Last night friends made me go see Carolyn Wonderland at the Mojo Blues Club, a divey little club (in the best possible sense) in a run down (in a good way) wine cellar five miles from my house, for which I will be forever grateful.
What is it with the world where lame musicians get so internationally famous and someone like Ms. Wonderland didn’t make it onto my radar until last night? Last night’s concert changed my life forever. Ms Wonderland and her (great) band were so good my wife was naked when I got home. I was going to say she sings not *like* Janis Joplin but with similar power *and* plays like, well, my guitarist friend who was there compared her guitar playing to Stevie Ray Vaughn -and she is doing this singing and playing simultaneously – I was going to say that, but first of all it seemed to me like sort of an easy and shallow comparison, and then I just googled her and a real critic already said that, which sort of confirmed my reservations.
So I will not say that. I will say instead I now know what a moth feels like when it watches a Tesla coil. I will say that Carolyn Wonderland is the most amazing thing I have ever seen. I bought her CD, which is good, but live she is something else entirely. Listen to this: mosquitoes have been really bad this summer here. And they were especially bad at the show last night. And Carolyn Wonderland was performing a song, playing the guitar, and singing, and right at her big finish, ZAP her tongue shot out three feet and she gulped down a mosquito. And she didn’t miss a beat.
The mosquitoes all left us alone after that.
Not even Stevie Ray Vaughn can do that. Janis Joplin maybe could have, but not while playing the guitar at the same time.
Greetings,
Now you know what many have known for years : Just how Wonderful Ms. Wonderland really is.Many people have followed Carolyn’s career since the late ’80’s, early ’90’s. I, myself, only “discovered” this chantreuse in 2006. I have been mesmerized ever since.
And not just by her playing , nor her singing, nor her songcraft, but also her beauty and in particular, her kind and generous heart, and her very caring spirit.If you’ve ever spoken with her in person, and I hope you had the opportunity to do so, then you know exactly what I mean.
I don’t think anyone could or does combine Confidence with Humility quite as well as she does.
But don’t get her mad or advocate war.
She has a redhead’s temper and an intellectual sailor’s vocabulary.
Aufweidersehen,
Hookman Brown
Houston, Texas
hookmanbrown@yahoo.com
I learned all I needed to know about not making women mad from my grandmother, the sweetest person alive, as long as you didn’t make her mad. Nor would I advocate war. Little did I know I would have been totally safe talking to her. Live and learn. I got a kick out of seeing that she had linked this post on her f4c3b00k page, and said kind things. Thanks, Carolyn.