REVIEW: Old-New-New-Old
Long Road @ Nighttown 3/31/12
Reviewed by Elsa Johnson & Victor Lucas
We go out to hear live music about three times a year, but last Saturday we followed up on a longstanding personal relationship with David Budin and went to hear his group, Long Road, at Night Town.
We were already familiar with the group’s website and their credo, “Cleveland’s favorite — and only — ’60’s-style folk group… making old songs new (and new songs sound old).” And, given the group’s vintage, we weren’t surprised at the audience, nearly all aged 60 plus like us.
We were the people our parents warned us about and there we were, 40 or 50 years later, all of us looking pretty straight, pretty respectable.
As the six musicians tuned up, we tried unsuccessfully to identify all the stringed instruments that crowded the stage. Budin on guitar, vocals, and comedy, towering Raymond DeForest on upright bass and vocals. Everyone else — Celia Hollander Lewis, Charlie Lewis, Kevin Richards, and Bob Sandham — played too many stringed instruments to name and also did vocals. No drums or percussion.
At 8:21 pm — before the official 8:30 starting time — the house lights came down and the band smiled and sang “Earthly Pleasures,” a country-pop song that we couldn’t place. We smiled too. Nice harmonies in the chorus. John Denver? Later we saw the set list and learned that “Earthly Pleasures” was written in 1978 by Baxter Shadowfield, Budin’s old stage name.
Then Celia Lewis sang lead vocals on “The Water Is Wide,” the English ballad from the 1600s. David Krauss of Tiny Alice (remember them?) guested on harmonica.
Budin sang lead on “Loving Arms,” a pop hit from 1974.
DeForest brought his fine bass voice out for “Well, Well, Well,” a folk song written by Bob Gibson in the early ’60s. References to Noah’s flood and the fire next time struck a welcome note with us. What kind of folk song concert would this be without dire warnings of apocalypse? Maybe next they’ll play an anti-war song!
But no. The next song, we later learned, was “Shelly’s Blues,” written in the late ’60s by former Monkee Mike Nesmith.
Budin’s guitar licks at the beginning of Bruce Springsteen’s “Pink Cadillac” were the most rock and roll moments of the concert. Interesting how difficult it is to sustain syncopated dance rhythms with all stringed instruments. Did you ever try dancing at a Grateful Dead concert?
But maybe if you knew the “Turkey Trot” you could have danced to “Dallas Rag,” a 1920s instrumental led by Kevin Richards on mandolin. We can’t get enough of our digitally remastered recordings of Louis Armstrong in 1929 and if contemporary musicians will take us back further, we’re all ears.
Next it was a mostly a cappella version of James Taylor’s “Close Your Eyes.” Then Merle Haggard’s “Workingman Blues” and by golly the first set was over.
We hung around for a while, talking to some people we knew, some we didn’t. Remember La Cave on Euclid Avenue in the ’60s? When’s the last time you went to Beachland Ballroom?
We were genuinely impressed with Long Road’s musicianship and their ability to make something fresh out of moldy oldies. Budin’s humor made us laugh more than once and the band cranked through the set with no dead air.
It was only 9:20 pm but already coming up on our bedtime. We drove home, mulling over Long Road’s concert. Maybe the second set had biting political commentary and psychedelia, but nobody started early in the ’60s.
Long Road performed at Nighttown on Sat 3/31/12.
From Cool Cleveland contributors Elsa Johnson and Victor Lucas. Elsa and Vic are both longtime Clevelanders. Elsa is a landscape designer. She studied ballet as an avocation for 2 decades. Vic has been a dancer and dance teacher for most of his working life, performing in a number of dance companies in NYC and Cleveland. They write about dance as a way to learn more and keep in touch with the dance community. E-mail them at vicnelsaATearthlink.net.