Brian Slattery Photos
The Drawbar.
Nick Lloyd looked out from the seat of his Hammond organ to the full house that had come to Cafe Nine to hear The Drawbar — Lloyd, guitarist George Baker, and drummer Sam Oliver III — play together in public, as a trio, for the very first time.
“We’re just going to start playing,” Lloyd said, “and then we’ll talk about it later.”
Little Silver.
First, however, the crowd heard from opening act Little Silver, now based in New Haven. Band members Erica Simonian and Steve Curtis, both on guitar, keys, and vocals dispensed with the banter for the most part and let the songs speak for themselves. The thoughtful choices to vary up their sound as a duo, by switching between acoustic and electric guitars, or adding keys, kept the texture changing and gave each song its own distinct identity. But all of that happened within an overall unifying atmosphere that married Simonian’s and Curtis’s voices and instruments into a sound that was always sweet and earthy, their vocal harmonies always at the center of it. It let the lyrics, and the interlacing of their voices, always be heard. Within a few songs, the room was filled with an appreciative crowd.
“We left New York City for these environs a year and a half ago, and we’re very excited to have nested here,” Curtis said about halfway through Little Silver’s set. “We couldn’t be happier.” The band’s debut LP, Somewhere You Found My Name, garnered notices from Rolling Stone, the Associated Press, and No Depression; from the stage, as the duo thanked Nick Lloyd for inviting them to open for The Drawbar, they also revealed that they’d recently spent a week in his studio, writing new material.
Then the Drawbar hit the Cafe Nine stage sounding like they were already warmed up, as Oliver laid down pulsing, intricate grooves, Lloyd covered bass, harmonies, and melodies on the organ, and Baker manned the guitar in his own subtly inimitable style. The interplay between Baker and Lloyd was strong, as they traded harmonies, melodic lines, and — facing each other from across the stage — sly smiles all night.
“This band,” Lloyd said, “it’s a dream project for me to play on an organ trio with George Baker. I met him back in 1995. Tonight is the very first night. It only took 24 years, but here we are.” The idea, they explained, was to be able to play whatever they wanted, however they wanted, without too much regard for the genre lines separating various kinds of American music. And that is what they did, as they moved easily from blues to R&B to jazz, with little dashes of rock and reggae for good measure.
In the second half of the set, things got really interesting. Oliver gave the Buddy Holly song “Not Fade Away” a New Orleans brass band drive that felt revelatory, as if this were the way the song should always be played from here on out. The trio stretched out on a smoky “Never Can Say Goodbye” from the Jackson 5. The set got even more relaxed, and Baker started to unfurl one gorgeous solo after the next. “Rainy Night in Georgia” found Baker singing at the rich bottom of his range, pulling from the song a deep reservoir of yearning and resignation. Lloyd did vocal duty for a rendition of “Jealous Guy” that changed it from a ballad to a nearly Jamaican pulse-pounder. By the time the trio got to “The Wind Cries Mary,” Baker had an impish grin on his face as he played more and more with the timing of the last line of every phrase, daring the other musicians to stay with him. They did.
They announced the end of their set but the crowd rejected that.
“One more!” someone yelled.
“We don’t know any more songs,” Lloyd said. “Go home!”
“Mustang Sally,” someone yelled. Baker’s eyes lit up, and he created a unique rendition of that war horse of a song on the spot. But he gave the audience a chance to do what it wanted with the chorus.
“All you want to do is ride around, Sally,” he sang. Then shouted, “You say it!”
“Ride, Sally, ride!” the audience sang back, in harmony.