Elephant Micah
1/28/07
Empty Bottle in Chicago
Ah, the wonderful world of Joe O’Connell aka Elephant Micah. I’d seen him before play the Hideout with Beth Remis on violin but this time he brought with him some extra musicians. The clarinet, drums, and bass made the songs feel less like a product of isolation and more the stuff of good old folk rock. And make no mistake about this one….Elephant Micah is the good stuff. It’s the granola of cereal or the honey in your tea. It is music for the wholesome.
Of course, the tone of the night was set by the best possible music from Townes Van Zandt on the car ride over to the Lee Hazlewood playing at the Bottle before Elephant Micah went on. The house music even included one of my favorite Neil Young songs Tell Me Why (Elephant Micah scores extra points for titling one of his songs “Mt. Neil Young.”) All of these songs were bittersweet and fitting with Joe O’Connell’s music itself. It made his music seem to be a logical progression of this and it felt so right to hear him play his albeit too short set while harmonizing with Beth Remis. I’d really like to see him headline a show and play for much longer.
View the complete photoset on flickr
setlist:
