6-21-12 Mavis Staples – Bonnie Raitt – Hot (98.6 degrees to be precise)

I am an old woman
Named after my mother
My old man is another
Child who’s grown old

If dreams were thunder
And lightning was desire
This old house would’ve burned down
A long time ago

Make me an angel
That flies from Montgomery
Make me a poster
Of an old rodeo
Just give me one thing
That I can hold on to
To believe in this livin’
Is just a hard way to go

When I was a young girl
I had me a cowboy
He weren’t much to look at
Just a free ramblin’ man
But that was a long time
And no matter how I tried
The years they just rolled by
Like a broken down dam

Make me an angel
That flies from Montgomery
Make me a poster
Of an old rodeo
Just give me one thing
That I can hold on to
To believe in this livin’
Is just a hard way to go

There’s flies in the kitchen
I can hear them there buzzin’
And I ain’t done nothing since I woke up today
How the hell can a person
Go to work in the morning
Come home in the evening
And have nothing to say

Make me an angel
That flies from Montgomery
Make me a poster
Of an old rodeo
Just give me one thing
That I can hold on to
To believe in this livin’
Is just a hard way to go

John Prine

I have always felt that Bonnie Raitt was the best interpreter of this John Prine song – even better than John’s kick ass takes on it.  Jacqui and David and Katherine and I went to the Mavis Staples and Bonnie Raitt concert at the Beacon Theater last night and did they both rip it up and take no prisoners.  But, the highlight of the concert was Bonnie’s partially a capella version of Angel From Montgomery.  The passion, the resignation, the life she put into the song were extraordinary. I have very few concert memories that come close to what she did last night.  I wish I could find a current video of her 62-year-old self performing the song but I can’t so I have included two earlier versions at the bottom of the post. Check out her new album, too.

It was summer today here in New York City. How hot was the subway, you ask?

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Just to jog the memory banks

01/11

This is from the 2009 NOLA Jazz Fest – it gives a bit of the flavor but…not really

This is from December of 1974 (better audience)