Jerry Joseph & The Jackmormons came to Hodi’s Half Note in Fort Collins, CO last night for a Friday night rocker of a show. With the release of his latest album By The Time Your Rocket Gets To Mars, the former Little Women frontman played a selection of songs that spanned his prolific songwriting career to an audience of die hard fans.
With an early and beautiful take on “Pure Life” from 2002’s Conscious Contact – an album that featured Widespread Panic founding members Michael Houser and Dave Schools, Rolling Stones keyboardist Chuck Leavell, and more – it was clear that Joseph was tapped in from the start. There is something so bittersweet in his prolific songwriting and his ability to bring such emotion to every lyric and note being played.
The stripped down, no frills trio set up of the Jackmormons (featuring Steve James on bass and Steve Drizos on drums) with Joseph leading the way, packs a serious punch, as was evident on new track “Brother Number One” which witnessed a heavy jam and the entire group just laying it on extra thick. Before the group went into “Giraffe”, Joseph told the tale of how the song came to be after meeting two young ladies dressed up as giraffe’s at a show in Oregon while he was kicking some habits. During the conversation, he learned that one of the girl’s husband had just killed himself and her friend had flown her out to help get her through what was obviously a rough time.
The well-traveled road warrior leaves it all out on stage and has this uncanny ability to evoke so many different feelings from everybody in attendance throughout the course of his set. The 1997 Goodlandia track “Light Is Like Water” is a fine example of this. Clearly an old-school favorite, the build of Joseph playing sporadic notes while telling his story, with the bass and drums slowly joining in is a lesson in how a song can be heavy and rocking while leaving plenty of space between each note. There was a lot of folks in attendance hanging on to every note of that song, especially during Joseph’s guitar solo.
“Baby love, love is like water
Only water is just like light
A little faith and a paddle
Will surely get you, and all God’s children,
Through the night”
A nod to his Little Women days (a group that guitarist Steve Kimock was a member of for a time) with “Life’s Just Bitchin'” was certainly well received and kept the vibes going at Hodi’s through the rest of the set. Overall, front to back, it was a solid performance from the group, that continue on that endless road this evening down in Denver at Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom with Jubilingo (show info here).
There is just something about seeing a musician that lives and breathes this shit that is truly inspiring. You can witness it in his face as he is playing and singing his songs, that this is it for Joseph. It’s beautifully simple, human, and most of all, refreshing. With everything being so polished and over-produced these days, Joseph harkens back to a time of straight, unabashed singer-songwriter rock n’ roll, and makes no excuses for it. The old adage “They don’t make ’em like they used to” rings especially true in his case.