tentoze
11-23-2008, 09:21 AM
Went to this show last night at the beautiful old Florida Theater downtown. While there were a few empty seats, most of the 1900 available ones were filled with mostly well-behaved fans who came to listen.
Carrie Rodriguez opened with a a short 40 minute set, backed by an upright bass player and a very talented acoustic/electric guitar player. Carrie alternated between violin and a strange looking little electric guitar- looked like a 1/2 size, or child's model (I'm not that knowledgeable about instruments), but sounded larger than it looked. The young lady has a BIG voice, as well as an engaging stage presence- thoroughly enjoyable.
After a 20 minute break, Prine took the stage with a pared down backing from what I've seen him with in the past- a bass player who switched back and forth between stand-up and electric, and an extremely talented fellow on various electric guitars and an electric mandolin. Prine swapped mostly between 2 acoustics during the set, although he did pick up an electric for a few songs.
The set consisted of a whole lot of his early material, which obviously pleased the crowd. He mixed up the pace well with quiet acoustic songs interspersed with some fairly rambunctious arrangements of other songs from his 35+ year career. One surprise for me- even with a huge back catalog of his own songs to choose from, he did a remarkable cover of Blaze Foley's beautiful Clay Pigeons.
The main set lasted about an hour and 40 minutes, and it was uniformly exceptional. They came back out for a 5 song encore that ended with him bringing Carrie out to handle Iris Dement's vocal parts on a duet of In Spite Of Ourselves, and then bringing the other players from Carrie's set onstage to close with a fine rendition of Paradise. As good a 2 hour set as I could have hoped for. If you get an opportunity to catch him, the artistic fire is as strong as ever, and Mr. Prine still brings it.
Carrie Rodriguez opened with a a short 40 minute set, backed by an upright bass player and a very talented acoustic/electric guitar player. Carrie alternated between violin and a strange looking little electric guitar- looked like a 1/2 size, or child's model (I'm not that knowledgeable about instruments), but sounded larger than it looked. The young lady has a BIG voice, as well as an engaging stage presence- thoroughly enjoyable.
After a 20 minute break, Prine took the stage with a pared down backing from what I've seen him with in the past- a bass player who switched back and forth between stand-up and electric, and an extremely talented fellow on various electric guitars and an electric mandolin. Prine swapped mostly between 2 acoustics during the set, although he did pick up an electric for a few songs.
The set consisted of a whole lot of his early material, which obviously pleased the crowd. He mixed up the pace well with quiet acoustic songs interspersed with some fairly rambunctious arrangements of other songs from his 35+ year career. One surprise for me- even with a huge back catalog of his own songs to choose from, he did a remarkable cover of Blaze Foley's beautiful Clay Pigeons.
The main set lasted about an hour and 40 minutes, and it was uniformly exceptional. They came back out for a 5 song encore that ended with him bringing Carrie out to handle Iris Dement's vocal parts on a duet of In Spite Of Ourselves, and then bringing the other players from Carrie's set onstage to close with a fine rendition of Paradise. As good a 2 hour set as I could have hoped for. If you get an opportunity to catch him, the artistic fire is as strong as ever, and Mr. Prine still brings it.