Laidback Atmosphere At The Nutt Complements Drew Kennedy And Bruce Robison

Just before sunset Saturday evening Drew Kennedy climbed the steps to the small side stage at Nutty Brown Cafe to serenade the audience with an acoustic show underneath the Hill Country live oaks.

He started out with “Baytown”, and the hour and fifteen minute performance consisted mostly of other songs from his latest album, Dollar Theater Movie. However, the third song into his set he covered a tune from Toad the Wet Sprocket. Later, he preluded his cover of “Folsom Prison Blues” by saying that as he was growing up he wanted to be a bluegrass singer, but after he hit puberty he lost what they call the “high lonesome.” It was around this time he discovered Johnny Cash and just wanted everyone to know that he’d been singing Cash long before the movie I Walk the Line was released. The only other cover he sang during the night he introduced as one of his favorite country songs, “Dublin Blues” by Guy Clark.

In between songs Kennedy briefed the attendees with background information on how his songs came into fruition. When Saengerhalle was closed down in New Braunfels, TX it got him to thinking about an old man that might have shared many of his life stories with a similar honky-tonk and how the closing would have affected him. He might ask a younger girl to dance on the last night, and to his dismay she’d answer yes. Kennedy mused that if the old man was anything like him that he’d probably be nervous and talk to her through the whole song. “The Last Waltz” portrays what he might say to her. The story added an extra layer of sadness than what is already present on the album.

Fittingly, he closed his set with my favorite Drew Kennedy song — “Goodbye”.

Bruce Robison and is band filled the concrete dance area for the remainder of the night with some of his classics and other not-so-classic songs. Robison towers above the rest of his band, and anyone else who stands next to him for that matter, even with a slight hunch. The way he interacted with the crowd and wove requests into his set was evidence enough to even the newest of newcomers that Robison is a seasoned professional.

He possesses a laid back stage presence and so much talent that it makes everything he does appear effortless. A few songs into his set he asked his wife, Kelly Willis, to join him, emphasizing how special it was for him that she was there since he rarely gets to sing with her. They performed three songs together, the last of which was “Angry All the Time”, a song most people might recognize from Tim McGraw’s Set This Circus Down album.

Songs covered by more famous singers were not in short supply as he also sang “Blame It On Me” (covered by Lee Ann Womack), “Desperately” and “Wrapped” (covered by George Strait), “Travelin’ Soldier” (covered by the Dixie Chicks), and “What Would Willie Do” (covered by Gary Allan).

Robison joked that if you saw any kids running around they were probably his, and got even more laughs when Willis approached the stage later in the night and asked him to announce a missing pink pony.

Just before closing the show with “12 Bar Blues” Robison sang his fantastically underappreciated song, “My Brother and Me” (number 15 on Matt’s 20 Underappreciated Songs list).

We all left more fully enriched than we arrived.