American folk singer Dave Rawlings brought his new super group quintet to Santa Barbara to play what it would sound like if speed metal went bluegrass. California’s oldest continuous concert venue, the historic Lobero Theater was sold out for the much anticipated show. The recently remodeled theater, benefiting for near perfect natural acoustics was the perfect backdrop for the frenzied acoustic speed picking marathon. Patrons sank into the luxurious new seats and were treated to two long sets of powerful Americana roots music. As the show began Rawlings quipped, “We have a lot of deeply overqualified people in my ban.”
There is no doubt about that as the band features his long time partner, alt-country siren and guitarist Gillian Welch. Also in the group is Willie Watson most famous for his work with the Old Crow Medicine Show, who sang and played guitar, fiddle and banjo. Stand up bassist Paul Kowert hails from the Punch Brothers band and even sang the bass lines on a few songs. And the band’s piece de resistance is the mercurial John Paul Jones, the legendary bass player of Led Zeppelin. This night Jones spent most of his time playing a mandolin and even took a few turns on the fiddle for good measure. Jones may have been the most musically versatile member of Led Zeppelin, which was evidenced on his last tour with the Them Crooked Vultures. During his Coachella and Los Angeles appearance with that band several years ago, Jones played no less than ten different instruments, including myriad keyboards, bass, guitar and his trusty mandolin. Plus, let us not forget, Rawlings is himself a divine guitarist and songwriter and rather a fantastic vocalist /banjo player.
The band played exquisitely together, in what became a journey through modern American folk music. From the old classics like covers of Woody Guthrie (“Going Down the Road Feeling Bad”), Jesse Fuller (“Monkey and the Engineer”) and Charley Jordan (“Keep It Clean”). There was also was a ferocious version of Bill Monroe’s bluegrass (“He Will Set Your Fields on Fire” with some bass vocals from Kowert), and the traditional “Stewball,” sung in old time sing along style by Watson.
The band also covered a couple of random gems including, Bob Dylan’s tunes, — “As I Went Out One Morning,” “Queen Jane Approximately” and “Billy 4,” the latter from the Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid movie soundtrack. There were a few interesting medleys throughout the night, including: Bright Eyes’ “Method Acting,” which morphed into Neil Young’s classic “Cortez the Killer,” and Old Crow Medicine Show’s “I Hear Them All” with Guthrie’s unofficial national anthem “This Land Is Your Land.” The latter was a show highlight with Welch, Rawlings, Watson and Kowert each taking a verse, including the more poignant ones that are left out of the sanitized version. There were plenty of original songs, as well from the lone Dave Rawlings Machine album from five years back and from Welch’s catalog, featuring folk sounds that folded nicely into the rest of the program. A special treat was “To Be Young (Is to Be Sad, Is to Be High),” which Rawlings reminisced writing with Ryan Adams after a long forgotten night at a Nashville party.
The encore began a mystical cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Going to California,” which elated the crowd as Jones recreated his original performance on the mandolin from the original recording. The encore also included an astounding cover of the classic “The Weight” by The Band, and an extended standing ovation brought the band back to the very edge of the stage, for an unamplified performance of “Didn’t Leave Nobody but the Baby,” one of the most memorable of the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack, a recording that includes Welch as one of the vocalists. The ghosts of countless American legends who have performed in the old theater could almost be heard singing and clapping along to the familiar notes etched in American music history.
