Comeback Kids

Guitar World’s 10 Best Comeback Albums of All Time proves that you can’t keep a good band down.

Even the best artists sometimes:

1) Take risks that fans don’t dig

2) Let success get in the way

3) Run out of ideas

4) Lose their way

5) Just get overtaken by something new and exciting

Or, as the list also illustrates, people die and stuff.  So bravo AC/DC!  Well done, Foo Fighters!

But most of the list is about a wake-up call, followed by a determined (and successful) effort to proclaim, “Not down for the count!”

U2, Metallica, Johnny Cash, Aerosmith, John Lennon, Deep Purple, the Stones, The Dixie Chicks …  they’ve all proven they had a lot more to give.

Good for them … and lucky us!

Eagles Live

The motivation for going to the aforementioned concert was The Dixie Chicks.   But, having commented on them, I thought I should also say something about the main event.

I've always been lukewarm towards The Eagles.  I mean, I've always liked them, I've bought records and CD's.  I can't remember ever changing the station when they came on the radio - which, coming from an incurable button-pusher, is a compliment.  They've written some classic songs and I respect them as musicians - especially Joe Walsh.  I've just never been ... oh, I dunno ... enthusiastic.

So I went with neutral expectations.  I knew I wouldn't hate it, but I didn't expect to be blown away.  Well, I almost was blown away.  They were very good.

Great production, tight delivery, a good mix of "listen up! this is serious" and "it's just rock, let's have some fun."  Excellent a/v show.  And they gave Joe Walsh five songs, acknowledging that he was a star before they were.  Joe sure is fun.

I'm not sure The Eagles have made it onto my "I-have-to-see-them-every-time-they-go-on-tour" list, but they were a treat and I'm glad I went.  Glad they've been around in The Long Run.

Dixie Chicks Live

Last year I had the opportunity to see the Dixie Chicks live.

Just so you know, I'm a recent convert.  I'm not a hard core country fan, so it took Shut Up and Sing to get my attention.  Which it did.

Some random thoughts:

1) thoroughly enjoyed it

2) confused about Natalie's hair (or lack thereof)

3) wish they had played longer

4) Natalie's performance was uneven.  It was obvious this was the first stop on the tour.  She was good, but didn't appear to be emotionally connected to every song.  On at least one song, you could se she was struggling as she tried to remember it. 

But on some songs, like Not Ready to Make Nice, she was unbelievable; powerful, emotional, knock you over passionate.  More than made up for the others songs where the performance was merely good.

4) My, but hasn't country changed alot in my lifetime.  As a kid, Country meant Lester Flat and Earl Scruggs, cowboy songs, bluegrass, Hee Haw.  The fiddles and the banjos are still there, but now it's rock.

I realize there has always been a lot of overlap, and I'd heard all these songs before, but the live experience put the music in a new light.  At the concert, I heard hooks you might expect in a Deep Purple song.  I heard vocal harmonies that would be at home in a Moody Blues piece.  Prog rock and metal meets bluegrass.  Wow.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised.  All of North America's musical genres - country, blues, jazz and rock - come from the same basic building blocks, which are various Western European folk traditions, European church and classical music, and West African music.  The different genres mix things up differently, and emphasize things their own distinctive ways, but they start with the same elements.

Just goes to show you, I guess, the dangers of putting things in a box and putting a label on it.