[photos/review: Jon Behm]

I had to make some tough choices on Monday night, music-wise. While great Monday night shows are relatively rare, somehow we ended up with three of them falling on the same date: Atmosphere, Deerhunter, and Holly Golightly and the Brokeoff’s. In the end, Atmosphere’s overcrowding of First Avenue and the Triple Rock’s cash only policy tipped me towards The Entry. While Golightly may not have been the most obvious choice, I believe it was the right one. Not only was it a fantastic set but it also introduced me to the talents of Kiwi songwriter Delaney Davidson, who opened the show.

Davidson led off the night with tunes off of his self released album Ghost Songs, a bluesy collection of folk songs in the American roots tradition. To paint a picture of what it sounded like, try imagining Bob Dylan covering the songs off of Tom Waits’ Bone Machine with Son House accompanying on bottleneck guitar. Davidson has got Dylan’s current raspy and disaffected delivery, while his subject matter is filled with “Waitsian” images of seediness and mortality. He utilized loop pedals to craft his rhythm guitar licks, while doing some experimental and improvisational “soloing” on top of them. At one point he even let the looped guitar keep repeating itself for several minutes while he led a waltz competition on the floor of the club (which was won jointly by a pair of hard-competing unisex couples). Overall I thought very highly of Davidson’s set, and look forward to spinning my newly purchased copy of his record.

British folk singer Holly Golightly headlined the night, backed up by Brokeoff’s founder (and only member?) Lawyer Dave. Much like Billy Bragg, Golightly has taken up the American Folk tradition, and manages to do it a lot better than many Americans themselves. Her set included original songs off of her recent release Dirt Don’t Hurt, as well as some of the obscure folk covers that she is famous for. The highlight of the set was Lawyer Dave’s bluesy slide guitar work on a pair of gorgeous arch top Höfner’s, as well as he and Golightly’s humorous stage banter, musing on the dangers of Jagermeister and the popularity (or lack of) of their songs in ultra-religious Salt Lake City. Examples of such song titles include: “Gettin’ High for Jesus” and “Devil Do,” to give you an idea.

Perhaps what was most interesting about the evening was that it was some of the best American Roots music I have heard in awhile, though it was performed almost entirely by non-Americans (Lawyer Dave is the exception, being from Texas). Though both Davidson and Golightly spoke in the heavy accents of their native lands, when they sang the dialects almost disappear completely. Hearing Davidson in particular speak and then hearing him sing is sort of like the difference in taste between Marmite and Memphis Barbecue. I could care less who is keeping these traditions alive though, as long as someone is doing it. If American culture abandons its Roots music heritage completely, at least we can count on folks like these to keep the flame ablaze.

Holly Golightly: (Official) (MySpace) (Wikipedia)
Delaney Davidson: (MySpace)
Delaney Davidson “Hate A Man” (mp3)
Delaney Davidson “Sinner’s World” (mp3)

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