An Evening with Gillian Welch and David Rawlings

If you're unfamiliar with Gillian Welch, go back and listen to the soundtrack to "O Brother, Where Art Thou," and you'll hear her throughout that soundtrack. I have always been a fan of bluegrass but really never completely fell deeply in love with it until I heard Gillian's dark take on the genre.
I saw her and her longtime partner, David Rawlings, at The State Theater in Portland last night and enjoyed myself immensely. As always seems to happen when I go to events, there's a funny anecdote to tell, which I'll get to in a bit. The above song is one of my very favorites of hers and they did play it last night. Their version of "Long Black Veil" is my favorite, amongst many great versions of this classic song. I love Johnny's and Lefty's too but her haunting, dark voice always does it for me. I would also strongly urge you to listen to "Orphan Girl" as another example of their style, her voice and her dark, intimate lyrics; or "Sing that Rock N Roll" for an example of them at their Appalachian rockabilly best.

Yes, these are often passionate songs of religious devotion and I'm an atheist, always will be, but she touches me deeply nonetheless. I like gospel music also -- surprise, surprise.

The anecdote: I went alone, spent 30 bucks on a ticket that put me at the very back, dead center in this intimate little theater that is familiar to every small city in the country. My seat was the center one of five and when I sat down for the first time, I couldn't believe how little room there was between my seat and one in front of me. I'm not quite 5-10 and I had to have my legs in a V to keep from having my legs severely scrunched against the seatback. Well finally along comes the couple who'll be sitting to my left, a nice couple who drove down from St. John, NB, to see the show. We'll call them Nancy and Paul, short for Paul Bunyan. There was nothing short about this guy. He was 6-7 at least and the only way for him to get in his seat was to have his V so wide his knees were halfway into my spot. I sat for 3 or 4 songs with my left leg just below the knee resting on the top of the seatback in front (luckily the lady in that seat was leaning forward the whole time) and it quickly cut into my flesh. The theater was sold out, so Paul was unable to go lay down in the aisle. Finally after those first few songs I had the brilliant idea to sit on the top of my seat in its collapsed position. It was as uncomfortable as it sounds, with the seat front cutting into my buttocks but I can tell you it was enormously more comfortable than actually sitting in the seat. Paul did the same and was very thankful for my idea. After intermission we stood up behind our seats against the back wall.

The State Theater has been renovated since the last time I was there and it looks great. One thing you don't often get at a concert venue of this type and size is a full bar. So I had myself a little nip of Johnny Walker Black as I enjoyed the show.  Don't think about going out for a butt during intermission though...no re-entry.  Oh, and I had a couple of slices of pie before the show at Otto Pizza just a block away...quite yummy, though I did notice a tapas restaurant right across from the theater after I'd already eaten.  I would have loved to have tried that.