Conveniently, the venerable show was located only a couple of miles from my host's home in Santa Monica (Minimal driving in LA is always a plus). And, not one, but two acts whose show I wanted to revisit were playing that night: Pieta Brown and Carrie Rodrigues. Both songwriters are well pedigreed roots-Americana musicians and were well-matched to tour together. Pieta is the daughter of Greg Brown and his influence was unmistakable. Her writing style was sweet, direct and real. Dressed in jeans and cap, with little make-up, she won us over with her pure authenticity, solid guitar playing and songs about growing up in rural Iowa. That said, her voice and singing style were equally evocative of Bob Dylan's as much as her father's.
Flash-forward a week, and I'm driving up to Petaluma with Kwame to see one of San Francisco's best guitarist-songwriters Chuck Prophet. Prophet has an impressive discography and a wicked way with a Fender guitar. He's also one of (my hero) Alejandro Escoveda's pals and co writers. Prophet—his second song of the night was"Always a Friend" from Escoveda's "Real Animal" (whose songs were all Escoveda/Prophet co-writes). Anyhow, the band just rocked overall. Prophet is truly a wizard with a guitar, and his bandmates, including notably Stephanie Finch (guitar/keys/vocals) and James Deprato (slide guitar) provided solid foils for his practiced musicianship. Prophet reached across his deep catalog for the set, doing "Monkey in the Middle," "Gone" and "You & Me, Baby (Holding On)." Likewise, he and DePrato did an impressive 'history of electric guitar' that drew on just about every well-known lick since the instrument was invented. Finch also sang a song from her recent, Prophet-produced CD "Cry Tomorrow" that showcased her strong yet sweet, vintage-country voice. Nice show.
