Jimmie Herrod opened, but only caught the last bit of his set. He was solo on keyboards, sounding alto. Love that he talks about his gig at a track meet on his website.

Caught all of Tazlyn Gue, who had super competent backing band from Cornish, great sound: Garrett Gue on bass, Ehssan Karimi on drums, Gregg Belisle-Chi on guitar, and Raymond Larsen on trumpet. Trumpet all reverbed out with some Miles Davis inspired solos. Belisle-Chi tore it up with Frisell-ish sound and really inventive modal lines. First couple songs were originals, then an Irving Berlin arrangement "Let's Face The Music And Dance" then more originals. Last cut was really great, "creepy" as described by Gue, gave space for the players to solo and explore and get wack. She sounds a lot older than she looks.

Chelsea Crabtree a similar vibe, backed by solid musicians on drums, bass and guitar (Belisle-Chi back on guitar, who continued to lay it down) more lounge-ish if you will. Think they were all originals.

Overall, different take on the female singer/songwriter thang, kinda like late 70s Joni Mitchell (Hejira, Don Juan's Reckless Daughter) instead of early Joni (Clouds, Blue).

Nice origami on the drum set. They are playing the High Dive Thursday May 2nd. Check ‘em out!

Local stuff here, hailing from the rainshadows of Sequim, on Dungeness Records:

Yr right in the Robyn Hitchcock roundhouse from the first couple lines of track one, “Harry’s Song,” which references an albatross and pterodactyls. Indicative of the record, in that yr getting a dose of straight up Robyn, from lyrics to guitar sound to chord progressions to harmonies. The record has the sound that he’s perfected over the years. Suppose that’s yr charter at sixty: not reinventing anything but delivering what you’ve mastered. Favorite track is the second one, “Be Still,” which can get stuck in yr head for days.  Also digging the last track, “End Of Time,” with the line “day breaks like an egg” and the chorus “take me I’m ready for the end of time.”  Produced by Paul Noble. Not familiar with him, but he vibed what Robyn is all about and helped nail it down.

Wasn’t sure what to expect with this gig. Thought it was gonna sound like Flying Burrito Bros/Gram Parsons/late Byrds but sounded more like 1985. So 30 years old instead of 45. Guess it’s all relative. He’s got a huge cult following, all of whom turned out to hear him play, almost selling out the Neptune, giving him a standing ovation when he got on stage and a standing o when he left. He played material from all over his career (although no Monkees songs) but even the songs penned in the 60s and 70s had a distinctly 80s quality, prob due to both his song writing instincts (which favor the cheese) and the backing band, which embellished the compositions with fluorescent love. Drummer played an electronic kit (except a high hat and crash/ride cymbal) and some tracks had syncopated click track too, leaving him free to unleash fills on his toms for the entirety of the song. Keyboardist was locked into some sweet synth patches and samples.  Nesmith himself played a shimmery lovely 12 string acoustic and the lead guitarist was all vintage including gorgeous pedal steel – could’ve given that pedal steel more spotlight fer my money.

His shtick was to prelude each song with a short story vignette, aka “The scene: 1967, Paris, spring. He: dapper, handsome, confident. She: a beauty, in a red dress and 5 inch heels. They were lovers but she wanted a child and he wanted his freedom…”  then state the name of the song and album it came from. He stuck to this style the entire set, except a brief tangent when he made some jokes about using an iPad on stage and having his Gmail pop up during a performance.

Couple songs were real standouts, “Shelly’s Blues” was one, can’t remember the names of the others. Yeah, there were some pretty moments when it all came together: his song writing prowess, the band super tight, the flow of the song just right.  Gotta give the guy props. But he didn’t wear the hat in case you were wondering.