American Tunes, the first evening and my last show.
The Roches opened the show with American Tune. It was nice but their voices didn´t fit the song very right. After that Paul came on stage, again a very warm welcome. He sang Me And Julio with the band. Then came the Grizzly Bears, they sang Graceland and Mother & Child Reunion. Very different, they used two boards with circuits on the floor but it didn´t work very well, the bass player wanted to play the flute at one part of M&C but it didn´t work, he kept almost the whole song messing with the circuits on the floor, I think they made it too complicated for themselves. Then came Amos Lee and sang Peace Like A river and Nobody, he played the acoustic guitar, it was very good. Then the band Olu Dara came on stage, they had a very warm and humoristic style, the singer talked during the song, made some own humoristic comments to the lyrics, it was very nice, the audience had a good time with them. They performed Slip Sidin´Away, 50 Ways and Still Crazy, their drummer played very cool drums at this song, not as good as Steve but he did a good job.
The Roches came back and played Another Galaxy, a nice surprise, I liked this song better then their version of American Tune, it was very instrumental, Paul played the guitar, one of the Roches the grand piano, Mark the big bass (don´t know if it´s the right word) After this they played Cecilia which I liked best from the The Roches, Rob Schwimmer played on the grand piano and Jamey played very nice percussion, Mark used two different guitars.
Then Josh Groban came and sang America, he played the grand piano. The second song Josh sang was Silent Eyes, he did it very well, the ensemble players together with Rob Schwimmer Mark and Steve accompanied him. After the song Josh told the audience that Paul helped him to do the song together with the Ensemble players, he was very grateful for Paul´s help. The last song was BOTW, Josh and Paul sang it together, Josh the first verse, Paul the second verse and together the third verse, at the end Josh sang the last line lower and Paul added several quiet Ease your mind refrains, it sounded great.
Now it was time for Gillian Welch together with her partner David Rawlings, they were without questioning the best performers of Paul´s songs, a great mix of style on Gone At Last, sort of bluegrass/country, I liked it very much and so did the audience, a very good performance of Duncan, then together with Paul they played The Boxer, Gillian and Paul sang. Paul, Gillian and David played guitar, Andy on the soprano sax, it was very good. SOS was the last song, beautifully played and sang by Paul and Gillian and David.
After that Paul played the last 5 songs with his band. Mrs. Robinson, Train In The Distance, How Can You Live In The NE, The Only Living Boy with backup from the Roches and the last song Late In The Evening. All very well played, the audience gave several standing ovations between the last 5 songs. Again another great concert with Gillian Welch as one of the highlights. The Grizzly Bears could have done better. Now I can look forward to the European tour.
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