{"id":9108,"date":"2011-10-10T16:44:29","date_gmt":"2011-10-10T20:44:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.opticality.com\/blog\/?p=9108"},"modified":"2011-10-10T16:46:16","modified_gmt":"2011-10-10T20:46:16","slug":"jeff-litman-at-rockwood-music-hall-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/2011\/10\/10\/jeff-litman-at-rockwood-music-hall-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeff Litman at Rockwood Music Hall"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been 3.5 months since we last saw Jeff Litman<\/a> headline a set at Rockwood Music Hall<\/a>, so we were due. The band was the same (a very good thing considering their skills), including the same guest keyboard player. There were two additional guests, taking Jeff\u2019s always excellent performances up a notch.<\/p>\n

\"JeffLitman\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A quick recap about Jeff (I\u2019ve written about him a number of times now, so if you want more details, find any one of those posts on this site).<\/p>\n

Jeff is an excellent songwriter. He plays the guitar really well (both electric and acoustic). He happens to be a very good bass player too, but that\u2019s not the instrument he plays in his own band. He sings well.<\/p>\n

Most importantly, he surrounds himself with top musicians and delivers an upbeat show that is hard to resist (so we don\u2019t bother trying).<\/p>\n

The first of the two special guests spent much of the set on stage, starting on the very first song.<\/p>\n

Maddy Wyatt<\/a> sang harmony on roughly 2\/3\u2019s of the songs. On one number she also played the flute, beautifully, an instrument that is sorely lacking at Rockwood.<\/p>\n

\"JeffLitmanMaddyWyatSinging\"<\/a>\"MaddyWyattFlute\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The other guest was Shanna Zell<\/a> (who headlines her own sets, as well as being a member of The Ramblers<\/a>, another of my favorite groups). Shanna was slated to sing on Back to You, the third song on the set.<\/p>\n

\"SetList\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Jeff announced that Shanna\u2019s bus was running late and he was going to push that song down the list. What he didn\u2019t know was that I personally arranged for Shanna\u2019s bus to be late, not because I didn\u2019t want to hear her, but because I wanted to move the fourth song up one notch, happily listening to Shanna a few songs later.<\/p>\n

\"ShannaZell\"<\/a><\/p>\n

My evil plan worked! \"Winking<\/p>\n

When I tell you above that Jeff is an excellent songwriter, I mean it across the board. That doesn\u2019t mean that one song doesn\u2019t stand out (for me personally). In my case, that song is Maine. Jeff knows it, I know it, anyone who reads this blog knows it (and for sure, the Lord knows it).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been great every time, but last night was a real treat. On the CD (Postscript), Jeff sings the entire song harmonizing with a female voice (Kelly Jones<\/a>). Since this was the first of Jeff\u2019s shows where he had a female guest, it was the first time that he was able to perform the song as it is on the CD. Maddy was invited back up (while we waited for Shanna\u2019s bus, bwahaha) to sing with him.<\/p>\n

Thanks Jeff and Maddy. I should mention (for those that didn\u2019t read the other posts) that Jeff switches to acoustic guitar on Maine and plays the harmonica as well.<\/p>\n

Later in the set Jeff played a new song (he\u2019s getting very close to releasing a brand new CD!) that he also played acoustic guitar on. The band took a break and Maddy sang with him (I think it might have been the song that Maddy played flute on as well). Wow. Maine may get some competition from this new CD (this song, or likely others that I haven\u2019t heard yet). Very exciting.<\/p>\n

\"JeffLitmanMaddyWyatNewSong\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The superb band, left-to-right on the stage:<\/p>\n

Bryan Dunn<\/a> on electric and acoustic guitars and vocals. Bryan is good at everything he does (at least the things he does on stage). \"Winking For most of the set he played acoustic guitar while Jeff played electric. When they switch, Bryan shows off his considerable skills playing lead. He sings extremely well, though he deferred to Maddy more than he does during a more typical Jeff Litman set.<\/p>\n

\"BryanDynnElectricGuitar\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Matt Basile<\/a> on electric bass. Matt is excellent, making bass play seem effortless (while keeping the sound just right).<\/p>\n

\"MattBasile\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Elliot Jacobson<\/a> on drums. It was a treat to see Elliot for a second time in four days (he supported Bess Rogers<\/a> on Thursday night for her CD Release Show). He\u2019s excellent no matter who he\u2019s supporting, but Jeff\u2019s music is generally so upbeat, that Elliot\u2019s precision, speed, stamina and notorious hard-hitting style are so perfectly suited to it. The rest of the band needs to nail every song because Elliot sets a demanding example.<\/p>\n

\"ElliotJacobson\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Jason Wexler<\/a> once again was a guest keyboard player (grand piano and electronic). He joined for the last two numbers and was an integral part of both, in particular the only cover of the night, the closing number, Pump it Up.<\/p>\n

\"JasonWexler\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We couldn\u2019t have been happier with the set. Thanks Jeff, Bryan, Matt, Elliot, Maddy, Shanna and Jason.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been 3.5 months since we last saw Jeff Litman headline a set at Rockwood Music Hall, so we were due. The band was the same (a very good thing considering their skills), including the same guest keyboard player. There were two additional guests, taking Jeff\u2019s always excellent performances up a notch. A quick recap […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,2],"tags":[652,802,908,1102,909,1367,493,969],"class_list":["post-9108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","category-2","tag-bryan-dunn","tag-elliot-jacobson","tag-jeff-litman","tag-maddy-wyatt","tag-matt-basile","tag-music","tag-rockwood-music-hall","tag-shanna-zell"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9108"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9110,"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9108\/revisions\/9110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}