Thursday nights aren't the most fitting to have a concert, especially when you're a college student and have a 9am class the following morning. Yet I was determined to see this concert, performed at the Soapbox in downtown Wilmington, NC, of Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors. For those not familiar with the band, they are a grassroots folk/rock band out of Nashville, TN, made up of front man Holcomb, his wife, Ellie, and three accompanying band members, who I will only assume are their neighbors. There music is some of the best to come out of the Nashville scene in a while, but I'm also just predisposed to liking them anyway.
A few months prior, I saw them at a Christmas concert in Asheville, NC, where they opened for Christian band Jars of Clay. After Holcomb's set finished, I could tell many people in the crowd were thinking one thing: "we just want to watch them play." All respect to Jars of Clay, but that is exactly what I thought the entire rest of the evening. Well, now I was able to see the former opener be the headliner, so I was quite excited. Then begs the question, who opens for an opener?
It was Rayland Baxter, also a Nashville native, though one I had not heard of previously. When I first arrived in the concert space with my two friends, I saw a gentlemen in a fedora (which I instantly took a liking to) with a large mustache getting a drink from the bar. "Flag me at :45", he said, then took the stage. Well, I assume he was the opener I that point. He played a couple of acoustic melodies, "Olivia", about "these two Parisian women I fell in love with at the same time", "The Mountain Song", about his second home in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, and a tune about Blue Birds. On the last of these, the crowd, typical of the "coffee house" type, though this was a bar, began to chat it up amongst themselves, the plague all openers are treated with. No one came to see you (usually). A great opener makes a great show though. You come to a concert to hear great music, whether its from the name on the ticket or not. During the quieter part of the melodies, the talking would rise up over the guitar. At the end of the song, Baxter chastised the crowd a bit. "You guys are so polite .... for clapping." He then motioned up another individual, the drummer for the Neighbors, and added a little sadly, "let's do it now, why would I bore them with another song I slaved over." He then brought out the electric. As the first songs combined the guitar and melodic lyrics of Jonathan Edwards with the voice of Robin Peknold, the rest were a throwback to great southern rock, with a song called "Bad Things". "It's about you f**king with karma and karma f**king with you." It was quite an introduction, and quite a tune.
Then came the eponymous band to the stage, opening up with a song off of their newest album, Chasing Someday, which garnered a lukewarm reception from myself. Yet, upon hearing some of these tracks live, I appreciate them more. Their earlier albums, Washed in Blue, Passenger Seat, and A Million Miles Away, have a much more folk-acoustic sound that their newer, more country-rock produced album. While I incline myself toward acoustic sound more, few bands can rock out quite like this lineup. Their first song felt constrained, like they were playing to record. Then, however, then went into their next song, "Can't Get Enough of You" and really let loose. The crowd began to pound out the titular lyrics along with Holcomb and the band. It was clear then we were in for a show. They followed these with older acoustic hits, "I Like to Be With Me When I'm With You", "Magnolia Tree", and Ellie Holcomb's own "Magnolia". Then they continued to play their more rock infused songs, including their more popular "Live Forever" and an update of "Fire & Dynamite". In between they offered amusing anecdotes like the first time he asked Ellie out, "In a tree stand out in Texas. I guess I'm kind of a Redneck." Then in the airport where a couple semi-insultingly asked after seeing their instrument cases if they were "professional musicans" or not. After a reply yes, they asked their bands name, to which they told them. "Shut Up!", he imitated of the woman, "We danced to your song Hung the Moon the other day at our wedding!" Holcomb then added to the crowd, "We danced to a Stevie Wonder song, and if I saw him in an airport, I wouldn't ask if he was a professional musician." More anecdotes followed, and more songs, all seeming to build upon the last.
Then came the end, in which Holcomb took a serious tone, but with a heft of celebration. "We lost a great musician today in Levon Helm. It only seems fitting we should close with one of his songs." At this they included Baxter in a grandiose and rocking cover of "Up on Cripple Creek" which, even with the great tunes before, was the highlight of the show. Holcomb and all other members sang individual verses in the style of The Band, each one honoring the passing of Helm. It is hard to imagine a better way to ferry the great musician on.
Rayland Baxter
Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors
For artist references:
Drew Holcomb and The Neighbors
Rayland Baxter
The Band (Levon Helm on Drums)
by Phillip Bryant
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