The Nashville-based Woody Pines, Tuesday’s headliner at Cafe Nine, has played there “at least four times” including an “exciting” New Year’s Day show once.
“I love Cafe Nine,” he told me over a beer after his set was over. “It’s down home, really the most cozy, friendly neighborhood bar. They have a great sound system and music seven days a week, so if I’m passing through town on a weird day, I know I can probably play here.”
Tuesday may have been considered one of those weird days for many reasons. The day before had been filled with enough tragedy and sadness to last a week or more, and it was apparent that everyone was feeling the need for a little fine tuning and even finer tunes.
Woody Pines and opener An Historic — the songwriting project of New Haven-based musician Adam Matlock — obliged.
“It’s Tuesday night, and I’m gonna need your help” Matlock announced to the audience from the stage at Cafe Nine before his set began. “Can you clap?”
The small but rapt audience gave him what he needed, and Matlock, playing solo, proceeded to alternate between finger snapping and accordion playing as he sang along to his accompaniment. He offered up eight songs, each with a short introduction — enough banter to make everyone feel at home. He mentioned that he was a teacher and was “all about positive reinforcement” and that his song about punks “was not a punk song.” His passionate vocals and wildly melodic accordion interacted with one another to create a vibrant state of affairs in the darkened room.
When he sang his “sort of a protest song,” which included the line “I hope my bones pierce the tires,” his voice seemed to pierce the darkness itself. When he shouted “can I get a yes?” to the crowd, they responded loudly. Another song — “I guess it’s about a dream,” he said — indeed had a dreamy quality to it.
Matlock was well received by the intimate crowd, and garnered even more applause when he announced that he would be returning to the stage there on Sunday to play two tunes at Cafe Nine’s Jeff Buckley tribute.
Karen Ponzio Photo
Woody Pines.
Woody Pines, along with Brian Dirken on bass and Henry Westmoreland (also of the Squirrel Nut Zippers) on baritone sax and trumpet, shook the club’s stage, floor, and walls through 19 songs that kept audience members’ toes tapping and hands clapping throughout the night. Playing his guitar and harmonica, singing and chatting with the other musicians as well as the audience through the set, Pines brought a feeling of a down home revival to the venue, an all-out celebration of life, including both original tunes and old-time standards that were rocked and revived themselves through the band members’ apt and mighty hands.
Stories of the band’s adventures thus far on their seven-week tour, as well as stories of the past and hopes for what lies ahead, were interspersed with the music, including one tune that added the story of a trip to Mardi Gras with stops along Highway 61 and Graceland into the mix of the song. About midway through the set, a couple of people got to dancing in front of the stage. When the trio ended their set with “Who Do You Love” — Pines banging feverishly on his single drum with actual sticks — there was no doubt by the sound of the response what the crowd’s answer was. Most of the people who had come out remained long after the set was over to chat with the three musicians and heap praise upon them.
Matlock mentioned during his set that Woody Pines was the type of performer “that makes a Tuesday feel like a Friday,” adding that with himself you got “the existential crisis for free.”
On a Tuesday that felt like a Friday for more reasons than anyone cared to discuss any longer, it was comforting to know that perhaps after such a revival of sound and spirit from these two acts, we could all collectively get on with beginning again.
