Review of Blues night at Mass MoCA on Oct. 16
Blues at MoCA: A nightclub for North Adams

by Seth Rogovoy

(NORTH ADAMS, Mass., Oct. 17, 1999) - Sometimes a concert isn't so much about music as it is about an overall event. Such was the case on Saturday night at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. It is meant as no slight to the musicians who performed, but the star of the night was the event, the venue, and the crowd itself. The versatile, chameleonlike Hunter theater - which has quickly become the most exciting performing arts space in the Berkshires, having already played host to digital opera, musical theater, modern dance, folk-rock performance and dance parties - was once more utterly transformed, this time into a café-style nightclub.

The sold-out audience for blues performers Guy Davis and Duke Robillard crammed into dozens of round tables in front of the stage, around which concertgoers schmoozed and snacked on a menu of entrees, snack items, desserts and beverages. The overflow crowd also included patrons seated on risers around the sides and toward the back of the room, and a few enthusiastic attendees found room to stretch out and shake it in the rear and at one side of the stage. Once more, it was a "pinch me and tell me I'm really in North Adams" kind of night, as concertgoers could have easily been tricked into believing they were at the Iron Horse in Northampton or at any metropolitan blues nightclub.

This experimental transformation was in part due to the serendipitous scheduling of Robillard to perform at MoCA on the same night that the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown originally programmed Guy Davis to appear in its fall blues series. Upon discovering the overlap, the presenters at both venues got together and decided to turn what could have been an unfortunate bit of competition for the same audience into an opportunity to throw a great blues party.

Guy Davis kicked off the evening with a set of his warm, intimate, traditional-style acoustic blues. Accompanying himself on guitar and occasionally harmonica, Davis performed a selection of original compositions with a smattering of tunes by blues legends like the Rev. Gary Davis and Robert Johnson. Davis was an affable, genial presence who immediately warmed to the crowd. "The only cotton I ever picked was my BVDs off the floor," he said early on, before launching into a bit of raw, dirty, Delta-style blues.

Davis's theatrical background, as an actor and as the son of the venerable husband-and-wife team of Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, was clearly evident in his mastery of drama through song and stories. His song, "Georgia Flood," was packed with tension and release of biblical proportion, and several other numbers were extended stories in which Davis's guitar and harmonica served as a kind of orchestral score.

Davis's own playing could be downright orchestral. On his version of Robert Johnson's "If I Had Possession Over Judgment Day," the right thumb of his right hand played a thumping bass line while the other fingers of his hand plucked sharp chords. His Sonny Terry-style harmonica on a neck rack played call-and-response to his gruff vocals. Davis has played Johnson on the stage, but he is not an imitator. He is, however, possessed of a dynamic spirit when he delivers tunes by that legendary performer.

Davis had the audience whooping and hollering for his "Home Cooked Meal," one of several of his beloved double-entendre numbers. In this case a meal of bacon, sausage, muffins and puddin' were only thinly disguised metaphors for a different kind of eating. He sang a poignant "Watch Over Me," dedicated to his nine-year-old son who was in the audience, and treated the audience to sneak previews of several new songs he is recording for his next album.

Local band Catfish Blue played a brief set following Davis's. The group, which has been together for about four years, continues to grow in virtuosity and sophistication, broadening its style to encompass jazz, Southern rock and psychedelia while staying true to its blues base. The McPherson brothers, Steve and Sean, on guitar and bass respectively, communicate intuitively, while drummer Conor Meehan adds a swinging, jazzy lilt to the group's material. Frontman Todd Stentiford, on guitar and vocals, continues to channel bluesmen as various as Buddy Guy, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Duane Allman. Catfish Blue is a dynamic group boasting a date with destiny.

Bandleader Duke Robillard brought the evening home with his tasty menu of blues-based material. Guitarist/vocalist Robillard and his four-piece band - two saxophones, bass and drums - played a hard-rocking set of swing-, jazz- and jump-blues with a sprinkling of rock 'n' roll and ballads thrown into the mix.

Robillard demonstrated why he is considered to be one of the best guitarists in the business. He was a great technician, equally skilled at playing clean, single-note, ringing jazz lines, funky, moaning blues lines and Chuck Berry-style leads. He was all finesse and control, a master of style and dynamics. He brought a serviceably gritty vocal style to the plate and an engaging presence in a program that relied heavily on his recent "New Blues for Modern Man" recording while also touching on other aspects of his 30-year career.

It might have been the late hour - Robillard didn't get started until about 10, which is normal for blues time but late for Berkshire audiences - or the loudness of the music (which wasn't excessive, but again, it might take time for audiences to get used to such), but Robillard seemed to have a harder time connecting with the crowd than Davis. After each number a significant group of listeners fled for the doors. Also, by 11, when I made my exit while Robillard was still going strong, the hoped-for crowd of dancers in front of the stage had yet to materialize. It was an odd sight, hundreds of seated concertgoers watching a band playing dance music with almost no one dancing. Perhaps Robillard's band just failed to inspire, or would-be dancers were shy or unsure of the protocol at this inaugural event.

Maybe next time. In any case, the feeling one left with was that Mass MoCA had definitely found yet another niche just waiting to be filled - a nightclub for North Adams.

Search by Artist Name Album Title