An opening slot for an artist as revered as Gregg Allman has to be tough, but while Tony Furtado’s folksy, acoustic blues might not have quite the groove of Allman’s namesake band of brothers, it’s got soul to spare, and the songsmith’s set in front of a sold-out crowd at Norfolk, VA’s Norva left his own fair share of mouths agape before the legendary southerner took the stage. Blending acoustic slide guitar with woodsy tales of the everyday, Furtado’s mix of technical virtuosity and warm storytelling soul was a perfect warm-up for Allman and his friends.
The jaw-dropping acoustic frenzy of “Angry Monk” flowed seamlessly into “Raleigh and Spencer,” riding a flowy Phil Ochs folk all the way down to Mississippi to rescue Robert Johnson at the crossroads, but Furtado’s spirited slide failed to heed the warnings, calling forth the devil himself to heat things up. “Standing in the Rain,” from the most recent
These Chains, braved the return trip and spread a few specks of red clay on the streets of Manhattan while the remorseful prison wail of “Oh Berta, Berta” stayed behind to break rocks under the punishing eye of the southern sun and a watchful warden.
After slipping into a fast-picking version of Tom Petty’s “Running Down a Dream,” Furtado put down his newest passion in exchange for an older, equally familiar one. The brief but extraordinary banjo medley of the Beatles’ “I Will,” his own “Hartford” from 2002’s American Gypsy and “Willow John” from the older Full Circle (1994) received warm applause from many in the audience who had hoped to see Furtado on his “other” instrument all night.
Returning to the guitar, “These Chains” continued the comfortable blend of blues and folk, bouncing along the railroad line before climbing into the Appalachian melodies of “Rove Riley Rove,” which also blew salty hints of the ballads of the Irish Atlantic coast. Furtado’s set finished much the same way it began, with the driving finger-picking slide work of “Cypress Grove Blues” leaving jaws on the floor and heads and hearts in the humid air of the Deep South.
Though the pairing of Furtado’s solo acoustic show with the ensemble rock and funk of Gregg Allman and Friends might have at first seemed an odd fit, one night of music suggests differently. While the two acts appear different on stage, the ear hears what the eye fails to see: both Allman and Furtado planted their oldest roots in the cracked red clay of southern blues country, but their branches spread wide to cast a comfortable shade on an entire culture. The two groups take different roads to get to the same place, but both offer a hell of a ride along the way, and the fact that most of Furtado’s set will be represented on his upcoming Bare Bones bodes well for the late March release.
For more info see tonyfurtado.com
