Stacey Earle at Club Helsinki (6/1/00)
(GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass., June 3, 2000)
Exhibit A was Stacey Earle’s show at Club Helsinki last Thursday
night. Earle was an utterly unique, offbeat presence - charming, goofy,
leering with bright big eyes and a tongue that refused to behave - and as a
result, she was utterly winning.
All too often performers of the singer-songwriter ilk pair an
angst-ridden persona to their angst-ridden songs, making for an angst-ridden
evening for an audience. Maybe that’s a depressive’s idea of a good time,
but for the other 98 percent of us it’s a recipe for a premature dash for
the exit.
Not so for Stacey Earle. It’s hard to recall the last time a
performer seemed to be as happy, having so much fun, as Earle did on
Thursday. With a smile a mile wide, before, during and after each song,
incessantly bouncing around in time to the swinging, country-rock beats, she
was utterly in the moment, sharing equally with her trio and the crowd on
hand.
It’s such a simple thing we so obviously take for granted, and it should be
right up there at the top of the performer’s rulebook: Have fun, and the
audience will, too. (Conversely, be miserable, and so too will the audience
be.)
Earle was no doubt made doubly comfortable by the onstage company of her
guitarist husband, Mark Stuart, and drummer son, Kyle Mims. It’s a great
country music tradition to play with family members - indeed, it underlines
the music’s folk roots - and Earle came across as nothing less than a
front-porch folk singer, albeit one who was having the time of her life on a
slew of catchy, original songs.
Like her more famous brother, Steve, Earle has country in her voice and
melodies, but it’s not the kind of faux country you hear on country radio.
Her songs have more in common with contemporary singer-songwriters like
Shawn Colvin and even Carole King - “Is It Enough (I Luuv You)” occasionally
threatened to turn into the latter’s “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow,”
proving that Earle is as much a soul singer as anything.
Earle said “Makes Me Happy,” which is powered by a Colvin-like, minor-chord
folk-rock pulse, captured the joy she felt upon the release of her first CD,
“Simple Gearle.” It could be her personal update of “My Favorite Things,” in
the way it reminds a listener to treasure the good things in life.
Not that Earle is all sunny and feel-good stuff. In the great traditions of
country and sensitive singer-songwriter music, her songs have their fair
share of romantic heartbreak, family dysfunction, and financial dislocation.
But she leavens the serious stuff with the beauty and energy of her music.
Earle boasts a plaintive yet powerful voice - moreso live than on record -
that in its little-girl quality recalls Emmylou Harris and Nanci Griffith.
Although she’s not nearly as well known as them, on the basis of her show on
Thursday night, she is easily their equal.
Earle played several songs off her excellent new album, “Dancin’ with Them
that Brung Me,” including “How I Ran,” which she introduced as a song about
a co-dependent relationship. She apparently dug deep into the song’s
emotional wellspring - a kind of method singing? - and by the end, her final
“how I ran” shook the rafters, and she seemingly went off to the corner of
the stage to pull herself together.
Stuart and Mims provided just the right, familiar touch of accompaniment to
power Earle’s songs. Stuart was a versatile guitarist, playing bass lines,
fills and leads, a little bit country, a little bit Roger McGuinn. He was
also a sympathetic vocalist, and he he played a brief warm-up set which also
showed him to be an able songwriter. Mims added a swinging lilt to several
tunes, and gave “Must Be Love” a great back-beat.
[This review originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on June 6, 2000.
Copyright Seth Rogovoy 2000. All rights reserved.]
Seth Rogovoy rogovoy@berkshire.net music news, interviews, reviews, et al.
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