XDA

Went to see Richard Thompson and Madeleine Peyroux at Chautauqua in Boulder hours ago last night with my friend Jeffrey (he's going through a divorce). The vaunted acoustics at the Auditorium (read barn-like structure) failed Richard Thompson, who was solo. If I hadn't already memorized the lyrics from constant listening to the few CDs and albums I own, it was hard to follow the songs. You just couldn't hear the words. Great guitar work and clever lyrics (the ones we could hear). I think I saw him at the Fillmore, San Francisco in 1971, with Fairport Convention after Sandy Denny died, but I could be mistaken. What's that, 34 years ago? Ouch. I'm a big fan and the new song abut New Zealand was great. New album in August, he said. I'm up. My favorite line of the night is from the semi-classic 1952 Vincent Black Lightning: "Red hair and black leather, my favourite colour scheme". (Notice the Brit spellings).
Madeleine Peyroux is hard to classify. Her band--piano, bass and drums--were like the jazz trio in a bar at the Holiday Inn in a big city, but in a good way. But in front of them is a gawky, French looking girl on the edge of pretty, with a guitar with incredibly squeaky frets, and a good voice but weird phrasing and purposefully flat notes that Fiona Appel at her most experimental would never think of trying. A jazz voice made for blues (that's my classification). I liked her a lot. Jeffrey says her first song of the set, Don't wait too long, was getting a lot of radio play. Good for her. She's clearly an American, but she sang la vie en rose just like Edith Piaf. Check this girl out.