Customer Reviews

Live at Mccabe's Guitar Shop

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I saw Tom Paxton in concert last night at the Big Tent Chautauqua next door in Wisconsin, along with a rare reunion of the original Chad Mitchell Trio. In trying to keep the feelings of the evening going this live recording of Paxton certainly suffices. While the album was released this year, "Live at McCabe's Guitar Shop" was recorded in the popular Santa Monica folk venue in 1991, not that you can really tell we are fifteen years down the roads at this point. After all, that is but a fraction of the time that Paxton has been one of the premier troubadours in the great tradition of Woody Guthrie. You really have to look at Pete Seeger to come up with somebody who has been a part of the folk scene longer than Paxton, although certainly he would be more associated with the Greenwich Village tradition, for which he would be the elder statesman. After all, he is a few years older than either Phil Ochs "the singing journalist" or Bob Dylan, the poet laurette of the Sixties.

There are seventeen songs making up the eighteen tracks because the "Intro" is a separate track because this is one of those CDs where the songs start at the beginning of the track and Paxton's introduction is at the end of the previous track. You will find that a few classic Paxton tunes anchoring the album, beginning with "Ramblin' Boy," with his big sing along "Bottle of Wine" in the middle and his most popular song, "The Last Thing on My Mind" providing the benediction to the evening. One of the joys here is listening to his introduction of "Did You Hear John Hurt?", which tells listener most of what they need to know about the legendary blues singer Mississippi John Hurt before Paxton does a song written in that style.

Most of the "recent" material stems from the period when Paxton had started his own label, Pax Records, in the late 1980s (e.g, "If I Pass This Way Again," "It Ain't Easy"). Another hallmark of a Tom Paxton concert are the topical songs (last night we heard a lament entitled "You'll Always Be a Planet to Me," dedicated to the "new" dwarf-planet Pluto), and in that regard this album is a bit dated when Paxton launches into "The Ballad of Gary Hart." But "One Million Lawyers" certainly rings true today, and neither "I am Changing My Name to Chrysler" and "Yuppies in the Sky" are not exactly exercises in pure nostalgia (too bad he only sings "Forest Lawn" in southern California). Paxton's self-depreciating sense of humor sets his audience at ease, and his explanation that when you buy his cassettes and CDs that he needs to sign them so that they will be correctly activated speaks volumes on his relationship with his adoring audience.

I am a long time Tom Paxton fan. One of my favorite songs of his is When Annie Took Me Home. I saw Tom recently at a concert celebrating his 70th anniversary and asked him if that song was on CD.

He told me he was pretty sure it was on one somewhere; leave it up to my son to find it!!

This CD has a warm feel due to the audience being there reacting to Tom. Any Paxton fan should definitely have this great CD!!

Tom Paxton "Live at McCabe's Guitar Shop" is a recording of Tom Paxton at his best. If I were to recommend one Paxton CD, this would be it.

Live at McCabe's Guitar Shop

very good cd; contained a few familiar songs as well as ones I hadn't heard before.