Vance Gilbert, Club Helsinki, Great Barrington, April 5, 2001
By Seth Rogovoy

(GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass., April 6, 2001)- A Vance Gilbert concert is always entertaining: one part dazzling vocal artistry, one part sentimental balladry, and one large part stand-up comedy. Gilbert is a master at connecting with his audience. From the moment he takes the stage he engages with individuals in the crowd as well as the room as a whole. He really works the room in the best sense of the word, ascertaining who is there that he knows personally and touching base with them, often in a humorous vein. And Gilbert inspires the sort of fierce loyalty that insures that at any given show there are old friends or fans whom he knows, and he works that connection into his show in a way that doesn't leave the rest of the audience, people who might be seeing him for the first time, feeling left out or overlooked.

Gilbert is an effusive, quick-witted and spontaneous performer. Shortly into his show at Club Helsinki on Thursday night, he paused to take in the room itself, and launched into a humorous tangent about the nightclub's décor, speculating on the motivations and practicalities behind some of the more distinctive features of the place. Other performers have taken note of their funky surroundings, but none with the sort of delirious glee and attention to detail that Gilbert evinced.

Gilbert also spent plenty of time between songs chatting up the audience about various things, his mind racing through topics including race relations, friendship, TV, college, the history of civil aviation, and an hysterically funny extended routine about audio books. If the folk thing ever starts to go the way of the NASDAQ, Gilbert has an obvious (if equally precarious) backup in stand-up comedy.

Gilbert's other backup could be musical theater. Brimming with talent which he apportioned out over the course of the evening with spare delicacy, Gilbert could easily grab and keep the sort of focus needed to command a Broadway stage. He boasts a powerful, versatile, expressive voice that easily sails through the tenor range and beyond. He is a skillful mimic, as he demonstrated at one point in an impeccable rendition of Ella Fitzgerald and the horn solo she rode in on. One had the feeling that Gilbert was only offering a small glimpse of his repertoire, that if called upon he could do a whole show of imitations.

Gilbert is even a gifted performer in a purely physical sense. He commands focus, makes great use of his stage space, and has a very sophisticated microphone technique. He knows when to lean in and when to back off, and with such a dynamic vocal instrument, when to step out in front of the mike and use the room's natural acoustics. He also demonstrated grace of movement on the traditional-style a capella ballad (he called it "Acapulco"), "King of Rome," where just a few simple hand gestures told the whole story of a man's displaced hopes and dreams. One should also note that Gilbert is a deft instrumentalist, who can wring a variety of styles and effects from his guitar, from folk fingerpicking to funk rhythms.

With all this going on, it would be easy to overlook Gilbert's songs themselves. That would be a mistake, because Gilbert is also a fine songwriter who composes jazzy, sophisticated melodies and writes poignant ballads and character sketches. Songs like "Taking It All to Tennessee" and "When Jimmy Falls in Love" - both, incidentally, inspired by fellow musician-friends - stood out in the way they handled complex issues of emotional ambiguity.

If Gilbert occasionally errs on the side of sweetness in his music, he tempers that sentimentality with an acidic wit that penetrates to the heart of preconceived notions of propriety. Gilbert straddles the line and uses that to build tension. It wouldn't hurt for him to push it even a little bit further - all of us could use just a little bit more provocation in our leisure and in our art.

[This review originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on April 7, 2001. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 2001. All rights reserved.]