Summer 1991--Blue Rodeo, Clinton River Gazebo Concerts, Mt. Clemens, MI: The gazebo concerts are set up where the performers have their backs to that little structure and face downtown Mt. Clemens; the audience sits on a grassy hill. Between the music fans and band is a small canal. Sounds like a setting of that nature might not be intimate, but it works. Blue Rodeo was my favorite Canadian act then. Steeped in Americana and including wonderful songs by Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor, their stage presentation was propelled by founding member Bob Wiseman's superb keyboard work (he left the band the following year). The band played a good deal of Casino, one of their best albums, though I failed to purchase it until months after the show.
Summer 1992--Sawyer Brown, Exile, The Charlie Daniels Band, The Palace of Auburn Hills, Auburn Hills, MI: There was very little to like about this country package show. At least I got to see the late Charlie Daniels shuffle around the stage while playing his fiddle. Thankfully, he was still several years away from releasing his racist song that goes, "This ain't no rag/it's a flag/and we don't wear it on our heads."
August 17 or 18, 1992--Bruce Springsteen, The Palace of Auburn Hills: It was certainly strange to see Bruce with only one E Streeter in his 1992 ensemble of musicians. But ultimately, his 1992 band gave a satisfying performance because his new songs from Human Touch and Lucky Town--two albums that should have been edited into one--were much heartier in a live setting...not a surprise given Bruce's onstage legacy. I can't recall if Springsteen did a somersault roll on the last chord of "Leap of Faith," like he did in the video, but he worked with guitarist Shayne Fontaine and singer Bobby King really well, while Crystal Talifero from John Mellencamp's band played a flawless saxophone solo on "Born to Run." Our seats were slightly behind the stage--a wonderful view.
August 5, 1994--Jackson Browne, Pine Knob Music Theater, Clarkston, MI: No shows for me in 1993 because I had to prepare to sell the house and move from Michigan to Washington state. I took my annual Michigan trip the following summer and my lifelong friend Gary Sobczak treated me to an excellent Jackson Browne show. JB performed several songs from last year's I'm Alive, my favorite album of his in quite awhile.
September 1, 1994--Richard Thompson, Bumbershoot Festival, Seattle: Just R.T. and monster player Danny Thompson (no relation; he's the one who played with Pentangle) on standup bass. Richard performed the pre-rock oldie "Bloodshot Eyes," but the best moment was "Easy There, Steady Now" from his latest album Mirror Blue, featuring incredible guitar work.
Summer 1995--The Noses, Sylvester Park, Olympia: They were my favorite Olympia band (although they didn't pick an agreeable moniker)--a power trio not unlike the early Who, with both remarkable dynamics and pop instincts. The Noses split up fairly soon after this show, with drummer Kelly Van Camp starting a ska band, so I was lucky to catch their engaging tunes from 1994's Flat Out and 1995's A Pocket Lipstick, Now! (both on their own A & D Records) at the park. Doubly impressive: their take on the Who's John Entwhistle track, "Heaven and Hell."
September 1995--Mary Chapin Carpenter, Washington State Fair, Puyallup: Her live activity in 1994 consisted of a short string of acoustic dates, so it was wonderful to experience MCC (she'd gotten rid of the hyphen because people tended to put it in the wrong place) with a full band on a sunny day at the fair. If I recall correctly, Carpenter played some of her most stellar material, like "He Thinks He'll Keep Her" and "Stones In the Road," the latter being covered by Joan Baez. MCC had recorded "Quittin' Time" (penned by Robb Royer and Roger Linn) on an early album and slowed it down in a quietly intense highlight for this gig. The scintillating onstage guitar arrangements--courtesy of Duke Levine or John Jennings; perhaps both--always sound more like folk-rock than country to me, although Columbia Records has long marketed Carpenter as country.
See also: 1972-1974, 1975-1979, 1980-1981, 1982-1983, 1984-1987, 1988-1990