Otis Taylor - Concert Review

It seems a bit odd that Taylor lives in Boulder and yet this is the first time I've seen him play.  So I was excited to finally get to see what I was sure was not going to be a run-of-the-mill blues show. 

Taylor opened the show playing  a Telecaster, solo.  Nasty Letter form his "Truth is Not Fiction" release.  He then brought up a band member whose name I can not recall (sorry dude) to play the djembe and played a stripped down version of "Lost my Guitar" from the Pentatonic Wars and Love Songs release. 

Taylor likes to build his songs in layers, it's a rather obvious trait you notice on his studio work.  What I didn't expect was that he was going to utilize a member of the band one person at a time.   By the third song he had added the drummer, Taylor is still playing the Tele.  But after a couple rockin' songs he makes sure we are all on our toes by hushing the drummers and performing a field holler. 

That was Taylor's segue to introduce the next band member.  Except in this case it was band members, plural.   A gospel choir.  Well, part of one, four members to be exact.  They sang "Amazing Grace" to warm us up a little and then it was back to Otis Taylor music...with a choir.  "Looking for Some Heat," again from Pentatonic, got the choir treatment as did the rest of the set.  That was it for the band.  Taylor took care of all the string work. 

The choir was an interesting addition and at times I thought it added a lot to the performances but once or twice they were little more than backup singers. 

Taylor is booked with the whole Sheryl Renee choir for the Telluride Blues Festival this year.

After a short break to sell some CD's, Taylor was back and I was happy to see a chair on the stage and shortly a banjo.  Taylor did one solo piece and then had the drummers join him for one more banjo piece.

The choir was soon back as well as the electric guitar for a few more songs including "Please Come Home Before It Rains" and "Hey Joe."

Taylor is a relaxed and fun performer.  He spent a good deal of the night winging it and it went quite well.  If you get a chance to see Otis Taylor, take it.  You never know what he might do!

Oh, and if anyone wants to donate a Santa Cruz Otis Taylor Signature guitar as pictured above, to Delta-Slider, just shoot me an email and I'll let you know where to ship it.  That'd be great!
  BUY Otis Taylor from EMUSIC

UPDATED! - Eric Clapton & Steve Winwood – Pepsi Center Denver CO. 21Jun2009

After hearing about Winwood and Clapton getting together for shows at Madison Square Garden, I’m sure a lot of Blind Faith fans were on edge about the possibility of seeing these two great musicians together again. They did not disappoint.

The set list was a mixture of Blind Faith and each performer’s impressive canon with a few gems thrown in for good measure. They performed most of the Blind Faith LP except Sea of Joy and Do What You Like. But they did play Sleeping in the Ground, an unreleased track from that session. It was nearly a 2 ½ hour show.
Here is the Denver Set list:
Had to Cry Today
Low Down
After Midnight
Presence of the Lord
Sleeping in the Ground
Glad
Well Alright
Tough Luck Blues
Pearly Queen
No Face, No Name, No Number
Forever Man
Georgia (Winwood solo on Hammond)
Drifting (EC acoustic)
How Long
Layla (Winwood & EC, both on acoustic guitar) a little sleepy, would have loved the electric version
Can’t Find My Way Home (Winwood & EC, both on acoustic guitar)
Split Decision, EC adds some muscle!
Voodoo Chile-EC sings the opening line, I’m a Voodoo chile...and then hands off the vocal work to Winwood. Great, soaring notes. They put their own stamp on it, for sure, but what a great 15 minutes!
Encore:
Cocaine
Dear Mr. Fantasy

They are touring with a couple of backup singers with some pretty impressive pipes. Why not do at least one song from the Yvonne Elliman era? I would have loved to hear The Core a song that also allows a lot of room for soloing by Winwood and Clapton. Oh well.

For Presence of the Lord, they both traded off vocals. Interesting now that we know this was a point of contention between the two men since the Blind Faith days. Winwood sings the song on the original LP release, but always felt that Clapton should have sung it since he wrote it. Tonight they traded vocals and it worked very well.

Clapton started his solo set with and old blues tune, Drifting. A great old song that I’ve never heard him play. It was phenomenal! Both men played the acoustic on Can’t Find My Way Home. But instead of the familiar finger style, they changed it up a bit, even adding the backup singers. It was not how I wanted it played, haha, but it was still good.

I do have some songs from the show to post later, so check back. Until then, check out these great YouTubes.

UPDATE: I've added a link to 6 songs from the show, recorded by me. I wish I could put up more but these turned out the best.
01 - Had to Cry Today
02 - Glad
03 - Well Alright
04 - Tough Luck Blues
05 - Pearly Queen
06 - Voodoo Chile
Denver Show