Brian Slattery Photo
Taylor.
Even before their song-swapping set began at Best Video Thursday night, Shawn Taylor and Dick Neal were talking.
“You got the Willie Nelson thing going on your guitar there, Shawn,” Neal said, pointing to a hole Taylor had worn through the top of the instrument just below the pick guard. The reference to the country legend was apt, for a set filled with songs about memories and music itself.
“We’re going to keep it fast and loose and see what happens,” Taylor told the rapt audience, kicking into a first song that already felt expansive as Taylor laid down a slow rhythm on guitar and sparse drums he played with his feet, while Neal fleshed out the texture on a mandolin.
“That’s a beautiful thing, Shawn,” Neal said at the end.
“That’s a brand-new song,” Taylor said.
“I think you played it the last show,” Neal mused.
“Shhhh!” Taylor said. “It’s a brand-new song.”
It was then Neal’s turn to deliver a tongue-in-cheek song about what really happened on Noah’s Ark — focusing on how exactly the earth managed to repopulate itself so quickly from just a few pairs of animals. The mood lightened; it was Taylor’s turn again.
“My wife and I started our relationship in a backpacking tent about the size of this guitar,” Taylor said. They were hiking the Long Trail in Vermont all the way to Canada. A trip that took many hikers three weeks, he explained, took them six, five of which were soaked in rain — the focus of the song he played.
For his next turn, Neal took the audience to Flint, Michigan, where Neal grew up. He explained that his parents were from Missouri near the Arkansas border and had left there for Michigan to find work. He remembered that when he was a child his parents turned off the TV every Saturday night and listened to the radio, “I fled,” Neal said.
Later, as a young adult, Neal became infatuated with the banjo and “dedicated myself to learning it,” he said. He then thought about what his parents had been listening to; it turned out that it had been the Grand Ole Opry, in its early ‘60s heyday. “I blew it,” Neal said. But it turned out his memory was sharper than he initially gave it credit for, as he sang about how old country music sounded like home, thanks to his musical parents.
The audience remained still enough to hear every word. “Makes me nervous when you’re all so quiet,” Taylor joked. “We need a little hostility to feel at home,” Neal said. That got a laugh, but no less attention.
The song swapping continued, with Taylor providing harmonica backup to Neal on a song about dealing with the uptick in natural disasters in the Nutmeg State. Taylor offered a song about resolving to spend a lot less time on his phone. Neal did a touching song about the towns of the Naugatuck Valley, just before a satirical number about the spectacle of public executions during the French Revolution.
Taylor returned the song swapping to the theme of rivers, picking up where Neal left off to talk about rivers as constant, if constantly changing, features in manmade places that come and go, and the memories that can wash up on their banks.
A visit from guest Chris D’Amato let the band grow from a duo to trio, with Taylor returning to harmonica so D’Amato could take over lead guitar duties.
“Nice guitar, Shawn,” D’Amato said after playing it.
“Yeah, but you put a hole in it,” Taylor joked.
To introduce the last song of the night, Taylor thanked everyone for being such an attentive audience. Musicians and listeners, he said, were “part of a big family,” of people that needed each other. He then launched into a song about the very thing.
“It’s family, family, family through thick and through thin,” he sang over a rollicking rhythm. “Oh, they’ll drive you mad and they’ll rattle your cage, it’s always family again and again.”
Taylor had said that song (like several others) was a brand-new song. But after the first chorus, the audience was singing along as if they’d known it for ages.
