People are Talking: Blues at the Crossroads
Posted: 2/9/11 -- 8:00 am
by Mark Jacobson
Tell us what you thought! This is the place to comment on the performance, and talk to other people about what you saw and heard. Don’t forget to click the option to be notified when new comments are posted.
Mark Jacobson has been a staff member of the UMS Programming Department since 1998.
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Fantastic concert!!!!! Todd was on fire, and Honeyboy Edwards blew me away…..to think that he played with Robert Johnson, and can still work it with the guys on stage tonight, amazing!
MC
This was a most enjoyable show. A tad loud…but I will still be able to hear the pianist tomorrow night at Hill. I saw Big Head Todd in the 90′s. I like how he has mellowed. The choice of songs played was excellent. The Pistons probably aren’t worth $420 million. Glad UMS threw the Blues Brothers a BONE!
Robert Kinsey
Tonight was truly a moving experience. It was worth the drive from Columbus, OH to see Honeyboy and Hubert performing with such energy at their advanced ages. It might be a cliche, but anyone in attendance tonight witnessed living history. This was my first time seeing Cedric Burnside, Lightin’ Malcolm or Big Head Todd and the gang, but let me tell you it won’t be my last. These men should be commended for keeping a true, uniquely American art form relevant and active. The whole night was great and I’m looking forward to hopefully seeing a sesquicentennial Robert Johnson event. haha
Steve Patrick
Thank you for making the drive from Columbus (!) and glad you had such a positive and memorable experience at Hill Auditorium last night.
Mark Jacobson, UMS Programming Manager
Mark Jacobson
This was an exciting concert for me, as close to experiencing Robert Johnson as I’ll ever get. I came to the blues through rock n roll, as performed by a generation of English blues fans like Eric Clapton, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin. I recognized many riffs and even entire lyrics, but last night I was hearing the originals. The excitement was almost unbearable for me. What an experience!
Guitar George
George Hinman
It was truly a gift to experience Honey Boy Edwards! The night was nothing short of inspiring to see and hear a 95 year old man jamming with the youngsters, albeit Hubert may not be considered young at 79 — not only the fact that Honey Boy plays at 95, but that he travels and performs!! Gives ‘aging’ new meaning. Big Head Todd, et al were great. I always appreciated the solo and duo numbers. You really get to experience the artists’ talents. A fabulous show!
Joanne P.
Hardly a tribute to Robert Johnson, way too loud……. way too much electric bass……way too much drums….this was supposed to be blues for xsake! The guitar was very good at some times but drowned out by too much of everything else. Blues performed by a rock band is not the blues.
Mike
Legends, yes, but not a legendary performance. Mike is on the mark. The first two numbers were exquisite and could have set the tone for a memorable evening. Instead, amplification trumped masterful playing.
Constance Crump
Last night was a truly living historic event. To listen to Honeyboy Edwards and the quarter tone playing and singing style at a live event, rather than on a Smithsonian recording, was a privilege. And Lightin’ Malcom is a genius. Yes, there were technical issues, but then again, we are all spoiled. Weren’t we all simply listening to the musicians the way the folks heard the music first played? Bravo UMS. The music lives on!
Babette Ten Haken
Wonderful comments…. I am so glad that last night’s concert is stimulating such interesting dialogue in this forum. What did folks think of Hubert Sumlin’s performances? Did you enjoy the “rotating cast” of musicians throughout the tribute concert?
Mark Jacobson, UMS Programming Manager
Mark Jacobson
Overall an enjoyable evening! I thought Honeyboy Edwards and Hubert Sumlin were amazing and worth the price of admission, while Lightnin Malcolm was a bonus. If there was a weak link it was Big Head Todd, he just didn’t look/sound comfortable playing the blues. My two cents!
jim
My husband and I are big blues aficianados. We thoroughly enjoyed the performance; especially the combination of the different eras of musicians. We would love to see more of this type of concert.
Julie
Mark, the rotating cast was consistent with the genre and the context in which this music developed. Loved it! Reminded me of Clapton’s Crossroads Concert series. After all, isn’t this type of music a dialogue between musicians and their instruments?
Babette Ten Haken
Absolutely. Great point, Babette, as the blues, especially in its early development, was/is an oral tradition which passed along stories, aspirations, and experiences, primarily within the African-American community.
Mark Jacobson
I was disappointed and did not enjoy as it was not what I expected. I wanted the concert to be Blues before the electronics were introduced. To me it was a waste of time and money, and I wish I had know that it was a modern electronics powered band playing blues rhythms rather than musicians playing and singing with their natural instruments and voices.
Steven Jonas
The show was awesome! I am a music lover and am new to listening to the blues. But I know great music and performances when I see and hear them and last night’s show was no exception.
Sarah Weathers
Detriot’s Queen of the Blues, Alberta Adams, has said that you can’t sing the blues if you haven’t experienced the blues. I think that holds for Big Head Todd…he’s miming not mining his own life for the blues. That’ll get better when he’s 60 or more.
The acoustics in the Hill are not good for amped up concerts. Volume does not a better concert make. Cedric Burnsides drums in particular sounded thwack, thwack, thwacked with too much stick not enough skin. No depth of sound there. Not miked well.
Thank goodness for David “Honeyboy” Edwards and Hubert Sumlin or the concert would have been a washout. Age, experience, and long practiced skill give the blues their soul-polished patina. Would have preferred more time with the blues masters in a shorter concert overall.
Nest time, bring on Detroit’s Rev. Robert Jones of WDET’s Blues from the Lowlands fame to play with Mr. Edwards and Mr. Sumlin as well as the Queen of the Blues, Ms. Alberta Adams with R.J. Spangler for a historic performance with depth and authenticity.
Dolores Slowinski
Thanks for your comment. My husband and I felt exactly the same way as you and, for the first time, in the 30 years we have been attending UMS performances wrote a letter expressing our dissatisfaction. Mark Jacobsen of UMS replied to our concern, the good news, but his comment, ‘The acoustic in Hill Auditorium can be inexact and uneven at times, depending upon the relationship between a musician’s placement on stage and an audience member’s seat in the Auditorium–ESPECIALLY during concerts which require amplified sound reinforcement, like Blues at the Crossroads,” misses the point. A concert featuring honeyboy edwards and hubert sumlin did not require ambified sound which was, in fact, a total detriment.
Helen Weingarten
I have studied the blues and been a fanatic for years. This was a show Robert Johnson would have loved. Blues stretching across generations and racial barriers. Amazing!!!
Mickey McGuire
Thanks for your feedback, Mickey!
Mark Jacobson, UMS Programming Manager
Mark Jacobson
“Age is just a number” is a cliche we hear as we get older . . . it was good to see and hear “Honeyboy” Edwards and Hubert Sumlin show the truth it is based on.
Garth McAllister
Unfortunately I have to agree that this was not the experience I expected. At 40 dollars a pop for the middle of the mezzanine, I was thinking it would be the “real deal”. Instead I feel it was a poor, loud modern imitation, not interpretation, of music that is timeless and supposed to be from the gut. I usually would not bother to leave a comment, but I was truly disappointed that the Hill would choose to bring this to Ann Arbor. I do not see this as a personal preference in taste either, judging by the amount of people that left early, including my party.
Brian
Hi, Brian. I am sorry you were disappointed by this concert presentation and tribute to Robert Johnson. I do want to thank you for taking time to share your experience via this forum. I hope that this will not hold you back from taking chances on attending future UMS presentations that will hopefully meet or exceed your concert expectations.
Sincerely,
Mark Jacobson, UMS Programming Manager
Mark Jacobson
This was a tremendous evening. Those who point out Big Head Todd and the Monsters’ alleged inauthenticity are shortchanging themselves. Todd has never held himself out as a disciple of Robert Johnson, nor as a Delta Blues virtuoso. UMS never promoted him as such. Most casual music fans would know that this band is not a traditional blues band. Yet Todd Mohr and the entire program exceeded our expectations (I was there with a number of musicians, including a guitarist who toured extensively with Cedric Burnside). Honeyboy Edwards onstage for 7 or 8 numbers? Younger, serious blues cats like Cedric Burnside and Lightnin’ Malcom filling out the house band to support Honeyboy and Hubert Sumlin? I also rebutted annarbor.com’s gratuitously negative review of this concert in admittedly ornery fashion, but would like to accentuate only the positive here. This show was nearly a perfect balance of art versus commerce. UMS and Todd Mohr deserve our thanks for truly celebrating the Delta Blues, examining its influences on subsequent generations (yes, rock and roll!!…the Hooker and especially the R.L. Burnside songs they threw in (Hill Country Blues)are meant to rock), and providing 3,500 folks the opportunity to hear Honeyboy Edwards and Hubert Sumlin in a great venue.
joe grimley
Hi, Joe,
Thank you for your passionate concert feedback and perspective, above. Your comment tremendously contributes to the ongoing dialogue in this forum and we hope to see you and your guests at future UMS events!
Mark Jacobson, UMS Programming Manager
Mark Jacobson
Having read the annarbor.com review and comments, as well as these on umslobby.org, it seems that on balance this concert was more than well received by numerous folks who understand the blues to be threaded throughout American music–as it was and as it has evolved. The show and subsequent review and comments offered a learning experience for me, a former cellist and long-ago grad of of the UM School of Music. Thanks, Mark, for this opportunity!!
janet callaway
One of the best concerts I’ve seen in years. Brought 8 friends to this show and everyone loved it. Musicians were great, guitars great, sat in the 2nd row which was a special treat for us. Thanks for the show and pls schedule more like it in the future.
Mark C
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