Jerry Joseph and the Jackmormons may have gone through changes in personnel over the years, but there has always been one constant, Joseph’s powerful song writing. The artist is constantly adding to an already vast catalog of songs, and does not seem to be slowing down anytime soon. Gone are long time Jackmormons bassist Junior Ruppel and drummer Brad Rosen, who have been replaced by bassist Steven James Wright, who was also a member of Joseph’s earlier band, Little Women, and drummer Steve Drizos who recorded and toured with Joseph as The Denmark Vesseys. Joseph has also added talented musician, Jeff Crosby, on guitar, filling out the current Jackmormans line-up.
Reed Turner and his band endured a marathon drive from their hometown of Austin, TX, to open the World Café Live show and then continue on to New York City to perform at The Big Apple BBQ Block Party. Turner is a young artist, who has embraced old school sensibilities and approach to music that is, fortunately, making a comeback with up and coming musicians. Turner sang through what a appeared to be vintage microphones, and the songwriter cruised through his set with original songs that included, “See How Far I Get”, “I Killed the Girl (Because She was Killing Me)” and “Long Gone”. Turner channeled his inner Bob Dylan for a tasty cover of the legendary songwriter’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues.”
Jerry Joseph broke out the acoustic guitar for The World Café show, a first for this Jackmormans run, the rest of the band was dialed back on their electric instruments, and the result was warm, lush, and intimate as opposed to the loud growl of a typical Jackmormans performance. Joseph joked to the audience as he settled in that when he plays acoustic he talks too much, which really means you get a little bit of the story behind the songs that is typical when the musician plays solo acoustic. There is usually significantly less narratives in the louder full-blown electric Jackmorman performances.
The band began the set with ”Ship” and “Radio” from the outstanding Jerry Joseph and Jackmormans album, 2012’s Happy Book. The artist turned his attention to a string of new songs that, he explained, were written on a trip to Afghanistan. He went on to elaborate, that the songs were deliberately not written about war, and that some were actually originally intended to be children’s songs with lullaby qualities, but eventually materialized into something different.
The first of these songs was “Supernatural”, and the tune was noticeably more upbeat than some of the songwriter’s darker, earlier material. An amusing story about how technology advanced so quickly that what is possible today, was pretty much fantasy or science fiction not so long ago. He went on describe how when he was a child he wanted to be a cowboy so his parents got him the toy gun and cowboy attire, and when he said he wanted to be an astronaut, he got pajamas with rocket ships on them that he joked he still wears in the touring van. The story continued on to when his five year-old son said he wanted to go to Mars, and that technology actually exists now, so he told his son that it was a very long and dangerous trip and was not sure he would be happy if he traveled all the way to Mars, and his son replied, “Don’t worry Papa, you’ll be in heaven by the time I go to Mars”. Anyway, the new song was “Mars” and it was fantastic that created a definite dreamy outer-world atmosphere.
Another great new song, a rhythmic romp, “Run to Me”, preceded one of Jeff Crosby’s original songs, which he also sang lead vocals on, called, “Heart Like a Loaded Gun” and it had an Alt-Country quality. “What I Live For” began with Joseph playing the song tenderly solo before the rest of the band chimed in and the song grew in intensity. The show was packed with new songs, and “Istanbul” is another recent addition to the Jerry Joseph catalog and the song had a real bluesy feel. “Wisconsin Death Trip” has made appearances on Jerry Joseph’s excellent side project band, Stockholm Syndrome’s album, Apollo, and the artist’s self-titled solo acoustic album, and the band ended the set with it. The band returned with yet another new tune,”Cosmic” as an encore.
As technology has evolved and become a big part of today’s music, some of it good, some of it not so much, it is refreshing that music fans can still go to concert and be blown away by a couple of bands that have no laptops, sequencers ,samplers, synthesizers or play boxes piled up all over the stage.
Photos by Richard Clarke
