Stories by Marc Eisen

Boy, I like music.

All kinds.

From opera to jazz to alt country to classical.

Put another way: Philip Glass meets Nicholas Payton meets Jon Dee Graham meets Porgy and Bess meets Ben Sidran meets Mary Chapin Carpenter.

As I wrote in this year-end wrap-up of 2012 for TheDailyPage.com:

I saw more than 60 shows this year, at venues in San Francisco, New York and many places in between. But this reprise — my eighth seventh annual for TheDailyPage.com — focuses on shows within a car drive of Madison. My tastes are catholic and open-minded, but caveat emptor: I’m a music enthusiast and not a critic. Full confession: I lack even an elementary understanding of music, can’t play an instrument and couldn’t carry a tune in a suitcase. But I love live music.

I loved how, on a hot night in Milwaukee (July 16, Riverside Theater), a superb Diana Krall encored with an impossibly fast version of Irving Berlin’s “Cheek to Cheek” that somehow segued into Lennon and McCartney’s “Come Together.” After ripping up the High Noon Saloon (May 21), Alejandro Escovedo’s encore was equally improbable: Mott the Hoople’s 40-year-old hit (penned by David Bowie) “All The Young Dudes,” followed by encore after encore until Escovedo led the band off the stage to the middle of the club to sing one last acoustic number surrounded by the audience. This was darn near a religious moment.

To read more about my 2012 favorite shows, please go here.

To read my previous year-enders, follow these links:

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

To read more, please go here.

This entry was posted on December 26, 2012 at 1:56 am and is filed under Music, TheDailyPage.com/Isthmus. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: Dave Alvin, Jon Dee Graham, Kiki's House of Righteous Music, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Overture, Stoughton Opera House