This is a brief recap of the Watkins Family Hour show at Largo at the Coronet on Thursday, August 15, 2019.
The show began unusually with nearly everyone on stage singing a cover of George Harrison’s song “Behind that Locked Door,” which appeared on his classic album All Things Must Pass.
We were then left with Sara and Sean Watkins on stage, with Benmont Tench on piano, Alan Hanson on bass, Sebastian Imand on drums, and Nich Sherman on pedal steel (I hope I got all of their names correct, as I’ve never seen any of the last three musicians before). The group covered the Jimmie Rodgers song “Any Old Time.”
Joined by Simon Chrisman from the Bee Eaters on hammered dulcimer. Sean sang his one of his original songs, “Wave As We Run” from All I Do is Lie.
Joe Purdy took his turn on stage, telling the audience. He explained that he wrote this song, “When some things in our country were messed up” and that he still has the “same hopes and dreams as when I wrote this.” He played his song “New Year’s Eve” from his album Who Will Be Next?. Love the line, “power means nothing in a world without love.”
Joe introduced his next song by saying that it had the “same exact context as the last one, just a different format. Same key even!” He called this one his talking blues song and warned the audience that it was going to be long. It was a pretty accurate description of his song “It’s Hard to Be a Prophet When Nobody’s Listening.” I enjoyed this performance and so I’ve borrowed part of the title for the title of this post.
Joe headed off stage and Sara and Sean took over the show again. The band played the Nickel Creek song “Destination” from the album A Dotted Line.
Then just Sean and Sara were left on stage. I’m not sure what the song was that they played, so perhaps an original. The song included the lyrics, “I’m praying for a breakthrough as long as everything stays the same” and “I avoided the cure but it found me anyway.”
Special guest Irish singer Ultan Conlon took the stage at this point, meanwhile Sean’s guitar strap popped off and he fumbled his guitar, which hit the floor. He shrugged it off, saying, “It’s just a guitar from the ’50s that I’m borrowing.” They played a song from a new record that Ultan worked on with Sean. The song included the lyrics, “There a waltz I dance in my mind…” but we weren’t given a title.
A second song was performed by Ultan and I am not sure if this is the song title, the new album title or both, but we were told it was “A Long Way Back.”
Gaby Moreno then came on stage to sing and play guitar on a cover of Ry Cooder’s song “Across the Borderline.”
The band performed another song that I don’t know, possibly titled “Just Another Reason to Get Away” (or at least that is an important line in the lyrics).
Benmont returned to the stage along with Gaby and David Garza, explaining that he had written another verse to the song he last performed at the Newport Folk Festival, “Rapture Me.”
Sara, Sean and Simon then tackled the “Temperance Reel,” with each person given an opportunity to solo.
The band then played one of Sara’s solo songs, “One Last Time” from her album Young in All the Wrong Ways.
Gaby came back out on stage with the backing band and played an unrecorded song she introduced as “Let it Fade.” The song included a line that felt particularly apt, “It’s a heavy load to carry when you’re on your own.”
The whole gang returned to the stage to take turns on the verses for Woody Guthrie’s “Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos).” This one was introduced as “just as timely as it was when it was written, like 80 years ago.” I think its worth sharing this NPR piece “All They Will Call You.” The sentiment toward the current issues at our southern border was certainly tangible. There was a recent fundraiser held at Largo for the following organization, so if you are interested in supporting a program that provides immigrants with attorneys in immigration courts, please consider donating to the Immigrant Defenders Law Center.
For an encore, the band performed the John Hartford song “Long Hot Summer Days” with just about everyone on stage taking a solo, David providing a verse extempore, and the audience singing along on the chorus.