Jonah Smith preview

Jonah Smith
Vic Theatre, Chicago
Saturday, October 14, 2006

People say opening for Slayer is the toughest gig in the world because the band’s fans are rock’s most loyal. (Carving “Slayer” into your flesh gets you a bloody high-five; etching “Rob Thomas” gets you committed.) But opening for Madeleine Peyroux can’t be much easier, as the chanteuse has fully grown into her bluesista role alongside such revered sirens as Diana Krall and even gets compared to a certain Ms. Holiday. Jonah Smith faces this challenge.

Not that he doesn’t have his believers. Both Bill Frissell and The Band’s Garth Hudson appear on his self-titled Relix Records debut, and Peyroux doesn’t throw just anyone under her bus. The Band, in fact, are a touchstone for opener “Little Black Angels,” which digs into the American South, but keeps a weary, apocalyptic distance. “When We Say Goodnight” is a less effective, modernist take on slow blues — if “Eric Claptonesque” has a negative connotation, it’s a fit descriptor. But Smith’s voice finally takes hold on “Stay Awhile,” ironically a duet with Carrie Rodriguez, where he unveils a subtle blend of Chris Robinson, Van Morrison, and Steve Winwood.

That he has such a gift is both a blessing and curse for Smith, as if instead of feeling empowered by it he has been saddled with an obligation to recreate the past. While his skill at writing and arranging analog roots rock is unquestioned, it’s also the forte of countless, similarly gifted others who seek to turn their idiom into an international language. The old-timey, piano-based hidden track could be the ticket out, if only he had the courage to lose the old-timey.

— Kevin Keegan

Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly