Howe Gelb with the Voices of Praise Choir
5/27/6 at Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago
What a fantastic treat this is…I mean, gosh how wonderful to sit there and hear not only Howe Gelb sing fantastic songs from his newest album ‘Sno Angel Like You but get a chance to hear the wonderful Voices of Praise Choir from lovely Ottawa, Canada. (It really is lovely there. I can’t say enough good things about Canada obviously) Howe opened the night with some of the absolute best songs off of the album including “Paradise Here Abouts” and “But I Did Not” but sang some of the sweet quiet songs too and I really did think that the Voices of Praise choir were amazing to see live. There were extra vocals I caught on a few of the songs that really made them even more special for me.
Howe came off as a real gentleman and played a generous set length of at least 90 minutes. He was a man of few words overall but he did say some funny things. When the choir was happy, he commented, “They’re Canadians, eh! This is the first day on the tour they’ve gotten to go shopping!” He also said after introducing them, “These people are Canadians. They have a beautiful flag. It has a leaf on it.” In addition, he mentioned being a musician in the eighties and trying to create something you’d want to listen to in twenty more years.
Most of the songs he sang were from ‘Sno Angel Like You but as an encore after ending the set with “Get to Leave,” he sang a really interesting medley of Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side” (he had the audience sing “do de do de do de do” and told us, “Yes, it is sung in Danish”) that quickly morphed into a cover of George Harrison’s “My Sweet Lord.” The medley ended with a gospel praise song by the choir that really reminded me about why I believe in God. Yes, it was that good. More pictures:
