Dave's Music #67 Caroline Spence at the Turf Club
A playlist divergence today because I'm retired and we did a road trip to Saint Paul for both Mother's Day, and to see Caroline Spence at the Turf Club; then stayed at our new favorite hotel, The Celeste. How did this happen? While I follow the Turf Club and I believe they tend to have more acoustic artist on Sunday, I was instantly intrigued because I had just gotten an email from the Bandcamp Rounder page telling me about her new release. I read about it quickly and started to follow her, plus I saw she was a 2014 Kerrville New Folk winner. Then we decided to see our son, and I found her booked to play the Turf Club, karma.
The night opened up ON-TIME with a fresh beautiful voice from Ryan Gebhardt, and he played his electric Fender with smooth pick/strum approach up and down the neck. What he needs to work on is that his songs melded together into one sound and song, and I was bored in 15 minutes; plus he needs to work on his between song banter. Until the songwriting is up a notch, I'd highly recommend a cover or two interspersed into the set; oh he would sound great on John Mayer's "The Heart of Life", or that guitar word on say "Yesterday" by the Beatles.
I knew I'd walk away to the restroom behind the bar around 9:00 and Carolyn would be out, and she was. As I walked back it sounded great from the back of the band.
As she played the first few songs I could tell she was talented and the band top notch; but immediately I was stretching to hear the words. Talented songwriters need to be front and center and the mix did not help. The drummer was way too loud, and if it wasn't as easy as turning up her vocals, the sound guy failed. Very disappointing when you don't know the songs and you want to hear the gems of lines she wrote into the songs. I had already purchased the vinyl, "Mint Condition" before the gig started mainly because of the rave reviews that I read on her site. I was searching to hear the lines that were mush unless the bass player sang along with harmonies. Meanwhile, Caroline came across as special with her between song banter; that only increased the frustration to hear her better.
The night was saved when the bass and drummer left the stage and she did two acoustic songs with her lead guitarist, and then only the bass player came back to join them for two more. It seemed when the drummer came back, possibly the sound guy got the levels better. Going back to the first song I heard from behind the stage, I'm sure Caroline was clueless to my frustration because her mix of vocals was right. The True North encore song was the way the night should have been mixed and it was likely easier because the drummer used cotton tipped sticks. Truly she won three new fans in my wife, son and I; but I'll think twice about chasing up to the Turf Club for an acoustic musician and spending nearly $400 on an evening meal, tickets and hotel room. I'll do it again, but I'll still be apprehensive.
So while I bought Mint Condition and got it into my Discog collection, she doesn't have it Bandcamp to share here so this woman is definitely worth buying her new release she has in Bandcamp (yes I did). Have a listen and think about being an owner of music instead of a borrower at no cost in Spotify.
