Here’s what I wrote for Isthmus in years’ past:
A fan’s notes:
Ten years of Madison WI concerts, 2006-15
By Marc Eisen
Yeah, I got a music jones. About 500 concerts and shows worth over ten 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 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 never far away. 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….
That raw emotional road
John Dee Graham, Project Lodge, Feb. 13; with the Hobart Brothers and Lil’ Sis Hobart, Kiki’s House of Righteous Music, April 10; and Kiki’s House of Righteous Music, Dec. 14, all 2012.
Putting a twist on Eugene O’Neill, Graham’s shows are often long night journeys into day. His songs of darkness and personal defeat are redeemed by jewel-like moments of hope and love. Looking like the guy who hung drywall in your living room, he announced in his gravel-truck voice at his December show, “I don’t really trust you unless your life has burned to the ground twice and you started over. I’ve done it three times.”
How he manages to travel that raw emotional road in song night after night is a wonder. That he can is why I would argue that, whether drinking or holding on to sobriety, Graham is among the greatest singer-songwriters working today.
From his home in Austin, where he’s regarded as a legend (in the ’80s, Graham played with Alejandro Escovedo in a revered punk band called the True Believers and recorded with punk icons John Doe and Exene Cervenka), he made four trips to Madison this year. He drew tiny crowds — less than 20 people at Project Lodge and 40 or so at house concerts hosted by Kiki Schueler. Twice he came as a solo act, once with his superb band (I missed it) and another time in a fascinating side project — the Hobart Brothers and Lil’ Sis Hobart, with Freedy Johnston and Susan Cowsill — singing (mostly) songs about crap jobs and wasted youth.
Jon Dee killed in these shows. The guy is like Raymond Carver crossed with Leonard Cohen. His stories are unforgettable. His life lessons are learned the hard, dumb way. Graham is, as my friend Greg Conniff says, an imperfect soul making great music.
Also, Kiki’s House of Righteous Music, July 6, 2013.
Here in his record 9th performance at Kiki’s basement concert venue, Jon Dee Graham could not have been better. He is a slashing elemental guitarist seemingly forged in a blast furnace in Gary, Ind. For all his storied ties to rock n’ roll (he is a three-time member of the Austin Music Hall of Fame), Graham is something more important: A tribal storyteller. He gathers his listeners around the campfire to tell harrowing stories of danger and depravity and finally — this comes late in the night– songs of redemption and love. Yeah, we’re talking catharsis straight out of the old Greek playbook.
How he does this night after night is beyond me. Graham sings songs and tells anecdotes of divorce, drug abuse, mental collapse, car crashes, impoverishment and greasy music industry executives. Yet he ends with those songs of renewal and even innocence. I’ve seen Jon Dee countless times over the years and have repeatedly written about him in these recaps. I can’t get enough of the guy. He gives travel tours of hellish places we all want to avoid but sometimes encounter.
Here is a great profile in The Bitter Southerner. Further listening: “Holes,” “October,” “Swept Away.”
Stories by Marc Eisen 