T-R-O-U-B-L-E at the Keswick
Saw Travis Tritt recently at the Keswick Theater. I don’t listen to country music often (although WXTU is one of my terrestrial-radio presets), but I always enjoyed Travis Tritt, at least the handful of songs I know—especially “T-R-O-U-B-L-E,” which was actually written by Jerry Chesnut and recorded by Elvis. “T-R-O-U-B-L-E” came up about an hour and a half into the show, and we were wondering what tune of his could possible follow that.
Nothing could apparently, because for the rest of the night they cranked out an extended set of classic covers (even “Sweet Home Alabama”) like some supercharged bar band. The show finally ended after over two and a half hours. By the way, there were a whole lot of cameras at this show and no announcement prohibiting “flash photography.” In fact, Travis even encouraged photo ops by hopping up and posing on some pedestals at the edge of the stage. Great show.
More recently, we saw Bruce Hornsby’s solo acoustic show at the Keswick. I was impressed at the breadth of his musical knowledge. After one number, I thought of calling him the Bill Evans of rock and roll, but that doesn’t do him justice. One huge surprise was that everyone was given the box set “Intersections,” which included four CDs and a DVD. I was unable to learn how he could be so generous; the web site only says that “Bruce has arranged for each ticket buyer in the series of special solo dates to receive a copy.” That’s some arranging. Wow, and thanks.