Posted on May 25, 2018 at 10:27 pm
Is there anyone in the entire entertainment industry who contains as much pure joy and such innate glorious musicality as Gavin Creel? Let me answer that for you: no. No, there is not. And he brought that contagious joy and stupendous mastery to the stage at SubCulture (on his night off from his Tony Award-winning role in Hello, Dolly!) for a truly wonderful evening of music-making.
We started by breaking out a classic Dixie Chicks song and moved on to Loggins & Messina, and along the way, we got a beautifully gender-crossed “Another Life,” a thrashing version of a song from The Connector, the world’s fiercest version of “Moving Too Fast,” and Gavin’s own beautiful song “Hold You” from the new show he’s writing. And while that was going on, Todd and Gary worked their magic on “Break Me Blues,” and I offered a whole bunch of tunes from the new album, and brought my gorgeous old pal Mairi Dorman-Phaneuf onstage to join me on “Wondering.”
A heart-filling, radiant evening with a fantastic friend. Next show: June 21!
Song About Your Gun from How We React and How We Recover (2018)
Break Me Blues (2012)
GAVIN & JRB: Long Time Gone (music and lyrics by Darrell Scott, 2000)
GAVIN: Another Life from The Bridges of Madison County (2014)
GAVIN: The Voice of My Generation from The Connector (2016)
Everybody Knows from How We React and How We Recover (2018)
Wondering from The Bridges of Madison County (2014)
Invisible from How We React and How We Recover (2018)
GAVIN & JRB: Your Mama Don’t Dance (music and lyrics by Kenny Loggins and Jim Messina, 1972)
GAVIN: Hold You (music and lyrics by Gavin Creel, 2017)
GAVIN: Moving Too Fast from The Last Five Years (2002)
Melinda from How We React and How We Recover (2018)
Hope from How We React and How We Recover (2018)
Jason Robert Brown: piano & vocals
Gavin Creel: guest vocals (and piano on “Hold You”)
Todd Reynolds: violin
Justin Goldner: guitars & banjo
Gary Sieger: guitars
Randy Landau: basses
Jamie Eblen: drums
Mairi Dorman-Phaneuf: guest cellist on “Wondering”, “Moving Too Fast” and “Melinda”
3 comments
The joy you mention was radiated not only by the phenomenal Gavin Creel, but also by all the musicians on stage, and then reflected from the audience. Combined with the superb musicianship and the beautifully-crafted songs, it made for a wonderful night.
Paraphrasing what Gavin said during the concert, it’s a great privilege to attend these explorations into your musical creativity. I am always eager to discover what you’ll come up with each month.
One thing that could make the experience even better would be to turn down the volume a bit, so that my ears wouldn’t remain sore for a while after the concert. I could have worn my earplugs, but I was afraid that I might miss something wonderful!
[FROM JRB: Sorry, Larry! That was one of the louder shows we’ve done – we just got carried away!]
Amazing night! I do hope for more collaborations with Gavin in the future. I’d love to see him in one of your shows.
Where might we find the ‘Break Me Blues’? Is it on ‘How We React and How We Recover’? Also, I for one didn’t think it was too loud and I was in the second row. Thanks for the great night.
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