CONCERT: A Lonely Night

This weekend the Velour Live Music Gallery hosted A Lonely Night with Joshua James. The idea was to have two shows, one at 7:30 and one at 9:30 - only 150 tickets sold for each, all seated. We went to the 9:30 edition. It was everything we could have hoped for... and more. Here's the rundown:

Paul Jacobsen opened and did a fantastic job. He was so personable and his songs are just so dang pretty. Here's his myspace, and look for a new record from him soon.

Joshua opened his set by creeping down the center aisle between the seats, playing completely acoustic, stamping his feet and howling as the song picked up... generally scaring all that were in the audience. He then jumped up on stage and asked "Did I scare ya? That was fun", before going on. We were already eating it up.

Next he played Lord, Devil and Him - and it was as raw and as passionate as ever. Other songs from his album The Sun is Always Brighter included Soul and the Sea, FM Radio, and Commodore. He also played Lovers Without Love, off of It's Dark Outside.

The vast majority of songs he played for us were not to be found on any of his recorded works. Some live staples that have yet to be recorded included You Are My Sunshine and Crash This Train, both were particularly amazing this night. Some new songs that I can't wait to hear more of included Meet Me in the Middle* (a thoughtful though really really sad song about watching your lover with someone else after you've passed on), and Long Way to the Top* (about getting 'low-balled' as Joshua put it). It was such a treat to hear so much new stuff from this incredibly gifted writer, and it prompted me to ask his wife/merch-booth-manager after the show about when he was going to be recording next. Well, it turns out that all this stuff is already recorded! The plan is to release Sun is Always Brighter nationally in June, so he's holding off on anything new until after that... so August maybe? We're crossing our fingers. (*these are just best guesses at song titles).

Some of the real highlights of the night were when Joshua had several of his musical cohorts join him onstage, making the night a veritable local all-star showcase, and just about anything but a lonely night. Joining Joshua that night was Paul Jacobsen on Soul and the Sea, McKay Stevens (of Night Night) laying down some fresh flows over Let's Get it On, and a cover of Ain't No Sunshine by Bill Withers (these were both fantastic), and Colby Stead came out to sing along as Joshua covered one of his songs - which was beautiful (I'm actually not familiar with what song it was... if anyone knows, please share the love).

The whole night Joshua just kept smiling and, giggling? Yeah, something like that. It was just so obvious that he was having the time of his life up there, and we were all loving it. The love he has for his music, for performing it, and for all of us who came out to hear it was just so apparent, and that made this lonely night a truly remarkable experience.

So what's the moral of the story? Go see Joshua James play live at all costs. And pick up his album, The Sun is Always Brighter right now. Like this very instant. This is why we love music, and you should too.

Here's some pictures:

The set.

The man.

Joshua and Colby. Rocking.

Let's get it on.

So so good.