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Blues singer E.G. Kight coming to Fat Fish Blue. Sway with Anathallo's gentle sound at Musica
Published on Thursday, Nov 06, 2008
Well, it's finally over.
After two years of campaigning that have felt (to me, at least) like 20, ''the most important election of our lifetime'' has ended with a pretty clear statement from American voters and without physical or metaphorical bloodshed or a coven of party-affiliated lawyers descending upon federal court to cast their legalese-filled incantations over the election process.
Whether or not your side won or lost nationally and/or locally, I think we can all come together in a bipartisan agreement that no one — be they red, blue or fuchsia — will miss the constant 24-hour barrage of political ads on television and radio and in their mailboxes.
So, once you're done jumping for joy or crying in your pillow, why not let it all go for an evening and relax your mind and let your conscious be free with a few random acts of live music?
Besides, we still have Dubya to kick around for a couple of months.
Tonight at Fat Fish Blue in downtown Cleveland, Southern blues singer E.G. Kight, aka the Georgia Songbird, will perform. Kight's a talented singer/songwriter/guitarist and during my years in Macon, Ga., she was a regular on the bar/club scene (such as it was) and I saw her perform many times. She always delivered.
Kight's not a ''wang-dang-doodle'' style blues shouter like her good buddy and blues legend Koko Taylor, for whom Kight has written a few songs. Her voice has a clear, ringing tone and as a songwriter, she excels at contemporary blues forms with song titles such as Comin Out of the Pain and Peach Pickin' Mama.
Her most recent album is It's Hot in Here, featuring guests such as former Muddy Waters sideman ''Steady Rollin' '' Bob Margolin, who plays on the lyin' cheatin' man tune, Then There's the Truth. Kight wrote 11 of the disc's dozen tracks, including the '50s-style ballad New at This, the humorous duet with singer/guitarist Sean Farley on Southern Woman and a Nawthern Man and the tender jazz-inflected ballad Through the Eyes of a Child.
Aside from her talents as a singer/songwriter, Kight is just a classic Southern belle, a kind and gracious woman who deserves whatever success she achieves.
If blues ain't your bag, then how about the soft, tuneful ''indie-art'' music of Anathallo, which will be performing tonight at Musica with Cale Parks and State Bird? The Chicago septet's name means to renew, refresh or bloom again in Greek. It is on tour behind its upcoming sophomore album, Canopy Glow.
The album is a solid collection of the band's occasionally psychedelic, mostly pretty indie folk that should appeal to fans of artists such as Sufjan Stevens, Broken Social Scene and Animal Collective.
Many of Anathallo's tunes are piano driven and don't rock in the traditional sense. The band prefers to traverse gentler musical terrain.
Songs such as Northern Lights feature ethereal boy/girl harmonies, acoustic guitar, a two-man horn section and exotic instruments, such as glockenspiels. It's soft and pretty music perfect for gentle swaying to and fro and/or chaste hand-holding with your special someone.
RIP Shakir Stewart (1974-2008)
Early this week, the R&B/hip-hop world was stunned to hear that 34-year-old industry executive Shakir Stewart, who five months ago became Def Jam Records' executive vice president A&R replacing Jay-Z, committed suicide in his suburban Atlanta home.
It's always sad when someone takes his or her own life. From the outside, it's also confusing when someone who appears to be living the dream is harboring something so painful that he or she doesn't feel there is any other way to alleviate that pain.
On a personal level, I attended school with Stewart twice, first when we were both elementary school kids back at Shelton's Primary Education Center in Oakland, Calif., playing four-square and tether ball on the playground during recess, and then many years later, when we were both aspiring Morehouse Men in Atlanta.
We weren't particularly close, just the occasional, ''Hey, good to see you. How's the family?'' conversations, but I have been tracking his career since he and some friends started throwing parties in Atlanta as Ivory Coast Entertainment and later Noontime Productions.
I always felt a bit of hometown and Morehouse pride as his success, resum and reputation grew in the industry — anytime I saw his name in Billboard or some other industry publication touting his reputation as the ''deal closer,'' which included signing an ambitious young up-and-coming singer named Beyonce to industry mogul L.A. Reid's Hitco publishing company, as well as current pop star Ciara and rappers Rick Ross and Young Jeezy.
Several months ago, when Stewart was named top man at Def Jam, I quietly congratulated him and felt a bit of pride at what my Morehouse and Shelton's Primary Education Center brother was able to accomplish at such a young age and without stepping on people's necks on his way to the top.
Now, I'm just sad. I'm sad for his family, his girlfriend and his children and for the fact that he probably will be remembered more for the shock of his sudden, mysterious death than his impressive accomplishments, both professional and personal, in his brief life.
Rest in peace, my Morehouse brother.
Malcolm X Abram can be reached at mabram@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3758.
Well, it's finally over.
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