Now go with me on this 'cause it's not going to sound like a complement and isn't going to accurately describe him but with my limited pool of influence to draw from this was how I kept thinking of him in my mind. If John Mayer and Aaron Neville had a baby, baptized him in heavy blues and beat box, sprinkled him with some jazzy scat and soul and added a pinch of yodeling for kicks the final creation would be Martin Sexton. An odd mish mosh to be sure (and I for one cannot stand Aaron Neville) but somehow it all worked in his favor. And I'm serious about the yodeling. He started his set with a yodeled song. It was downright lovely and had an improvised sort of feel to it. A minute or so into it Mr. B leans over and whispers incredulously, "Is that the national anthem?" By golly, it was! There was enough playing with rhythms and notes that at first it was almost unrecognizable but once you picked up the underlying melody there was no denying it.
Here's a taste:
His opening band was a duet group called Alternate Routes who were relatively generic in sound but who won me over when they pulled out a harmonica and then some electric toolbox with rocks in it. I'm sure there's a name for it but I'm too lazy to research right now so if anyone knows what it's called please feel free to enlighten me. Whatever it was though it added a lovely earthy flavor to the mix and made me admire the guy's arm strength and rhythm as he hefted it over and over throughout the entire song. The longer they played the more I loved them.
Feast your ears:
And that's how I spent my weekend. How was yours?
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