Jerry Joseph can be many things – performer, politician, raconteur. Tonight, he rocked. Tonight, the fire was burning very brightly.
Joseph is amazing to see live – full of energy, full of stories and full of authentic truths. But there’s also a real spiritual depth to what Joseph brings. Not in a preachy way – not even in a way that opens up a sense of awe and wonder – but in the way he makes a connection to others, the way he brings an awareness of the profundity and power of being human. Songs and anecdotes convey what it means to have survived, but are also infused with a reaching out, a search for something – maybe even absolution or salvation. They hold the wisdom that has come from suffering. Pain and rehab are manifest themes, but lurking below the surface are uncertainty and inner conflict.
For this evening’s performance, Joseph was supported by an Australian multi-instrumentalist known simply as “Stretch.” Stretch proved himself to be an enchanting and talented accordionist and washboard player.
The set began with ‘Days of Heaven’ from the brilliant “Beautiful Madness” album – and Joseph grabbed the audience immediately with his presence and energy. The song blends biblical imagery (“days of heaven,” “gospel set in rhyme”) with gritty, earthly textures (“blood,” “skin and bone”). It feels like someone looking back on a sacred moment that was both violent and divine – where love and pain, faith and flesh, collapse into each other. And to hear it live allows the intimacy and power of the song to really shine. Stretch also added some lovely complexity with his accordion.
Those who have seen Joseph more than once will know that his sets are ever-changing and anything from his back catalogue might be played. It was therefore a joy to hear him play a song that is not often featured, ‘Evasive’ from 2008’s “Charge (Chärj)”. Here, the spiritual connection is explicit, but the focus is the questioning and the uncertainty in existential dread. Here is Joseph trying to talk to God without the filter of religion. Indeed, he introduced the song by saying that it is part of faith to lose and question your belief, but then to fake it. “You said light was evasive, it comes and it goes/It runs through your fingers, it fills up your soul” creates a sense of the spiritual but manages to keep the tactile, the earthly, present too. Yet, “You can be strong, you can be brave/It’s not for certain that you will be saved” puts the doubt of living so simply, yet so evocatively. And this song was performed just by Joseph – one guitar, one voice – so commanding, so affective, it did grab and fill your soul.
The power and intimacy continued with the next song, ‘The Jump’ from “Mouthful of Copper”. This is a haunting number which weaves together love, loss and self-destruction. It is a meditation on guilt – but again has searching and connection, this time for transcendence, this time for something more than us. Stretch returned for this song, on the washboard now, which added real rhythm, matching the urgency of the song. The song delivers a gut-punch right from the start: “Sent her out for coffee/Maybe some eggs and bread/She said I always love you baby/Yeah, that’s about all she said/She jumped.” Joseph then reflects on the impact of this – his unravelling in response. And then woven into the middle of the song is a cover of U2’s ‘Until the End of the World’, which is brilliantly rendered and sits naturally in the arc of the story. And finally, the conclusion, lines so powerful, so human: “I will jump…with God…with grace…with you”.
The next song saw a shift to the political, with ‘Dead Confederate’. The concept of this number is very clever: the recent tearing down of statues as an act of protest is told through the eyes of one of the statues. For this tune, Joseph showcased his musicianship: there was subtle magnificence in his guitar work. This was especially evident as, due to breaking a string, he performed using support act Ella Spencer’s guitar.
Perhaps coincidence, perhaps synchronicity, but Joseph then invited Spencer onto the stage. Stretch returned too, again with his washboard. As a threesome, the first song performed was a cover of Tyler Childers’ ‘Feathered Indians’. The three musicians blended brilliantly and managed to make the song their own. This continued with a cover of one of Spencer’s songs, ‘Still Howling Wolf’. Again, what was striking was how well the trio combined, bringing a real edge to this powerful number. “I’ll wake up howling against the wall” brought a shiver to the spine.
The final song performed by Joseph with both Spencer and Stretch was ‘Hearts Gone Blind’, which appears on Joseph’s recent, excellent album “Panther Tracks Volume 1” but actually dates back to Joseph’s time with Little Women. In fact, Joseph introduced it by explaining that it was written on the day the Challenger Space Shuttle exploded in 1986. This song feels like a burnt-out confession from someone watching the world – and himself – unravel. There is a brutality in the openness of some of the lines: “It’s hard to notice when you’re high all the time” captures both awareness and apathy. And musically this was one of many highlights – rousing, heart-tugging but also joyous in the way the musicians worked together. Joseph and Stretch weaved wonderful patterns of accordion and guitar as if they had been performing together for years; they met the Tuesday before the gig. And Spencer’s voice powerfully calling out the mantra ‘hearts gone blind’ lifted the performance, again bringing in the audience, making connection.
Next up was ‘Both of You’ – a song about love, loss and acceptance. Not love in a romantic way but in a way that takes you beyond yourself and is both unconditional and painful – “But I don’t need to hear the truth to be close to you”. Love that accepts another despite addiction, mental illness or anything that might be troubling – “It doesn’t matter who you are today/‘Cause I’ll still love you both anyway”. Stretch again added some amazing accordion work to this song, providing a counterpoint to Joseph’s power. And hidden in the middle of the song was a snatch of Eric Clapton’s ‘Let it Grow’. The theme of mental illness was continued with ‘Staple Gun’ – a song based on a guy in rehab who stapled his arms. Joseph seems to be able to keep shock and support together – “Fifty silver staples running up and down each arm./Whatever keeps you focused, keeps you out of harm”.
The emotion was continued into the last two songs, ‘We Go Down’ and ‘Good Sunday’. Songs with a simple but powerful message where even the overtly political goes beyond the partisan. Songs about trying to recognise and hold on to what it means to be human – ‘We fall down, we get up/A saint is just a sinner who fell down and got up again’. And then, almost the final refrain from ‘Good Sunday’ – ‘I want to dance with somebody who loves me’ – is so simple yet holds a universal truth. We can try to look beyond ourselves, but we are all mammals that need to cling on to others when it’s tough. We all still need the touch of another. Joseph brings this simple truth to gigs: it is about connection in his presence.
Ella Spencer opened the evening for Joseph. She seems to be in a magical place in her career: she has developed real stage presence, but might not be completely aware of that herself. Spencer is also a great songwriter. Her set this evening was infused with a sense of wistfulness and melancholy. It began with the excellent ‘Warning Signs’ – a song that concludes “only hindsight sees the warning signs”. Next up were two new songs, both of which were thoughtful, reflective numbers – ‘Wishbone’ and ‘Skeletons’ – performed with just voice and acoustic guitar, yet still able to convey something complex. These were followed by a cover of Jackson C Frank’s ‘Blues Run the Game’ and Spencer took the opportunity to show her guitar playing skills. Last up was her new single, ‘Scottie’s Tyres’. This is another great tune, but again is steeped in sadness – “If we have to disentangle, do I have to lose?”
An evening to treasure.
Great review – I was so annoyed to not make any of the recent dates, and this at least assures me that I was right to be annoyed.