Best Shows 2006 Part I

2006, for all its faults, was a fabulous year for shows and that's without being able to afford some of the uberexpensive ones (like Tom Waits) that we were dying to see. Most of these I blogged about afterwards so the ones I cite here are truly the ones that stuck, the ones you can bring back after months of living in between.

Sarah Harmer
3/27/06- The Ark, Ann Arbor

I'm so glad that we saw her again because it completely rescued "I'm a Mountain" for me. The songs, which had mostly seemed flat and very much lesser Harmer on CD, were so charmingly presented live (as I have written before Sarah is a total babe) that I was forced to completely reconsider the album. I even like "Le Salamandre" now and it's a song about an amphibian sung in French. As I think I also mentioned before I really liked the shirt I bought at that show cause it has both a mountain and a kite on it. Some people after seeing them 3 times you're done but I'd gladly see Sarah more.

Kathleen Edwards
4/20/06- The Ark, Ann Arbor

And now for a completely different female Canadian singer songwriter! Kathleen, as my boyfriend rightly says, is kind of crazy and more than a little feral. She is one of those "one of the boys" girls in the best possible way. One of the joys of seeing her live is that there's no telling what she might do or say which keeps things very interesting. My friend Marla and I gave her a book called The Idiot Girls Action Adventure Guide when she was first starting out and I'm pleased to say it fits as well today as it did then.

James McMurty
6/5/06- The Magic Bag, Ferndale

I wrote for a long time about this show in one of my favorite blog entries, "Be My Valentine James McMurtry" so it's hard to know what to say in addition except that the show was a great experience period, far beyond just entertainment. In fact, when it came time to choose songs for my favorites of 2006 CD I was tempted to add some McMurtry not because he had a 2006 release but because this was the year my fandom was kicked into overdrive. I was disappointed that I did not hear from him after sending a care package but tried to comfort myself with the thought perhaps he didn't get it instead of my normal assumption which is that he hated what I sent.

Hem
10/2/06- The Ark, Ann Arbor

This was the third time seeing Hem and Joe is now so over them I will totally need a new date because I will want to see them everytime they come around. It's hard to know how to describe their music-countrypolitan sounds so fussy-so I normally just say it's pretty. It's music that speaks to me deeply in ways that even Lester Bangs couldn't describe-I just feel compelled to listen repeatedly and to shove their CDs into other people's hands and say, "you listen too-find yourself a song among these to love." Hem songs are one of the few that I can listen to when feeling panicky that will actually calm me. Seeing them live is always a treat, especially when they bring the strings, but seeing them in Michigan is always a bit of a family reunion as Dan, the pianist, is from here. The family feel makes for an even warmer show.