Fly Blackbird Fly - Had an amazing time seeing Lady Blackbird at a sold-out Cafe Du Nord with some 300 other Bay Area fans who braved a chilly Monday night to show their love for one of the greatest singers of our times. Stripped-back and quazi-unplugged, her set with longtime accompanist, arranger, co-songwriter Chris Seefreid commanded rapt, needle-pin-drop-quiet audience attention even just with his rich acoustic and Fender Stratocaster guitars. Standout moments were many among tunes from her albums, Black Acid Soul and Slang Spirituals. In a spine-tingling, Elvis Costello-worthy tease, they brilliantly added a touching Roberta Flack homage amidst a gorgeous “Someday We’ll Be Free,” fully owning a moment of Ewan McColl’s “First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” (a cover for which Flack won the record of the year Grammy in 1972). Chris’ tasty-trippy guitar moments on “It'll Never Happen Again” took this bluesy-jazzy fave from her debut down a bit of a Curtis Mayfield path, adding micro-doses of psychedelic “wah-wah” in for good measure. They encored with her signature cover of Jerry Herman’s classic “I Am What I Am.” Magnificent as ever, their slowed down arrangement lets you savor the power of every word of this important anthem as no other. I’ll try to post a video clip of that moment below but not sure if BlueSky permits that yet (its on my FB and IG — @dynovoice — pages). It was great seeing fellow Blackbird fan-friend DJ Rotten Robbie who opened the show (as well as in LA and Napa on this mini tour) with a fine set of vintage and Northern Soul-flavored sides (and bringing the audience much joy with his trademark mirror-ball necklace give-aways, which you can see us wearing in the lower right photo of the collage here). I think everyone in the audience was feeling the energy and love all around, a good-vibing, healing evening of passionate music, a reprieve from our current strange daily days. Even the late start time didn’t matter for most of us…

Fly Blackbird Fly: Amazing time seeing #LadyBlackbird at a sold-out Cafe Du Nord with 300 other Bay Area fans who braved a chilly Monday night to show love for one of the greatest singers of our times. Cont'd (long post)
#musicsky #music #chrisseefried #cafedunord #sanfranciscomusic #liveconcert