I'm one of those who jumped on the Emmylou bandwagon when I heard "Wrecking
Ball". While I've made scant progress in exploring her backcatalogue, I've
happily bought each of her subsequent albums and with the opportunity to
catch her live, I got myself a ticket to each of her two Melbourne shows.
As expected, she didn't disappoint. The shows kicked off at 7:30pm with Buddy
Miller playing a set (with Emmylou contributing rhythm guitar and backing
vocals to a couple of song). Kasey Chambers then took the stage with her band
and offered a wonderful showcase of what she can do - as a Kasey-ignoramus, I
was dead impressed by "The Captain" particularly. There was then a short break
before Emmylou hit the stage with her band Spyboy. While Kasey's music
generally works from a country base, Emmylou's band seems more like an avant
garde rock band, with Brady Blade grooving away behind his kit, Tony Hall
bouncing out basslines and Buddy Miller throwing weird washes of guitar noise
over the whole affair. Rising above it all was Emmylou's magical voice, equally comfortable in upbeat songs like "I Don't Walk About It Now" or when duetting
with Buddy on the luscious "Love Hurts". It's like she aims at a note, pulls
back but then hits it on the rebound. Kasey Chambers returned to the stage
to contribute backing vocals for "My Baby Needs A Shepherd". The two shows were sufficiently different to justify attending both nights, as she played
"Goodbye" and "Bang The Drum Slowly" on Friday and "All I Left Behind" and the
stunning a capella "Calling My Children Home" on Saturday. After two hours on
stage, it was all brought to a close with "The Maker", a wide open version of
the Daniel Lanois tune that came complete with solo turns from Tony and Brady.
I'm one of those who jumped on the Emmylou bandwagon when I heard "Wrecking
Ball". While I've made scant progress in exploring her backcatalogue, I've
happily bought each of her subsequent albums and with the opportunity to
catch her live, I got myself a ticket to each of her two Melbourne shows.
As expected, she didn't disappoint. The shows kicked off at 7:30pm with Buddy
Miller playing a set (with Emmylou contributing rhythm guitar and backing
vocals to a couple of song). Kasey Chambers then took the stage with her band
and offered a wonderful showcase of what she can do - as a Kasey-ignoramus, I
was dead impressed by "The Captain" particularly. There was then a short break
before Emmylou hit the stage with her band Spyboy. While Kasey's music
generally works from a country base, Emmylou's band seems more like an avant
garde rock band, with Brady Blade grooving away behind his kit, Tony Hall
bouncing out basslines and Buddy Miller throwing weird washes of guitar noise
over the whole affair. Rising above it all was Emmylou's magical voice, equally comfortable in upbeat songs like "I Don't Walk About It Now" or when duetting
with Buddy on the luscious "Love Hurts". It's like she aims at a note, pulls
back but then hits it on the rebound. Kasey Chambers returned to the stage
to contribute backing vocals for "My Baby Needs A Shepherd". The two shows were sufficiently different to justify attending both nights, as she played
"Goodbye" and "Bang The Drum Slowly" on Friday and "All I Left Behind" and the
stunning a capella "Calling My Children Home" on Saturday. After two hours on
stage, it was all brought to a close with "The Maker", a wide open version of
the Daniel Lanois tune that came complete with solo turns from Tony and Brady.
