Richard Buckner - David Kilgour -- Iota - Aug 25 2011

David Kilgour - Kilgour has the usual voice/acoustic guitar approach and has a second acoustic guitarist with him. Clean soft vocals and a silky song style with a bit of bite on the strum at times. The second guitarist seems to only add another 6 strings to the mix as they are often playing the same chords. I would have liked to see more interplay here, otherwise as an old road warrior guitarist told me about previously having a second guitarist... "it's just another mouth to feed". Still, the songs were worth a listen and I enjoyed the set well enough. It picked up a bit when he switched to electric and had Buckner's accompanist adding some harmonium. The sound took off at that point. The large crowd appreciated the set.

Richard Buckner - I was pretty well blown away when I saw Buckner's set at a recent Sebadoh set at the Black Cat. Considering I have one of the best psychedelic folk record collections in the US, I could not see how I could have missed this guy after what I heard that night. In reading up on him since, I see how I may have avoided him with him being considered alt-country and even being on big labels (although that should have at least put his name in my head). But looking back at his career and picking up a number of his albums, I still should have jumped into his music many years ago. Fortunately for me and all of us, there is plenty of time to catch up as his albums are still out there and he continues to tour away. He has a new album on Merge and has a different accompanying player this time around. The sound has changed a bit into more of an acoustic approach with keyboards, harmonium, and maracas. Even if I may have preferred the sound last time, this set just reminded me further of what an amazing and varied talent we have here. The songs were just as gripping and still had that other worldly psychedelic touch along with various Greg Sage and Nick Drake feelings within. His voice pulls you in and the guitar work is great with effective looping used regularly but not all the time. There are loads of good songwriters out there like Josh Ritter, Amos Lee, and Dave Alvin, but I will take Buckner over any of them, which in part is due to the more intriguing arrangements. And it is nice to see a solid fan base here tonight, but it hopefully will grow further. There are few better out there than Richard Buckner.

Quote of the Night: I enjoyed Buckner's comment after comparing the recent earthquake with the big SF one he was in after someone shouted 'Apocalypse!'... "It's already here. Look at me... It's a personal George Romero film everyday."

But the real winner is something I overheard behind me during the opening set...  "This is David Gilmour....  Kilgore. What did I say?"