Roger McGuinn show 4/22/11 in Old Saybrook, CT

[beatbyrd]

Hi,
For my 60th birthday, I decided to give myself a trip to the East coast for a pair of McGuinn shows. This is a report on the Friday, April 22 show. He has changed the opening of the show to include a sea shanty. He currently has a new CD at the printers. The title is "Sea CD" (hard to tell when he only says "CCD"). It is made up of sea shanty songs. He tried to get the audience to sing along in a call and response. The audience was not hip enough to handle the singing and it didn't go as planned. On Saturday night, he dropped the audience participation on the same song.
I had a front row, center seat for this show. I was really in a good position to watch his playing and his facial expressions. He was having a very rough time with both of his hands, for the whole night. On one Byrds song ("It Won't be Wrong"), he had to stop the song about 20 seconds into it and start it over. Every performer knows the feeling of total capitulation and embarassment when you do this. He barely got through the song and waved off the applause after it ended, quietly mumbling, "No, that wasn't very good".
He was having problems with picking accuracy all night, regardless of the guitar he was playing. His left hand was also having a tough time, with a lot of muted (thunk, thunk) notes. I noticed these problems most when he was playing his Rick. The outro lick to "Feel a Whole Lot Better" was not played cleanly on either Friday or Saturday night. The Rick did not jangle at all on Friday night. Roger was grimacing a lot when playing. I'm not sure if there were pain issues or he was just reacting to his rough night. I did hear some non-musicians talking after the show about how his playing had gone downhill.

Here are some pics that I took:

Saturday was better and I'll post a review of that tomorrow. Today was fly-back-to-L.A.-day and I am more beat than byrd.

Tom (beatbyrd.com)

[jimk]

It's too bad to hear that he was having difficulties playing. But thanks for posting your review.
JimK

[wmthor]

Thanks for sharing!

[Folkie]

Tom,

Thanks for the report on the McGuinn shows. It troubles me to hear that he was having so many problems, especially since his technique was flawless when I saw him in 2007. Am I correct that he's 69? Is there any word on whether he's been ill?

Robert

[beatbyrd]

Tom,

Thanks for the report on the McGuinn shows. It troubles me to hear that he was having so many problems, especially since his technique was flawless when I saw him in 2007. Am I correct that he's 69? Is there any word on whether he's been ill?

Robert

Hi Robert, I know that the sound check did not go smoothly at the venue. He may have let that psyche him out all night, been sick, tired, or just had one of those nights. The audience singalong didn't work on the new sea shanty, he needed to restart "It Won't be Wrong", and had lots of other various trouble throughout the evening. On Saturday night, he was back to his more normal self. He will be 69 in July (13th?). It could be that the hands are starting to get a little tired. Or, that all the road life is taking a toll. I don't know. He hints at playing gigs when he's 100 years old. I hope he makes it. Tom

[Folkie]

Tom,

Thanks for the eyewitness report on the two McGuinn shows. Any word on when Roger's new cd will be available?

Robert

[beatbyrd]

Tom,

Thanks for the eyewitness report on the two McGuinn shows. Any word on when Roger's new cd will be available?

Robert

Hi Robert,
The quote from Camilla was .... "The CD is currently at the printers", which would indicate soon, whenever that might be. It seems as if projects just come and go with them. I asked her about the biopic (she mentioned that in August, 2010) and I got a vague answer about it moving along. I asked about the "Rock the Gospel" CD (also mentioned in August, 2010) and she didn't answer me, so it's apparently abandoned. They did have a 4 or 5 song sea shanty 'loop' (with Roger singing) running in the venue from the time the doors opened until Roger came on.
I may be completely off the mark here, but my belief is that nearly all of the people coming to see him are coming due to the Byrds connection. The folk song CDs sell at the venues, but not in any great numbers. "Live From Mars", which is an older CD of his live show, hardly sells at all. If he recorded his solo 'take' on a bunch of Byrds songs that spanned their history and titled it "Roger McGuinn - Best of the Byrds - Solo" or "Byrds Songs You Heard Tonight", I think that Camilla would sell a lot more CDs.
Although Roger might enjoy a full CD of sea shanties, I don't think most of his audience would. As a matter of fact, if he ever bills the show as, "Roger McGuinn - An Evening of Sea Shanties", that would be a concert I would not have any interest in; even if it was free and a block away from my house. Tom

[Folkie]

Tom,

Although my main interest in Roger comes through his association with the Byrds, and I was a bit disappointed that he played so little on his 370/12 back in 2007 when I saw him here in Cleveland, I applaud Roger for getting back to his roots in the Chicago School of Folk Music, and for promoting the music he's loved for so many years. Folk Den is a wonderful project that should popularize much traditional material that's seldom played or recorded at all these days. His decision to play mostly acoustic songs at his shows, in the face of audience demands for more Byrds material, demonstrates just how uncompromising he can be. That said, I like the new direction he's taken and will certainly purchase the CD of sea shanties. I just hope the technical problems you witnessed at those two shows aren't any indication that he's slipping. I'll certainly look forward to seeing Roger the next time he's here, and let's keep our fingers crossed that he's in good health.

Robert