It could NOT have been any better, and I have seen & heard both (long) before; Ian first in 1967! Tom on stage spoke of one collaboration: "Ian wrote this when I was just four" [pause] "He was eleven at the time." All classic stuff, maybe one new song, a really spooky effort by Ian he dedicated to the hawks on his ranch "THIS IS MY SKY!"
Slight air of... valedictory?-- Ian's voice is 90% back but everything he did was haunted, perhaps because he seemed frail. "Leaving Cheyenne" made the hairs on my neck bristle. They mostly played independently with their own backups, calling each other out for collaborations.
I first heard Ian live, I repeat, in 67--! Lib beat me with 1963, "Four Strong Winds" which Ian played last as a sing along (as was their collaboration "Navajo Rug").
Afterward it got a little goofy, perhaps because of relief that everything-- the old Lensic theater, the young guitarist whose name I must get-- went just right. In the break & aftermath Tom was helping Nadine man the tables with art & cd's, and acting like my booster, pointing at me, yelling "Steve Bodio, The Falconer!" and giving me high fives. So I'd come back with "Tom Russell, American songwriter!", sort of a private joke, and pump my cane in the air, or (for a mutual former Magdalena friend who was there helping, "Joel Bernstein, quarter horses and violins!" Finally a woman came up and said "are you the REAL Steve Bodio? " Now: my name is uncommon enough that I may be the only one, and for sure the only one THERE, but as I looked puzzled Tom retorted "that is why I'm gonna put him in a book!"...
It turns out my "fan" was Alberta writer and rider Wendy Dudley, who took the first two photos below. The third, at Rainbow Man gallery next AM, is by Nadine on her phone, and I show the effect of broken sleep, always a travel difficulty these days. We still had too much fun.
2 comments:
Good concert report, Steve. Yep, Ian is pretty crippled up these days, even if his voice is stronger than it's been in a few years, thanks to good surgery. But beastly broncs will do that to a man's (or woman's) knees. What all of us have to look forward to once we start hitting his age, as in 78 and beyond.
Every time we hear him, we wonder how many more tunes are left in him — a lot, I hope!
I think most of us at the show knew we were witnessing two great icons.
Hey, a Rungius letter! Lucky you. I always think of Rungius as the "moose butt" artist.
Good story on you by TR in the current Ranch and Reata issue. Like shedding candlelight on you; just enough to get a glimpse, but not enough to reveal all. Perfect!
Thanks for the concert report. Tom is in top form these days. As for Ian, your "Leaving Cheyenne" comment made me catch my breath. But then I thought, this is the way it oughta be. I admire the man for keeping at it. Like the old blues men. Play till you die.
Jim Cornelius
www.frontierpartisans.com
Post a Comment