As a fan of a wide variety of popular (and not-so-popular) music from the 1950s (and sometimes even earlier) up through the present, one of my bucket list projects for years has been to put together a list of my 100 favorite songs of all time. At some point I decided that, once I got around to figuring that out, I could put it out on a blog, for the infinitesimally small proportion of the Internet world that might be interested. So, here we are. While the Top 100 will be a major focus, I also plan to post on a variety of other musical (and occasionally non-musical) topics, in which you may or may not be interested. (If a particular posting doesn’t ring your bell, you’re only a few clicks away from a dancing cat video on YouTube.)

Monday, November 3, 2014

The James Hunter Six w/ Emily Elbert, The Hamilton, 11/1/2014


If you’ve never seen James Hunter and his band live, put it on your bucket list. Immediately. The best description of his style I’ve found was in a New Yorker article from earlier this year – “rooted in American soul music without being bound to it”. Their CDs are great, but they’re even better live.

As usual, Hunter and crew – Kyle Koehler on organ, Jason Wilson on double bass, Jonathan Lee on drums, Damian Hand on tenor sax, Lee Badau on baritone sax – were at the top of their game during their 100-minute set at the Hamilton in downtown DC (14th & F NW). They hit most of the tracks from their 2013 Minute by Minute album, a number from the earlier CDs People Gonna Talk and The Hard Way, two or three I didn’t recognize (new?), and the usual knockout cover version of The “5” Royales’ 1953 smash R&B hit “Baby Don’t Do It”. They did do my all-time favorite (“I’ll Walk Away”) near the end of the set, and finished with an audience call-and-response on “Talking ‘Bout My Love”.

Emily Elbert did about a 35-minute solo opening set – has some background (and awards) in both folk and jazz, along with a great voice. She particularly wowed the crowd with cover versions of “Whipping Post” (with a couple bars of “Manic Depression” in the middle), “Crazy”, and “The Wind Cries Mary”. Her originals weren’t bad at all, although on most of them I felt that a somewhat more sedate guitar style might have allowed her vocals and lyrics to come through better. She also provided more evidence for the maxim that it’s generally a bad idea for anyone to cover a song that Aretha Franklin has made famous (“Until You Come Back To Me” in this case).

This was my second trip to the relatively new Hamilton, both times for the JH6. We arrived about 20 minutes before the downstairs doors were scheduled to open (actually opened about 5 minutes after we arrived), with the line about halfway up the steps to the performance room. (The stairs are black and lighted in a domino pattern, which is much more attractive to look at than to navigate.) We sat in the row of tables closest to the stage, with the dance area in between. Although this did somewhat hamper our view of the stage from time to time, a couple of us had as much fun observing the dancers as watching the show. The downstairs menu is relatively limited (there’s a separate restaurant upstairs), but the burgers and pizza were at least serviceable.

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