Southern Troubadours
City Winery, Chicago
April 10, 2016

Quality: Strong audience recording
Hardware: Edirol R09-HR, shirt pocket
Taper: bobinchicago

The Southern Troubadours are:

Paul Thorn (guitar, back-of-the-guitar percussion, vocals)
Ruthie Foster (guitar, vocals)
Joe Ely (guitar, vocals)


FIRST SHOW
01: First show intro
02: Mood Ring (PT)
03: Intro (RF)
04: Promise of a Brand New Day (RF)
05: Intro (JE)
06: Letter to Laredo (JE)
07: Intro (PT)
08: Almost What You Need (PT)
09: Intro (RF)
10: Singing the Blues (RF)
11: Lubbock International Airport story (JE)
12: Because of the Wind (JE)
13: Intro (PT)
14: I Bet He Knows (PT)
15: Intro (RF)
16: Harder Than the Fall (RF)
17: Intro (JE)
18: Wishin' for a Rainbow (JE)
19: Intro (PT)
20: A Star That Fell Down (PT)
21: Intro (RF)
22: Home (RF)
23: Intro (JE)
24: Cold Black Hammer (JE)
25: Intro (PT)
26: Three Times a Lady (PT)
27: Intro (RF)
28: Ring of Fire (RF)
29: Intro (JE)
30: Mama Tried (JE)
31: Intro (PT)
32: I Guess I'll Just Stay Married (PT)
33: Intro (RF)
34: Phenomenal Woman (RF)
35: The Highway Is my Home (JE)
36: Encore applause
37: Blowin' Down That Dusty Road (All)


SECOND SHOW
01: Second show intro
02: A Lot of Good Reasons (PT)
03: Smalltown Blues (RF)
04: Intro (JE)
05: Not That Much Has Changed (JE)
06: Intro (PT)
07: Things Left Undone (PT)
08: People Grinnin' in Your Face (RF)
09: All That You Need (Sow the Seeds) (JE)
10: Intro (PT)
11: Turnip Greens (PT)
12: Mama Said (RF)
13: I'm Gonna Strangle You Shorty (JE)
14: Intro (PT)
15: Backslide on Friday (PT)
16: Intro (RF)
17: My Kinda Lover (RF)
18: Slow You Down (JE)
19: Intro (PT)
20: If I Can Get Over Her (PT)
21: Runaway Soul (RF)
22: Intro (JE)
23: Boxcars (JE)
24: Intro (PT)
25: I'm a Lucky Man (PT)
26: Traveling Shoes (RF)
27: Live Forever (JE)
28: Encore applause
29: Blowin' Down That Dusty Road (all)
30: outro applause


Notes:

As always, with these acoustic shows, I bring down the spikes (mostly applause),
bring up the banter, and try to leave the music untouched. That said, in the
first show, I was facing away from the stage -- under the house sound, but I had
to bring the left side up to match the right on the first show. My seat for the
second show was at the same table but facing the stage, so the sound was pretty
even.

Also, a lot of people in my area showed up late, especially for the first show, so
you'll hear chairs being dragged, tableware tinkling around, and all that. Think
of it as a remarkably lifelike recreation of how it sounded. I hope I'm making it
seem worse than you'll experience.

As far as I'm concerned, nothing beats Joe Ely and a band, but this was a pretty
amazing little experience. I was unfamiliar with Ruthie Foster -- she has lungs,
people -- and Paul Thorn, who struck me as a great mix of Fred Koller and Blaze
Foley. He's got a very dry but blunt sense of humor that made his song intros as
entertaining as the songs themselves.

So along with Joe's own considerable presence, you've got a pretty fine soul singer
and a darned fine singer-songwriter. There's some overlap in the set lists with
jefft3881's great capture at http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=557910
but there are also a lot of unique moments, including two tributes by Joe, first his
cover of Merle Haggard's "Mama Tried" (with both of the others on stage and every
single person in the crowd very aware of his take on that famous riff) and then his
dedication to a former bandmate in the second set. (No spoilers there. People in the
crowd caught the emotion and you should too.)

Song intros and banter were briefer during the second show and I didn't always
see a need to track them separately. Many of Foster and Thorn's song titles came
from lyrics searches, so if the sites I used were wrong, corrections are welcome.

It was also a treat to get to say hello to DIMEr raysmith and his wife, who made a
valiant attempt to get a set list. There were three on stage and it was the last
night of the tour, but the roadie still blocked her request. Sometimes it's easier
to apologize later than ask permission first. Just gonna put that out there, Ray.

Thanks as always to the musicians, the venues, the preservation society that has
congregated on DIME, and particularly the bartenders. Leave them a well-deserved
tip, and stop by the merch table before you leave too.


Images for all shows as well as full size images for this show.

Images for this show: