Jill Sobule (with Kate Klim opening) ~ 2012 July 26 ~ Club Passim, Cambridge, MA
Jill Sobule accompanying herself on guitar; show opened by Kate Klim accompanying herself on keyboard
Set List
All the Young Dudes {Bowie} - We Want Our America Back - Karen By Night - Joe - What Was I Thinking - Twenty-Five Cents - Mexican Wrestler - Thank Misery - Lucky in Love - Where is Bobbie Gentry - Modern Drugs - Jetpack - Soldiers of Christ - Bitter - Nothing to Prove - Where Do I Begin - Valley of the Dolls ... encore ... I Kissed a Girl - Strawberry Gloss ... [not sure about all the song titles since there were several new songs].
Review
There is a great movie currently making the rounds of film festivals. It is called For the Love of the Music: The Club 47 Folk Revival. The film documents how a small coffeehouse tucked away on a side road off the beaten path in Harvard Square started the whole folk movement when in 1958 they booked an unknown teenage folk singer named Joan Baez. The film goes on to feature many other important folk singers who got their start at this small club including Tom Rush and many others. When the crowds got too big for their original space, the club moved to 47 Palmer Street in the heart of Harvard Square where they continued for a few more years, until after some ownership changes the club closed its doors. But the spirit of the place could not be subdued, and after a few more years the new owners re-opened 47 Palmer Street as an acoustic music venue, following the spirit of the old Club 47 ... and it is now called Club Passim.
Jill Sobule is exactly the type of performer who fits in at Club Passim and would have been at home at the old Club 47. A fine singer, uniquely talented songwriter, and skilled guitar player, she puts it all together for a highly entertaining evening of music. She also tells wickedly witty stories that had the crowd laughing on this hot summer night. She gets political sometimes, and her politics are comfortably at home on the left side of the aisle.
Dressed in a custom made peace power dress, Jill opened the show with a thoughtful acoustic cover of "All the Young Dudes," but then performed nothing but originals for the rest of the show. If I had to pick a favorite Sobule song it would be "Karen By Night," based on a true story of her boss at the shoe store where she worked many years ago, who took on a leather-clad biker persona after dark. Jill said that on the following night she would be playing a show at a theater in New York which is actually housed in the building where the shoe store was located, and she had invited the actual Karen who inspired the song to the show. At this show tonight she gave a shout out to her cousin who was in attendance, and played a few bars of a song she wrote with that cousin at age 5. The song was "Joe" and I think the few bars were probably the entire song. Jill has played gigs in many venues, including, recently, a men's prison. She quoted the conversation with her mother before that particular show. Jill: "Mom, I think I might meet my future husband." Mother: "As long as he's Jewish." Jill played "Mexican Wrestler" at the prison, and played it again tonight, and said that the song was able to touch a number of the prisoners.
Jill featured a number of excellent new songs, two of which were from musicals that she has been involved with. They were "What Was I Thinking" from a production of Yentl and the other was "Twenty-Five Cents" from a show called Time Square. This song was a great singalong, as were several of her other songs. Another new song was the wry "Modern Drugs," in which Jill wondered if Edgar Allan Poe, Van Gogh, and other artists of the past would have left us their creative legacies if they had had access to tranquilizers and other treatments of modern times. Jill also made a brave attempt at "Solder of Christ" in response to a request from a concert goer but didn't remember the lyrics, and promised it for next time.
At encore time she asked for requests, and a female audience member called out "I Kissed a Girl." Various other audience members responded with: "did you like it?" and "good for you." But it was actually a song request, and Jill obliged with a rendition of her best-known song. At the end of the song she complained that it was very hot (which it was!) and said that if someone would fan her she would play one more song. A gentleman at a front table took a menu off the table and created a breeze for the final song, "Strawberry Gloss."
The show was opened by local performer Kate Klim accompanying herself on keyboards. She has a nice voice and an earnest delivery. Kate was very enthusiastic about playing at Club Passim, where she got her start at open mikes, and she is actually featured very briefly in the Club 47 movie. A rising star.
More Jill
Interested in my other Jill Sobule reviews? Here is a page with a handy list of links to all pages on this website with Sobule content.
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