We drove from Memphis to Birmingham, Alabama on 7/3 to see Tom Waits at the Alabama Theatre. For the Memphians familiar with the Orpheum Theatre, this was a similar venue in age and styling, but perhaps a little smaller. We had seats 6 rows back from the stage.
My wife is the bigger fan of Tom Waits himself. My story is, I went for the guitars, but stayed for the show. Tom may be a little hard to listen to for the first time, but in person and in concert, he is a fantastic performer and entertainer. If shock is a word that comes to mind when you hear his voice, the rest of the package squashes that. His band was really great. His drummer had quite an extensive kit to dismiss need for an additional percusionist, and even included what appeared to be a polished brass spent shell from a naval war ship as one of his 'clanging' devices.
I knew there would be a 1950's Harmony Stratotone H44 in the mix. Aside from the songs that called for an acoustic guitar, Tom's guitarist played an H44 exclusively for the entire show. I cannot tell you how great it was to hear and see this instrument being used in this capacity! What an awesome sound! I noticed that the scratch plate was not original, and it lacked holes for the volume and tone pot's (it actually lacked volume and tone control completely that I could tell!). There was a switch, which may have been the original tone cut switch and another very small knob near it which may have been an after-market volume control, but certainly the originals were gone.
Tom had a 1950's Kay solid body guitar with a single pickup close by, frequently incorrectly identified as a Stratotone, but he did not pick it up during the show.
The musician covering saxophone, blues harp and other wood wind also picked up a guitar for 2-3 songs, and as an unexpected surprise, it was a Holiday-branded Harmony-made H15 Bobkat! It had a black-red sunburst body as opposed to the H15's black-honey, but still had the Dearmond goldfoil pickups.
On 7/8/08 we went down town Memphis to the Mud Island amphitheater to see Robert Plant and Allison Krauss on their Raising Sand tour. WWWWOOOOWWWW!
I don't know if I can say more! This was an extremely pleasing blend of the country and bluegrass of Allison Krauss performed with a harder rock/blues edge, and the alternate rock of Led Zepplin styling performed with a bluegrass/country edge! The amphitheater at Mud Island is outdoor, and right on the bank of the Mississippi River. We rode the monorail across the river (the one in "The Firm" with Tom Cruise). Our seats were about half way back, and dead center. I can't do justice in describing what it was like to experience Allison Krauss and Robert Plant as performers, they are beyond words. Their musicians impressed us greatly also. The main guitarist switched between a single lipstick pickup Danelecto and what I think was a modern hollow body Gibson with a 'flashy' modern sharper edged f-hole shape. When I toured the Gibson factory in Memphis this year, I was somewhat disappointed in the stlying they are choosing to adopt to stay 'modern'. This guitarist also played an autoharp, a mandolo, and pedal steel guitar. Their secondary featured instrumentalist played some guitar, banjo, violin and mandolin. His banjo playing was heavily bent with blues tones to fit the 'Zeppelin' edge of their songs. It was quite a thing to hear his 5 string banjo playing blues lead. His violin playing was equally impressive and surprising. The biggest impact in the opening tune was a lead solo fashioned and delivered in a screaming Led Zepplin stlye guitar solo... on violin! Distortion, loads of triplet notes in high speed, just phenomenal!
T-Bone Burnett is touring with this arrangement as band leader. He mostly played a Kay 'Jimmy Reed' Thin Twin guitar. His alternate was a black hollow body with twin pickups, Bigsby vibrato... but JUST too far away for me to make out if it was a Harmony or Gibson. He also played a small body acoustic for a few tunes.
