by Julian Spivey The 59th annual Grammy Awards took place on Sunday, Feb. 12 and frankly seemed to shock many with Adele taking home the three biggest honors of the night – Album of the Year, Record of the Year and Song of the Year – over Beyoncé. It maybe shouldn’t have been such a surprise considering the Grammy’s darling that Adele is, but Beyoncé’s Lemonade was hailed as such a major achievement in the history of music last year that it didn’t feel like anyone could ruin her night. Here is a little recap of the 59th annual Grammy Awards: Beyoncé: Beyoncé performed “Love Drought” and “Sandcastles” on the Grammys as some sort of meditation on motherhood and people absolutely ate it up as they do with anything Beyoncé does, but I must tell you that I thought it was one of the worst performances of the night. Maybe I should have saved this for later? Oh well, if you’re still reading … I just prefer for my music award shows to be a little bit more about the music and this almost 10-minute performance came off as something more like performance art. I know that Lemonade was hailed as a “visual album” and this performance feeds into that, but it just didn’t do it for me. It really does bug me, as well, how everybody holds Beyoncé up as a savior of music. She just a pop singer. She may be a damn good one, but stop acting like she’s the second coming of Christ. Sturgill Simpson: I’m a hardcore Sturgill Simpson fan, so I knew going into the show that his performance was likely going to be my favorite of the night and it turned out to be true with him performing “All Around You,” my second favorite song off of A Sailor’s Guide to Earth. Even though I knew going in A Sailor’s Guide to Earth would be a long-shot to win Album of the Year I was still disappointed when Adele’s 25 was called as the winner. I really did think, though, that if an album could upset Beyoncé’s Lemonade it might be A Sailor’s Guide to Earth. I was thrilled that A Sailor’s Guide to Earth took home the Grammy for Best Country Album, but was livid that the award wasn’t telecast on the primetime broadcast, but given out prior to the ceremony. Simpson deserved the opportunity to receive this honor in front of millions watching at home and not broadcasting the biggest award in the country music genre was highly disrespectful to the genre and its fans. Tributes: The Grammy tributes on Sunday night ranged from perfect to adequate, but it was really what wasn’t done that irritated me. Bruno Mars and Morris Day and The Time paying tribute to Prince was excellent. Mars performed Prince’s “Let’s Go Crazy” dressed as the late, great artist from “Purple Rain” and it was, without a doubt, one of the highlights of the entire night. Adele paid tribute to George Michael with a version of his song “Fastlove,” that started off with the artist stopping the song maybe 30 seconds to a minute into the performance, apologizing for not getting it right (though I’m not sure any of us really knew it) and began again. It was reminiscent of Adele’s rough Grammys performance from a few years ago, and I can’t help but wonder if she might have the Grammy yips or nerves going through her head because of it. What has me frankly pissed off at the Grammys this year is they didn’t do a tribute segment to Merle Haggard, who has influenced countless more artists in his genre than George Michael ever did. I feel like this omission was incredibly disrespectful to not only the legendary Haggard, but the entire genre of country music. It was made even more irritating by a multiple artist tribute medley to the Bee Gees because of the 40th anniversary of “Saturday Night Fever,” which CBS is airing a special for later this year – essentially this Grammys tribute was just a freaking commercial for that future event. The In Memoriam segment of the show was lovely with John Legend and Cynthia Erivo performing The Beach Boys’ “God Only Knows,” my personal favorite of theirs. Though, it may have been best for the performance to not have been broken up with the In Memoriam video. CBS Rudeness: I understand that television networks want to stay on schedule, but when it comes to live award shows they really need to give it a rest. CBS and the producers of the Grammys were incredibly rude to multiple award winners on Sunday night, most notably “Hello” co-writer Greg Kurstin, who didn’t even get to make his acceptance speech after Adele made hers before being cut off. The “hurry up” music also played a few too many times during acceptance speeches, most notably twice for Chance the Rapper. James Corden: James Corden was really a no-brainer to host the Grammys, aired annually on CBS, as he hosts the network’s “Late, Late Show” and his music loving Carpool Karaoke sketch has become hugely popular. Corden’s Grammys opener was a mixed bag – the bit about the stage elevator not working and then falling down the stairs showed that the comedian is quite talented when it comes to physical comedy, but then his opening rap was kind of lame and unnecessary. Ultimate, as lovable as Corden is the Grammys don’t really need a host. Technically LL Cool J had been the show’s host of late, but he usually just said something quickly and let the show move along. Real Music: The Grammys love themselves some pop music and too often the procession of pop act after pop act (and I’m including “country” artists like Keith Urban, Carrie Underwood, Maren Morris and Kelsea Ballerina in this discussion) can become too much. That’s why I loved three performances a little more than others on Sunday night – Sturgill Simpson’s Americana country-rock-gospel, William Bell and Gary Clark Jr.’s old school blues and A Tribe Called Quest’s politically charged hip hop. These performances were arguably the realest of the night and showed what real music is all about. The Grammys almost always become too much about flashy pop music and that’s fine for putting on a grand show, but it was the performances of Simpson, Bell, Clark and A Tribe Called Quest that truly remind us why we all fell in love with music in the first place – the actual music, the sounds, the words. Ranking the 18 performances:
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by Julian Spivey The Grammy award for Album of the Year has fared a little better over the years than the category of Song of the Year, but it’s still honestly hit or miss when you look back through time at the winners. Here are the 10 Grammy Album of the Year winners that I believe are the greatest of all-time: 10. “O Brother, Where Art Thou” by Various Artists I’m not sure if I’m completely cool with movie soundtracks winning Album of the Year, but I do think it’s cool that the soundtrack to the Coen Brothers’ 2000 film “O Brother, Where Art Thou” briefly made bluegrass and other forms of music born out of Appalachia cool. The soundtrack featured performances from Ralph Stanley, Alison Krauss, Emmylou Harris, Gillian Welch and mostly notably “I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow” by The Soggy Bottom Boys, which includes Union Station member Dan Tyminski on vocals. 9. “The Joshua Tree” by U2 I’m admittedly not a huge U2 fan and honestly believe a large portion of their discography is overrated, but The Joshua Tree doesn’t fall into that category. The only U2 album I’ve ever owned featured the group’s greatest song “With or Without You” and a couple of more solid singles in “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” and “Where the Streets Have No Name.” The Joshua Tree won Album of the Year In 1988. 8. “Supernatural” by Santana Carlos Santana pretty much owned popular music in 1999-2000 with his Album of the Year winner Supernatural. The collaborative album between the legendary guitarist and many stars in a multitude of genres included the 12-week No. 1 smash “Smooth,” featuring Matchbox Twenty front-man Rob Thomas, and the 10-week No. 1 hit “Maria Maria,” featuring R&B group The Product G&B. Supernatural also featured collaborations with Eric Clapton, Dave Matthews, Everlast, Lauryn Hill and more. 7. “Still Crazy After All These Years” by Paul Simon The Grammys have loved them some legendary singer-songwriter Paul Simon over the years with him winning three Album of the Year awards between his solo career and time with Simon & Garfunkel. Spoiler alert: all three of those albums appear on this list. Still Crazy After All These Years took home the honor in 1976 and featured the terrific title track, the catchy “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover” and the excellent regrouping with Art Garfunkel on “My Little Town.” 6. “Unplugged” by Eric Clapton I’m really not a huge fan of live albums consisting of mostly older material taking home the honor of Album of the Year, but in 1993 it was hard to deny Eric Clapton’s Unplugged, which was recorded as part of MTV’s acoustic concert series “MTV Unplugged.” The album featured Clapton’s tragic response to his young son’s death “Tears in Heaven,” plus a memorable (and somewhat unrecognizable) acoustic version of “Layla.” Unplugged also featured many great blues numbers: Robert Johnson’s “Walkin’ Blues,” Muddy Waters’ “Rollin’ and Tumblin’” and Bo Diddley’s “Before You Accuse Me.” 5. “52nd Street” by Billy Joel Billy Joel’s 1978 album 52nd Street, which took home the Grammy Album of the Year in 1979, is probably not Joel’s best album – many would say that would be The Stranger, which preceded it. However, the album featured some killer tracks in “My Life” and “Big Shot” and would see “Honesty” nominated for Song of the Year, losing to the Doobie Brothers’ “What a Fool Believes.” 4. “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” by The Beatles I figure this placement will be controversial. Many believe The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band to be the single greatest album ever recorded, including Rolling Stone magazine. However, I don’t even believe it to be The Beatles greatest album – I’m in the corner of Abbey Road. However, there’s no denying ‘Sgt. Pepper’s’ is terrific and it does feature my favorite Beatles song in the album closing “A Day in the Life.” 3. “Bridge Over Troubled Water” by Simon & Garfunkel Simon & Garfunkel likely saved their best album for their last in 1970’s Bridge Over Troubled Water, that would win Album of the Year in 1971 after the duo’s breakup. The album’s beautifully soaring title track would also win Grammys for Song and Record of the Year. Bridge Over Troubled Water also featured “The Boxer,” which I consider to be the greatest Simon & Garfunkel recording, as well as “The Only Living Boy in New York,” which kind of foresaw the duo’s breakup. 2. “Rumours” by Fleetwood Mac Oftentimes beautiful art comes from times of great pain and turmoil and that was certainly the case with Fleetwood Mac’s 1977 album Rumours, which would win Album of the Year in 1978. Fleetwood Mac contained two sets of couples within the group: Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks and John and Christine McVie with both breaking up before the making of the album leading to much angst and moodiness in tracks like “Go Your Own Way,” “Never Going Back Again” and “Dreams.” 1. “Graceland” by Paul Simon I will make no apologies for my love of Paul Simon, who is a singer-songwriter legend and in some small ways underrated. His 1986 album Graceland, winner of Album of the Year in 1987, was a unique and wonderful mixture of sounds from all over the world including pop, rock, zydeco, a capella and African music like mbaqanga. Graceland is one of my favorite albums of all-time featuring terrific tracks like “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes,” “You Can Call Me Al,” “That Was Your Mother” and, of course, the title track. by Julian Spivey The Grammy Awards have handed out almost 60 trophies for Song of the Year in its history, but surprisingly many of these honored songs from the music industry’s biggest awards ceremony haven’t really stood the test of time as “all-time” greats. In fact, many of the winners are downright lame: Barry Manilow’s “I Write the Songs,” Debby Boone’s “You Light Up My Life,” USA for Africa’s “We Are the World” and Bobby McFerrin’s “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” These aren’t exactly “Like a Rolling Stone,” which wasn’t even nominated. Frankly, it was hard to even make a top 10 of the greatest Grammy Song of the Year winners. If I were to make a list of the 100 greatest songs of all-time there’s a good chance not even one of these songs would make the list. Here are the 10 I settled on as the greatest Song of the Year winners of all-time: 10. "Every Breath You Take" by The PoliceThe Police’s “Every Breath You Take,” written by Sting, took home the Grammy for Song of the Year in 1984. More than 30 years later the song might feel more stalker-ish than romantic, but it’s still just as catchy as ever. 9. "Little Green Apples" by O.C. Smith“Little Green Apples,” written by Bobby Russell, is a beautiful song that was the story of the 1969 Grammy Awards. O.C. Smith’s soulful R&B version went to No. 2 on the Billboard charts and won Song of the Year, while my favorite version Roger Miller’s, released the same year, took home the honor for Country Song of the Year. The song should not have won over The Beatles’ “Hey Jude” though. 8. "Don't Know Why" by Norah JonesTime will not look kindly upon the Grammy’s Song of the Year award, but I do believe most would think the modern Grammys have done better when it comes to the honor. I don’t care for songs like Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies” or Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab,” but most would agree they are worthy. My favorite modern-ish winner is Norah Jones’ piano ballad “Don’t Know Why,” written by Jesse Harris, from 2003. It’s one of the more soulful winners in recent history. 7. "Smooth" by Santana feat. Rob ThomasThe 2000 Grammy Awards absolutely belonged to Carlos Santana, who’s album Supernatural won nine awards including Album, Record and Song of the Year. “Smooth,” written by Matchbox Twenty vocalist Rob Thomas and Itaal Shur, felt like it would go down as one of the all-time great songs at the time. It’s still great to this day, but you’re probably not going to see it on too many “greatest songs of all-time” lists. 6. "Michelle" by The BeatlesIf you were to rank the greatest Beatles songs of all-time I don’t believe “Michelle” would even be in the top 20, but it’s the only Beatles song to ever win the Grammy for Song of the Year. Better Beatles songs like “Hey Jude,” “Yesterday” and “Let It Be” were nominated, but beaten out by the likes of “Little Green Apples,” “The Shadow of Your Smile” and “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” It shouldn’t be any surprise that “Michelle” was the Beatles Grammy breakthrough though as the Paul McCartney penned song is a romantic love ballad even featuring a verse in French. That’s too sweet for the Grammys to ignore. 5. "Tears in Heaven" by Eric ClaptonThe Grammys were really digging some Eric Clapton in the 1990s with “Tears in Heaven,” co-written by him and Will Jennings, winning in 1993 and “Change the World,” written by Wayne Kirkpatrick, Gordon Kennedy and Tommy Sims, winning in 1997. Clapton, no doubt, had better songs two decades prior, but his sweet and tragic ballad for his deceased son “Tears in Heaven” was a popular winner and kept Billy Ray Cyrus’s “Achy Breaky Heart” (yes, it was nominated) from winning. 4. "Just the Way You Are" by Billy JoelThere’s a good chance if I were to rank Billy Joel’s greatest songs that “Just the Way You Are,” winner for Song of the Year in 1979, wouldn’t crack the top 10. In fact, I’m not even sure it’s one of Joel’s own favorites as he doesn’t perform it in concert near as much as his other hits. But, I could see how the cutesy love song would be hard to pass up by a Grammys committee that loved cutesy love ballads around this time. 3. "Bridge Over Troubled Water" by Simon & GarfunkelSimon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water” was the big Grammys winner in 1970 taking home Song of the Year, Record of the Year, Album of the Year and three other awards. The sweet ballad featuring lovely vocals from Art Garfunkel was basically the definition of “Grammy Bait.” The song, considered by many to be Simon & Garfunkel’s best, wasn’t even the best track off the album (that would be “The Boxer”) and probably should’ve fallen to The Beatles’ “Let It Be” in hindsight. 2. "Streets of Philadelphia" by Bruce SpringsteenIn typical Grammys fashion, a music legend like Bruce Springsteen won Song of the Year in 1995 for “Streets of Philadelphia,” a song that’s likely not even one of his 20 greatest recordings of all-time. The song, written for Jonathan Demme’s 1993 film “Philadelphia,” about a character (played by Tom Hanks) dying of AIDS would also win Best Original Song at the Academy Awards. Springsteen would be nominated for Song of the Year twice more for “The Rising” (losing to Norah Jones’ “Don’t Know Why”) and “Devils & Dust” (losing to U2’s “Sometimes You Can’t Make It on Your Own”). 1. "Always on My Mind" by Willie Nelson“Always on My Mind,” written by Wayne Carson, Johnny Christopher and Mark James, was first recorded by Elvis Presley in 1972. Presley’s overdone version would reach the top 20 on the Billboard charts, but it’s Willie Nelson’s understated take, released in 1982, that has become the definitive version of the song. Nelson’s version would also win CMA Song of the Year in two consecutive years (because that used to be a thing). It’s not Nelson’s greatest song, in my opinion, that would be his 1975 single “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain,” but it’s right up there. by Julian Spivey Eric Church brought his epic Holdin’ My Own Tour to North Little Rock’s Verizon Arena on Saturday, Feb. 4. The tour which features Church performing two sets with an intermission in between is three hours of terrific music from mainstream country music’s finest modern performer. Church fits almost 40 songs into his mind-blowing three hour set that really should have the CMA and ACM Award winner being compared as his genre’s Bruce Springsteen. This tour also goes to show how ridiculous and unbelievable it is that Church has never taken home an Entertainer of the Year honor at either major country music awards show. Most artists don’t typically begin shows with something sort of quiet and easy-going, but Church made the brilliant decision to do just that in beginning his show with the fitting “Mistress Named Music” from his most recent album Mr. Misunderstood, released in late 2015. You could tell watching and listening to Church that he’s almost controlled by his music. It’s something he needs and his fans feed off it so nicely. Church turned things up a bit following the opener with a couple of the loudest songs in his repertoire – “That’s Damn Rock & Roll” and “The Outsiders.” Neither are particularly favorites of mine, but it was a great way to get the packed Verizon Arena crowd into the show. My favorite early segment performance came next with “Knives of New Orleans” off Mr. Misunderstood, which is a Springsteen-esque tale of a killer and the subsequent manhunt for him. It’s one of the great story songs in recent country music history and shows just why Church is ahead of the game as far as his genre is concerned. The great thing about Church going out on tour by himself without any openers and being able to play two full sets is that he’s able to pepper his set list with all his hits, which have been mounting steadily since his first album was released just over a decade ago, and non-singles alike. This luxury allows fans to hear hits like “Drink in My Hand,” “How ‘Bout You,” “Like a Wrecking Ball” and “Cold One” mixed in with deep record cuts like “Carolina,” “Lotta Boot Left to Fill” and “Pledge Allegiance to the Hag” that hardcore fans really love. In fact, “Pledge Allegiance to the Hag” performed late during the first set was one of my favorite moments of the night (I wore my Haggard shirt to the show) and Church paid tribute to Merle Haggard by showing his face on the big screen at the song’s completion. I’ve seen him perform the song in concert before, but this was the first time since Merle’s death last April, which made it even more emotional. Among my other favorite performances during Church’s first set were “Talladega,” “Smoke a Little Smoke,” which he ended the set with, and “Mr. Misunderstood,” the title track from his most recent album. “Mr. Misunderstood” really speaks to me as both a music lover and someone who feels like an outcast, especially when it comes to my musical tastes. But, it was nice to be in a room seeing Church perform it with others who no doubt feel the same way. This does bring me to my one complaint about the show and it has absolutely nothing to do with Church or his music. I don’t typically bring up concert issues that have nothing to do with the artist’s performance, but Verizon Arena has a bad reputation for me (mostly during the country music shows) of having frankly piss-poor audiences. Most of the crowd seemed to be having a blast, but unfortunately the section I was in was filled with people ranging from assholes who seemingly didn’t want to be there and were dragged to the venue by their significant others to people who just wanted to drink or spend time on their smart phones. If you don’t want to attend a concert for the music please don’t go and let the real music lovers among us enjoy it. Anyway, back to the amazing show. The second set of the concert featured a lot of great performances from Mr. Misunderstood, which Church performed every track of during the night, including “Chattanooga Lucy,” the beautiful “Three Year Old” and “Mixed Drinks About Feelings,” with excellent help from backup singer Joanna Cotten. Cotten also provided stellar backing help on Church’s most recent single “Kill a Word,” which he forgot some of the words to during the performance, which you can’t really blame him with the song being as wordy as it is. His performance of “Record Year,” the previous single off Mr. Misunderstood, was another great highlight of the second set. The second set, which featured at least 20 songs, included terrific performances of hits like “Give Me Back My Hometown,” “Creepin’” and “Homeboy,” which all seemed to be fan-favorites. Another great moment was the non-single “These Boots,” from Church’s 2006 debut Sinners Like Me, which has become a staple at his live shoes with longtime fans taking off their boots and hoisting them into the air for the entirety of the performance. Church finished his second set with my favorite song of his “Springsteen,” with an intro of Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark” before it. Not only do I love the song as a huge fan of Springsteen, but the fact that he often intros or outros it with Springsteen songs (last time I saw him do it with “Born to Run”) is a cherry on top. Church left the stage to uproarious applause, before returning a few moments later for a terrific, mostly solo three song encore of “Holdin’ My Own,” “Sinners Like Me” (another personal favorite of mine) and “Those I’ve Loved” as his fitting finisher to a great night of at times raucous and at times introspective music. Church proved in Little Rock on Saturday night why he’s one of the few greats currently in the genre of country music. His songwriting and music is just a cut above the rest. by Julian Spivey Outstanding Americana singer-songwriter Parker Millsap made his “Austin City Limits” debut on Saturday, Jan. 28 on the long-running PBS music program. Millsap was included on an episode with indie rock group Band of Horses. Millsap’s brand of Americana features a mixture of country, gospel and folk with some of the best lyrics in the genre and passionate vocals that really resonate with his fans. Millsap credits growing up in a Pentecostal Church and listening to his parents’ blues record collection with influencing his one-of-a-kind sound. His third studio album The Very Last Day was my second favorite release last year after Sturgill Simpson’s excellent A Sailor’s Guide to Earth and his ‘ACL’ debut featured about half of the album’s tracks. Millsap began his set with the excellent title track from his recent record, which has him foreseeing his response to the end of days. This led brilliantly into another raucous performance in “Hands Up,” about a down on his luck vet from a war in the Middle East holding up a gas station clerk just so he can afford to feed his babies at home. Millsap slowed things down a bit for his third performance on “Austin City Limits” with “Pining,” a beautiful vocal about absolutely needing to be with someone. The highlight of Millsap’s ‘ACL’ debut was his performance of “Heaven Sent,” which absolutely floored me the first time I heard it performed at last year’s Americana Honors & Awards, where Millsap was nominated for Album of the Year. The song features Millsap in the shoes of a gay son of a preacher who struggles with his dad not accepting him, even though he always said Jesus would love him through the flame. “Heaven Sent” topped this website’s list of the 100 best country/Americana songs of 2016. Another highlight of Millsap’s performance on the PBS program was the incredibly fiddle playing of band member Daniel Foulks on virtually every single song. Millsap kept the gospel flavor going after “Heaven Sent” with the song that first put him on the Americana map in 2014 “Truckstop Gospel,” the only performance during his set that wasn’t off The Very Last Day. It’s a raucous tune about a truck driver spreading the word of the Gospel on the road. Millsap finished his terrific set up with a couple more songs from The Very Last Day in the blues flavored gospel of “You Gotta Move” and the incredibly infectious “Hades Pleads,” about the Greek God of the underworld pleading for love. “Hades Pleads” is the perfect song for Millsap’s fiery brand of singing. If you’ve never heard of Parker Millsap I can’t stress enough how much you’re missing out. I’d start with catching his performance on “Austin City Limits” and then checking out the entirety of The Very Last Day. by Julian Spivey California folk rock group Dawes brought their fantastic sound and songwriting to Little Rock’s Rev Room on Tuesday, Jan. 31 as part of their “An Evening with Dawes” tour. And, when the group says ‘evening’ they truly mean the entirety of it with an on fire three hour set that featured more than 20 songs from their five studio albums. I was first introduced to Dawes in the fall of 2013 when they came to the Rev Room with one of my favorite singer-songwriters Jason Isbell as the opening act. I went to the Rev Room that night to see Isbell’s opening set, but left an immediate Dawes fan. I was captured by the group’s lyrics, stage presence and the way the audience lived and loved every performance. Since that night, they’ve become one of my favorite modern bands. The group, led by front-man Taylor Goldsmith, seemed particularly amped during the entire show feeding off the crowd of loyal fans. Goldsmith told the packed club that Little Rock had been an important part of the band’s tour ever since the beginning in 2009. Dawes kicked off the evening with the brilliant “One Of Us,” off their most recent release last year We’re All Gonna Die. I believe the song is the best track on the new album featuring Goldsmith’s knack for detailed lyricism. It was a great way to begin the show. The group split the night into two sets, with a short break in between, and each set was killer – both featuring tracks from all their albums. The first set happened to feature my three favorite Dawes songs – “A Little Bit of Everything,” “Fire Away” and “When My Time Comes.” The latter two songs featured the crowd taking over vocals at Goldsmith’s behest, which he seemed to enjoy thoroughly. The first set also featured many solid tracks from We’re All Gonna Die including “Picture of a Man,” “Quitter” and “Less Than Five Miles Away,” which finished the opening set. The set also included fan-favorites like “That Western Skyline” and “Somewhere Along the Way.” The entire group’s performances were flawless and the way Goldsmith commands the stage, bouncing around and seeming to love every single minute of it is infectious. Since I last saw Dawes the group has added guitarist Duane Betts, the son of legendary Allman Brothers Band guitarist Dickey Betts, to share guitar duties with Goldsmith and it’s a fantastic addition. The second set began with a couple of acoustic performances, including “Hey Lover” and “Roll Tide,” off the new release, which featured drummer Griff Goldsmith (Taylor’s brother) on lead vocals. Griff, who provides stellar backing vocals on many of the group’s best songs, showed that Taylor wasn’t the only great vocalist in the family. The second set featured more great tracks from We’re All Gonna Die including “Roll with the Punches” and the pop-flavored, catchy “When the Tequila Runs Out,” which the audience really enjoyed. The set also featured a few more personal favorites of mine in “Things Happen,” from their 2015 release All Your Favorite Bands, and “From a Window Seat,” off 2013’s Stories Don’t End. Dawes finished up their energetic show with the great 1-2-3 punch of “If I Wanted Someone,” “Most People” with an intro from “Time in Los Angeles” (though I wish the group had made time for the entire song) and the newest album’s title track. There wasn’t any way that the packed Rev Room crowd was going to let their beloved band get out of the building without an encore and after a couple of minutes Dawes returned to the stage for a fantastic two-song encore of “From the Right Angle” and the most fitting way to end their show “All Your Favorite Bands,” which culminated in the audience performing the final chorus. |
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