As most of you know, I am open-minded and have and will cover just about any type of show, but I’ve never covered country music. The reason for that is having a father who loved, loved, loved Lester Flat & Earl Scruggs, so I had my fill of country music before I was even a teenager. So this week, my friend Cynthia Ringo (a/k/a Red Mystique) dragged me out to the Hard Rock Cafe, Seattle for a country show - a Seattle first for me. She even Twittered Blaine Larsen to let him know I’d be there covering the show. (Just so you know, Twittered is now a verb, along with Googling someone. That’s right - action words.)
As to Seattle’s Hard Rock Cafe, the decor is typical HRC - modern yet in this case old Seattle with loft-like high ceilings, sandblasted brick and dark wood floors - awesome paraphernalia, I mean, rock memorabilia and photos. They still haven’t officially opened yet so there were a few snags along the way, but in general it was fine. In typical style, the food was pricey and so-so such as our Twisted Mac & Cheese arriving warm, not piping hot — not so yummy that way. However, the Belvedere vodka Martinis were large and chilled to perfection, so kudos to the bartenders. YAY!
The ticket situation was another thing. HRC in a flash of brilliance took ticket sales offline early in the day and then wouldn’t allow anyone to purchase tickets until after 6 pm, so we had to stand in line to buy them only to find out once at the ticket table that it was cash only (no sign or info online to tell you so either). Ahem. Like I said, they are still in a learning curve.
Back to the music, opening for the young Mr. Larsen was Seattle’s own petite, big-haired, 16-year old, Hannah Michelle Weeks, who is to quote my father, “cute as a bug’s ear” (whatever that means, but truly, she was adorable and had such cute SHOES & dress from Betsy Johnson!). Ms. Weeks released her debut CD, “Life’s a Drama,” this past Fall on Hunnybee Records. She’s done the county fair circuit and has done so well as to open for Darius Rucker and Kenny Chesney according to CD Baby. For such a little thing she does have a huge voice and stage presence much beyond her young years. Sadly, there were no side-stage speakers and the mixing was a bit off (more bugs for HRC to work out) so her band’s sound was a bit muddied. Overall, Weeks came across as a polished pro. She belted out tunes of her own making such as singles “Good Hair Day” and “I Think I Am” which were cute but not deep - fun like country music should be. Weeks’ cover of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” was the best (and final) song of the set. I think we shall all hear more of Ms. Weeks in years to come.
Now to the headliner, Buckley, Washington’s 24-year old boy-next-door, Blaine Larsen. Not surprisingly, the entire town of Buckley turned out for the show. Nice folks. Blaine Larsen really is fresh-faced handsome with blond hair & blue eyes - that lanky All-American, down to earth, give-you-the-shirt-off-his back type of guy. He is an affable, unflappable talent. I’m not sure how Blaine Larsen has such wisdom, genuine confidence, and song-writing ability, but good old fashioned common sense and deep family roots apparently helped him become the man he is today.
Larsen married his high school sweetheart and has a little girl, and he says they are what motivates him to write how & what he writes his songs about. But moving to the the greater Nashville area to pursue his country stardom dreams caused his songs reflect that good ol’ boy mentality which puts him right up there with all the big boys (country big boys, that is). And here’s a fun fact - Larsen has his private pilot’s license.
Right out of the shoot, to borrow bull riding parlance, Larsen and his right-hand man, and very talented guitar player, Matt McAtee, strode out on stage like it was no big deal. Clearly they are comfortable playing before large and small audiences. This venue was quite intimate with crowds of 300 dwindling on a school night down to about 125. Of note, these boys only had acoustic guitars (plugged-in, but still - acoustic only) and nothing else. No rhythm section, no fiddles, no help - just two guitars and their voices. McAtee did a great job harmonizing on back-up vocals and picking the hell out of his smokin’ guitar. Also a singer-songwriter, McAtee is no stranger to the limelight himself and truly enjoys his job. He has worked with many country greats (national acts) and has graced the Grand Ole Opry stage many times. These two have stage chemistry like they’ve been working together for a long time. The energy and pace was not slow but not feverish either - a good, solid mix of up and down and sing-alongs and, on a couple of cuts, a quiet poignancy that drew us all in.
One of the songs Larsen sang, “Gotta Get To You,” which George Strait released as new single on his CD Twang was a real crowd-pleaser. Everyone sang along and clearly Larsen was psyched about that. He also sang the title track and cuts from his soon to be released CD on his new label, Treehouse Records, entitled “Not Too Bad,” “Baby You Get Me” (just released as a single), “It Did” (released about 3 mos ago & has video) and “Chillin’” (released 2/15, which he co-wrote).
From his debut CD on BNA Records, “Off To Join The World,” he sang “Yessireebob,” “How Do You Get That Lonely” (his 1st top 10), and “That’s Just Me”. From his sophomore CD “Rockin’ You Tonight”, he sang “I Don’t Want To Work That Hard”. He also did quiet renditions of “I Wish I Could Fall In Love Today” and “Miami My Amy.” A nice variety of the fun and serious sorts of songs, sprinkled with danceable cuts, but every single one of them all well-written tunes.
I had a great time at my first country concert in eons. Well, maybe not eons, but you get the idea. Though Blaine Larsen is a relative newcomer to the country scene I can tell that he’s headed for greatness. Even if country isn’t my favorite cup of tea, it is rather satisfying and enjoyable. A guilty pleasure if you will.
Of note, I didn’t have my trusty Nikon with me so I got no shots, but plenty of cameras were clicking throughout the set so you no doubt will see pictures of Weeks & Larsen on Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, etc. [I borrowed the photo from the artist’s website and credit them with the shot. Thank you.]
Check both of these artists out on MySpace for more information.
April 4th, 2010
Categories: Music . Author: JanKeira . Comments: No Comments
