Red Clay Strays, The Revivalists, Haley Reinhart, and Brent Cobb

It’s not every day that you see a mainstream 7-piece jam band complete with trumpet and saxophone hit the road, but similar to the likes of Moon Taxi and The Wild Feathers, the New Orleans based Revivalists deliver the enthusiastic twang of a southern alt rock band playing with a genuine and undeniably innate sense of rhythm.

For such a big outfit, the guys are close yet comfortable on stage, each ingratiating himself inconspicuously before coming together as a group both mentally and musically for the drop. Vocalist David Shaw’s rough yet rich delivery is at times reminiscent of Ray LaMontage’s husky but passionate tone (especially when he’s stripped down with only a guitar). Shaw not only genuinely inflects his commitment to the song using his powerful voice, but also through his onstage presence, fumblingly calculatedly around onstage while continuously encouraging the crowd and interacting with the front row die-hards.

The unrelenting saxophone, along with the trumpet, pierce the melody, adding to the highly energetic and involving performance; it’s exactly what you’d expect from a 7-piece jam band.

With an EP and two albums under their belt, including a 2014 re-release of the two-disc City of Sound, The Revivalists offer a grand, one-of-a-kind musical experience, continuously touring North America with the entire band in tow.

The sound set up was horrible, it was way too loud and you could feel a strong distortion when the bass was playing. The sound of the band was so loud that you couldn’t enjoy Haley’s voice or even understand what she was singing

The accommodation was detestable, except for 15 high stools at the balcony, the only chairs available were far from any place where you can see the artist, I believe this was the wrong venue for this show specially because Haley is known for her vintage covers which a lot of old people like, so of course the place had many seniors that couldn’t enjoy the show at all, I saw several of them leaving 3 or 4 songs before the show was over.

As much as I like Haley I have to say that I am very disappointed at her too, I liked her for how mellow her voice is, the way she handles that rasp and the ability to connect to people without going too high with her voice, however it seems like she decided to follow the “rock star” path with a loud band and a rocker tone, the way I see it she is losing money, she would be better off with only one instrument (piano or guitar), but she obviously has the right to choose whatever path she wants, however if this is her choice I am not going to follow her any more.

Wednesday 24th May. The Borderline. Brent Cobb. Its two nights after the terror attack in Manchester and my feelings are the same as when I saw Gary Clark Jr the night after the Bataclan attack. By not attending or the artist cancelling just gives into the terrorists. Yes we must grieve but we have to carry on. The events from Monday night just reinforce the delicacy of life and so we must enjoy every moment we have. If we risk assessed everything we did we would never leave our beds and even then I’m sure there’s a risk associated with that.

So big thanks to Brent and the packed crowd for letting the show go on.

Brent Cobb is a country singer songwriter from Georgia and to avoid any confusion and a doff to Alejandro Escovedo it’s not Americana but firmly country. He’s written for, been covered by or opened for a lot of country’s big stars but he’s now an established artist in his own right.

We’re back at the newly refurbished Borderline and whilst I will never reconcile the painting over of the great musical history of the venue they have on the whole done a good job and Brent and accompanying guitarist enter from the new secret door stage right.

We are then treated to the finest country music for the next seventy minutes. Cobb, full of stories in between songs, genuinely pleased to be there sings from the heart about the South. Tonight’s set is drawn from his latest album along with choice covers from Dwight Yoakam and Lynyrd Skynyrd.

There’s no bass or drums tonight but it’s a perfect blend of electric and acoustic guitar and delightful harmonies throughout. Cobb promises to bring the full band across next time.

On a night of highlights the title track from the album ‘Shine on Rainy Day’ is the obvious stand out with the crowd singing along too. It’s a co-write with the talented Andrew Combs who I saw perform the same song two weeks ago, although he does claim that Cobb’s title for the song is wrong.

So another great country gig, two in two weeks and with Cale Tyson next week, there’s never been a better time for intelligent male country.

Keep on country rockin y’all