The grand opening of the new Redstone Room at the River Music Experience here in Davenport occurred over this past weekend. Friday night, Martin Sexton (above) officially opened the place with two shows. And on Saturday night, Iowa born and based folk singer/songwriter Greg Brown played.
I used to see Greg Brown play quite a bit at Gabe's Oasis in Iowa City in the early 80's when I was going to school at the University of Iowa. Brown had penned a song called "The Iowa Waltz" and there was some lobbying going on to make it the official state song of Iowa. I don't know what ever happened, but in the end "Iowa, O Iowa" is still the state song.
Greg Brown garnered some notoriety as he wrote "They All Went to Mexico", a song that was a chart maker for Willie Nelson and Carlos Santana that was featured on Santana's great "Havana Moon" album from 1983
Brown moved on to Minneapolis and lived there for a number of years, recording and performing. He was a featured performer on "A Prairie Home Companion" a number of times, as well.
Brown married the great country/folk songwriter and singer Iris Dement in 2002 and moved back to Iowa to live on his grandfather's farm in the hilly old coal mining country near Douds, IA. He continues to perform and record periodically.
Brown played the River Roots Live event last August in Davenport. Before I went on stage to introduce him, I went up and introduced myself to him and I said, "I know you don't remember, but I used to see you play at Gabe's Oasis in the early 80's. And I haven't seen you since."
He said to me, in his deep, gravelly voice, "Well, we've got to stay in touch a little better than once every 20 years, don't you think?" We both laughed at that.
Both at the River Roots Live and at the Saturday night show at the Redstone Room, Greg was accompanied by the great blues guitarist, Bo Ramsey. I first met Bo Ramsey when he was known as Bob Ramsey and playing guitar with the old Patrick Hazell and the Mother Blues Band in 1977. They played that year at the annual party that I used to throw in my parents pasture. Pat Hazell told me that at that time Bob had only been playing guitar for about two years. You certainly couldn't tell it.
Patrick Hazell and the Mother Blues Band played at my pasture party again in 1979, but this time Bob Ramsey was now known as "Bibby Ramsey". He became "Bo Ramsey" sometime after his somewhat acrimonious split from Hazell's band a year later. Since then, Bo Ramsey has worked with a number of musicians including the alternative country artist Lucinda Williams.
In fact, when Cindy and I got married in 1995, I asked Bo Ramsey and his band, the Sliders, to play for our wedding reception. Bo had gotten so big that his fee at the time was around $1200 per performance - a little more money than we wanted to spend on a band for our reception. In retrospect, we should have kicked in the money to have him and his band play at our reception.
Greg Brown's music isn't for everyone, but his lyrics are strong, his voice is forceful and his musical talent is quite evident. Paired with Ramsey's mournful and wailing electric guitar, Brown's performance at the Redstone Room was one of those moments that was both magical and engrossing.
Opening for Greg Brown was his daughter, Pieta Brown, also accompanied on electric guitar by Ramsey. I first met Pieta when she and Bo played for the grand opening of the River Music Experience in 2004 and I was the stage manager and master of ceremonies. Cindy really liked her haunting voice and bought a couple of her CD's.
We saw her and Ramsey again during an outdoor show they did in the courtyard next to the RME last year. She's got a somewhat hypnotizing voice and a slightly shy demeanor on stage. But she's always done a fine job each time we've seen her play. And her performance with Ramsey that evening at the Redstone Room was excellent, as well.
For the encore, Brown and Ramsey were joined on stage by Iris Dement, Pieta Brown and Constie Brown, the middle one of Brown's three daughters. They played a song that was written by Dement and the three ladies backed up Brown on the chorus. It would have been just too cool had they stayed up there for one more song. Unfortunately, that was the end of the show.
Once again, the Redstone Room sounded good, the lighting was wonderful and the service with the bar crew was stellar. They still have some kinks to work out, but once they do, this is going to be a first class small venue to see a show.
(Many thanks to Lon Bozarth of the River Music Experience for the above photographs, with the exception of the solo Pieta Brown shot which is from Jordan Lewis Reed.)
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