Radney Foster with Jewel “Starlight Café Tour” at the Knitting Factory on Thursday, June 24th
It’s amazing to me when one man can be a songwriter and write these huge country hits for artists like Keith Urban and can also be a great live performer. However some of his smart and sassy songwriting is only known to you because Keith Urban sang it. Just the whole thing kind of blows my mind. I only wanted to address that because Radney Foster is FUN live, he sounded clear and had a great personality… a super nice guy. I think it is cool that he can be himself, an artist, and on the other side he can write hits for other country acts. He must live in an almost spilt world. That all aside Radney made sure the crowd had fun tonight telling us stories in between his songs. He has a newer album out called “Revival” which he also put on his own Record Label (even cooler)! Radney played a few songs for us off Revival and other well known songs like “Nobody Wins,” “I’m In,” and many more! He was a great guy to see who has a lot of country history; I am very glad that he made his way to Spokane! Hopefully he isn’t a stranger.
Tonight Jewel played songs that had never been recorded, songs that were requested, and an even a song she wrote two hours ago dedicated to Spokane. Her entire set was recorded and you could buy a copy of the show afterwards and download it today. I thought that was the coolest idea, technology has allowed it so you can buy the show online the next day. Nuts!
The setting for the evening was something unlike I have ever seen at the Knitting Factory before. First of all the entire place and I am even talking all the way back to the bar was seated. No standing at all, maybe like the ten people who stood against the back of the bar. Secondly the back of the stage was draped almost from side to side (wider then usual) and there was a huge screen in that was pushed almost to the front of the stage maybe like twenty feet back from the front. The screen was used as a visual moving backdrop for Jewel and it had a large metal tree of each side of it, almost covering it. The actual back of the stage that was draped so lights could be used to add an additional effect. It looked REALLY cool from any spot in the venue. It really warmed up the dark venue.
Jewel is funny, she was telling stories in-between almost every song and some were serious and others just had us all laughing. She had an adorable laugh as well. Just seemed like a peach on stage, very charming. Her vocals though wow, they were dead on. Crystal clear! It was just stunning to hear her and just a guitar, it made her vocals just shine.
Jewel played “Hands,” “Ten,” “Satisfied,” “I Love You Forever,” “Boy Needs a Bike,” “Stronger Woman,” “What You Are,” “Intuition,” “Foolish Games,” “Who Will Save Your Soul” (Which by the way was the first song she ever wrote at age 16), “Standing Still,” “You Were Meant for Me,” and many more. I like how she played songs that people would just shout out in the crowd. It was pretty funny a few people kept yelling for her to yodel, she even called one guy out on it. Though I must say it would have been pretty cool to hear her yodel!
On her tour, since they recorded it at each stop she has been writing songs for the city she plays in. Spokane went nuts when she announced that she Googled’ Spokane and wrote a song about us a few hours before the show. Some of the lyrics went “When Other Cities cant, cant, cant Spokane can…” “near nature, near perfect… (Which I guess is a city slogan). She also talked about our lakes and 33 golf courses, even going over Spokane Falls in our gondola. She put her picture over the falls up on the screen. It was pretty funny! I want to find it on You Tube!! There were so many funny things she said I could probably keep writing for a few more paragraphs. However I will let you experience her great humor and stage banter when you see her live.
Photos courtesy of Matt Auclair.
