LOCATION: Exit/In, Nashville, TN
LINEUP: Karin, Linford, Devon Ashley, Rick Plant
REVIEW BY:
Our family arrived at Exit/In at five. Okay. No, the doors didn't open until seven, but who's counting. Since we saw them for the first time, on May 29, 2005 at 3rd and Lindsley, my wife has become the resident fanatic of this band I'd already been listening to for the last six years. But, I digress. I had nothing to do with the early arrival ......
Anyway... we were standing at the door listening to OtR's sound check with gifts in hand, and this woman came walking around the corner and up the street and I thought to myself, "Gee, she looks kind of familiar." Twenty minutes later, she came walking back and, as she passed, she stopped and asked if our presents were for Karin & Linford, so we told her, yes. She told us that she was going inside and she would let them know that we were here, so we thanked her. After she'd walked around the corner, I told my wife and daughter, "I think that was the woman that sings for Hem." Which, of course, turned out to be the case. We were not real familiar with Hem. I had heard Rabbit Songs from an old colleague of mine back when it came out and was interested to hear it because I kept hearing them being compared to OtR, but I didn't really see the parallels.
Eventually, OtR finished and some more time went by, so my daughter and I walked around back to see if we would run into Karin & Linford (my wife stayed at the door guarding our place in line, she was not budging). We had told Karin & Linford that we were coming to the show with our daughter and that we were looking forward to seeing them, again. Right about the time my daughter and I saw Karin coming out the back door, I walked around front to wave at my wife, but by the time we got back, they had to leave. Our daughter told us that they had commented on the size of the bag and asked if they should go ahead and open it, and she had told them to go ahead. They loved the stool we had brought and commented on the picture our daughter had drawn for them. Linford said he couldn't wait to read the book we'd given them, too (Charles Baxter's Harmony of the World - If you haven't read him, find him and do it. You won't be sorry). They had told her that they would see us after the show, so back out front we went.
The first guy that arrived after us was also from around Huntsville. We talked, at some length, but never managed to get his name. Give us a holler here on the Orchard. Hem seemed to be playing thru their whole set, their sound check went on so long, but considering the mix of instruments they were using, it wasn't too surprising.
The really big surprise was when they opened the doors at 6:30! So in we went, and we got one of the few tables down on the main floor.
Hem takes the stage at 7:30 which is a half hour earlier than the posted time. Presumably, this has to do with there being a third band scheduled after OtR, but, consequently, Hem doesn't have much of a crowd when they start. Of course, as the show progresses, the room fills up until it is packed. We enjoy Hem's show very much although my wife and I later discussed how we thought they would display a more diverse repertoire, considering the instrumentation of the band. I don't know if Gary Maurer had been playing on the tour with them, but they mention missing him a few times. My wife and I are pretty blown away by Sally Ellyson's voice and enjoy what a passionate performer Dan Messe is. They play a few new songs called Reservoir, Funnelcloud, and one whose title they do not mention. The highlight of their set is when Sally mentions that she's just learned that she is pregnant and they follow the announcement by performing Bruce Springsteen's Valentine's Day. The musician we enjoy the most is steel guitarist, Bob Hoffnar, whose autograph is the only one we get after the show because the others have already left.
OtR takes the stage at 8:45, launching into Latter Days, and the evening is pretty much complete for me already since Latter Days is the first song I ever heard of OtR and Good Dog Bad Dog is my favorite album of theirs. I'm standing down in front taking pictures, just overcome by the moment.
Their set list was as follows:
Latter Days (words can't express...)
Jesus in New Orleans (Before this song, Karin asks how far folks have
traveled for the show. First answer was 650 miles from Florida, the second
is Manchester, NY. She says, a little stunned, "We'll try to make it a
good one.")
Born (backup vocals by Linford... really fantastic to hear them sing
this, together)
Looking Forward
I'm On a Roll (new)
Entertaining Thoughts (new and really cute)
I Don't Want To Waste Your Time (apparently really new ... Linford's
intro is about acquiring their sound man, Dave)
Linford tells story about blind church pianist
Piano solo
Little Did I Know
Firefly (really missed this, last time, so thrilled to hear it, again)
Band intro (Karin mentions Rick moving to Australia, after the tour,
and how much they'll miss him)
Show Me
Trouble (got to love this one)
Drunkard's Prayer
Encore
When I Go (incredible guitar solo from Rick)
When we met Linford at the stage after the show, he expressed their sincere thanks for the gifts, especially mentioning the book again. I told him how much we loved Charles Baxter's writing. We told him how much we loved the show, once again, and I asked him about them no longer recording for Back Porch. He said that that was true, and that they were looking forward to doing stuff more independently in the future. We got his autograph and talked for about ten-fifteen minutes before he said that he'd better check on Karin and that he'd try to send her out to see us, shortly. Subsequently, we struck up a conversation with Rick, whom we'd met at our last show, and talked with him, at some length. We asked after his new baby and the reasons for his move, and he explained that his wife is a native Australian. When I commented on the burgeoning music scene in Australia and he said he might end up driving a cab, I told him I thought he was too in-demand to have to do that. After a while, we decided that we'd go outside and try around back, again.
After waiting about fifteen minutes out in the chilly evening, I walked back around front to see if she had come out there, but there was no sign of her. When I returned, Karin was talking with my wife and daughter. Apparently, the security guy had gone and let her know that someone was waiting. She had already signed our copy of Ohio and addressed it to our daughter, before I returned. She told us how glad they were to see us again, and they were glad to meet our daughter. We discussed visiting Nashville and my wife asked Karin where they liked to visit when they were there, and it turned out it was a lot of the places we like to frequent. Karin indicated that they planned to be returning to Nashville for their next recording session (I believe she said in July), so that was real interesting. My wife and daughter also inquired after their dogs and Karin told us about how they were doing. We showed her a picture of our Cocker which a lot of folks mistake for a King Charles, but Karin didn't. After about ten-fifteen minutes, we said our goodbyes.
Our deepest thanks to Karin, Linford, Rick, and Devin for another evening of beautiful music.