Live: Jon Dee Graham @ The Living Room 7.23.11

Jaded Scenester NYC loves themselves some Jon Dee Graham. It's been far too long since I've been to Austin, and Jon Dee's weekly gig at The Continental is probably the longest standing gig I regret not being able to see. Lifestyle issues caused me to miss the release of the amazing It's Not As Bad As It Looks, and theoretical tour behind said record. I managed to placate myself with the Chupacabra live record, but the one-two punch of those releases really heightened the need for live JDG.

Well, someone's looking out. I was pleased to find that Jon Dee was coming through town and playing The Living Room. I rolled in to a pretty much empty room and a decent enough, but not-especially remarkable opening guy. The Living Room has some weird optimistic policy where Jon Dee was the second of five artists, yet the only one who would command a door cost, and of $15, no less. When the waitress rolled up to get an irritating drink minimum, I asked about the door charge (20 minutes before Jon Dee went on, mind you) and no one really knew who was taking the door. While I have no issue screwing incompetently run venues, I certainly don't want to take money out of Jon Dee's pocket, I ponied up. Why that means I have to buy a drink on top of that is beyond me, but let's move on.

So Jon Dee. It's been a decent couple years for him, post New West and car accident and all. He's doing prose writing and drawing projects on top of playing with his local band The Fighting Cocks and doing that Hobart Bros project with Freedy Johnston and Susan Cowsill. Hobart was funded by Kickstarter but the last few years have seen Graham founding JonDeeCo Co-op, through which he now funds all his projects, offering incentives musical and otherwise for all that choose to partake. You could do a lot worse for $10 a month. Check out the deal here.

This Living Room set was a short solo set to an older crowd that very much into the proceedings. Jon Dee was in good spirits despite a less than full room and the oppressively hot temperatures. Opening with Faithless, he rolled through just shy of a dozen tunes, including Black Box and that Green On Red song he used to close with all the time. It was a good, albeit far too short, of a time, owing to the fact that another band that drew 10 people was due on at 9pm. If you are not fully Jon Dee Graham compliant, you can't go wrong with buying any of the holes you may have in your collection. There's a free live show from the tour before last on the Living Room site, keep track of all other things Jon, Dee and Graham here.

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Jon Dee Graham - Chupacabra

It's well established that JS-NYC loves themselves some Jon Dee Graham. Having come late to the game with my adulation for his most recent It's Not As Bad As It Looks, there was much rejoicing when it came to light that there was a pay-what-you-will live record from JDG called Chupacabra to be had over at the Freedom Records web presence.

The Chupacabra set was recorded at the Saxon Pub in bucolic Austin, TX and features our hero backed by The League Of Entirely Ordinary Gentleman +1. The band, anchored by the mighty Michael Hardwick, is hot as hell. I'm glad I don't have to keep up with the likes of them on the local stages. You get sixteen songs in a little over an hour from the ripping four-piece band, with most of the high points of the JDG catalog touched upon.

While this is a great set, and I haven't done the forensics on whether this is truly the case, it seems Chupacabra is a wee bit light on the New West era of material. Or maybe that's just me stirring up shit. Either way, the man's got songs for days, and seems ripe for a John Hiatt-esque run of having his tunes covered by a crossover artist. Here's hoping. In the interim, take advantage of the sliding payment option over at the Freedom Records web presence and snatch up Chupacabra here with the quickness. Tour dates are a coming. Stay tuned and check out his Hobart Bros. project with Freedy Johnson and Susan Cowsill.

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Jon Dee Graham - It's Not As Bad As It Looks

While JS-NYC has a lot of love for music, there are few artists that we'd like to actually be: Graham Maby is a given, but beyond that Jon Dee Graham is one of the few on that short list. Hadn't made the Graham connection until I typed that, but JS-NYC is very fond of both those crackers.

I haven't seen Jon Dee since he got dropped by New West at SXSW and was well pleased to hear that he had a new band called The Fighting Cocks, as well as a new record called It's Not As Bad As It Looks. It's been out for a bit, but don't think that JS-NYC lagging on getting to it means that it is anything less than great. Both Jon Dee and Alejandro Escovedo have been putting out some of their best material recently and its great to see. And hear, for that matter. There's an air of melancholy about It's Not As Bad As It Looks that suggest that things haven't been especially rosy for JDG of late, but it has fostered a pretty great bunch of tracks. Get it (and the lion's share of the recent Jon Dee back catalog) here from Freedom Records. While you're there, check for the pay-what-you wish live Chupacabra record with Jon Dee and the band at the Saxon Pub in Austin. Don't forget about the Hobart Bros, either.

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