I started logging notes on concerts when I was hanging out with Clark Anderson. He was a childcare worker, union organizer and a dear friend from the old days in Kenosha. Talking music was easy because I was a fan and Clark was a gifted slide guitarist. I started taking notes.
Clark died in 2010. You can read about him and (hear his music) here. This ten-year retrospective of favorite concerts, written for my old paper Isthmus, is dedicated to Clark.
The story begins:
Yeah, I got a music jones. About 500 concerts and shows’ worth over 10 years.
I love being caught up in the moment of live music. Swept away and transported. Lost in the shared sway of the cosmic boogie. In jaw-dropping awe of masters like Yo-Yo Ma and Leonard Cohen. Melting before Cassandra Wilson. Transfixed by Shelby Lynne. Glimpsing the abyss with the fearless Jon Dee Graham. Zoning out with Philip Glass. Stunned by Greg Allman’s howl of pain. Brought to tears by Beethoven’s 9th and Gorecki’s 3rd.
I’m there. I’m all in. It might be jazz. it might be country. It might be opera or classical. Or even freaky-deaky electronica. For 10 years I’ve written a year-end summary of my favorite shows for Isthmus. A critic I’m not: These year-end perambulations are a fan’s notes.
So here are my favorite shows and artists in Madison from 2006 to 2015; at the end, I toss in a few more from Milwaukee and Chicago. They are in roughly descending order of my liking. My original comments (lightly edited) are followed by italicized afterthoughts and music links.
I will ’fess up that I seem to be drawn — how to delicately put this? — to guy music, alt-country division. Am I telling a secret here? That all guys know deep down that temptation, chaos, despair and ruin are always lurking around the corner. Yep, even if we live the most proper lives imaginable, those bad-boy songs resonate with us. Like the compelling and scary songs of Jon Dee Graham.
To read about Jon Dee Graham and lots more great musicians, please go here.
Stories by Marc Eisen 