhythm section (George Reiff on electric bass and John Chipman on snare drum and percussion), the show wasn’t as hard-hitting as it would have been with a full band, but the quieter performance let Graham’s weary vocals shine more brightly.
What didn’t help was the large contingent of people left over from seeing Willie Murphy play earlier in the evening, who chattered loudly in the bar area. While the first song (“Tie A Knot”) was a straight-ahead, swampy rocker that filled the room, the next three songs were all relatively quiet, and you could tell that Graham was getting a little miffed from having to compete with the crowd noise. In between songs, he would repeat little snippets of conversations he was hearing from the stage, and later in the evening, he told a story about one couple who was having a fight and hurriedly left his show after they realized he had been repeating their argument word-for-word.
After playing “Amsterdam,” he explained how the Dutch reclaimed land using a series of canals and dikes, and expressed his admiration for a group of people who would point to a spot 16 miles into the ocean and decide “we want to build right there!” He also offered a money back guarantee for people buying his CD – “I’ll give you my phone number, and if you don’t like it, you can call me and we can argue about it” – and mentioned, with a smirk, that if he sold 15 CDs he could get his prescription refilled.
Although the more rocking songs like “October” still worked in the semi-acoustic setting, it was the quieter songs like “World So Full” that really took hold. Graham talked about having a friend translate a CD review from the German version of Rolling Stone, which said his ballad “Majesty of Love” was “maudlin.” Wiping a fake tear from his eye, Graham blubbered “The Germans hurt my feelings!” He also took a couple of requests at the end of the show before playing one of the few covers he said he has ever bothered to learn, a song called “Another Place In The Sun” by Austin songwriter Kathy McCarty.
Set List:
Tie A Knot
Swept Away
Something Wonderful
Remain
Amsterdam
Holes
World So Full
October
Majesty of Love
Big Sweet Life
Laredo
Volver Volver
Wait
Airplane
Another Day in The Sun
Location Info:
400 Bar
Artist Info: Jon Dee Graham
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