Since Jesse Griffin created his country music persona Wilson Dixon earlier this year, he has not only performed a highly successful Comedy Festival show, but he has also graced the stage of many comedy rooms. After seeing Wilson perform many times, I was especially looking forward to this Spiegeltent show. This time he would play an expanded show with a full band.
Jesse began the show exactly as he opened all of his spots as Wilson, with the picking of a single chord while giving his introductory spiel. When he launched into the first song “Philosophy” & the band joined in at the first chorus, it gave the music a whole new dimension. There is something about a joke being sung with backing vocals complete with full instrumentation that makes it something special.
One appealing aspect of the show was that each band member was given a wacky persona. Each was also given a bizarre back story that Wilson recounted as he introduced the band midway through the set. There was “Snake” on Pedal Steel whom Wilson picked up hitchhiking. “Ruprecht Wainwright”, who played double bass & mandolin, was decked out in a slightly gay powder blue shirt & hat (whom Wilson met en route to San Fransisco). “Miss Whoopsie Daisy” played fiddle & accordian & was so named following an incident on the farm. The drummer (Sorry his name escapes me, damn my lousy short term memory!) was formerly a nude leap-frog champion. Except for backing vocals, they didn’t speak at all. It would had been interesting if they were given some funny lines in the show, but I must assume that they preferred to perform as musicians only.
The show was mostly the same collection of songs that comprised his Comedy Festival show, with a couple of new tunes thrown in. One new song was about Sean Penn & being mistaken for him & it referenced many of Sean’s movies. He kind of let slip that it was a new song, but quickly corrected himself to say that it was from his 3rd album “Wilson Dixon Rides Again”.
There were a couple of songs that seemed new to me, but they may have just been older tunes that don’t get a run during the short spots at other rooms. His Grandma’s traditional Dutch song (which suspiciously sounded like a hoedown / square dance tune) seemed vaguely familiar. Adding to the newness factor was the sound from the full band with Wilson playing the fiddle (I recall Wilson only playing guitar during other shows). Another song that seemed new was the song about his sister. This time Miss Daisy provided some vocals by playing the role of the sister, the verses structured as if it was a conversation between brother & sister.
They finished the set with the song “It’s No Shame Being Country”. After rapturous applause, Wilson came back out alone for the encore (using the often used line by musical comedians: “I’ve only come back to get my guitar”) & played a final song with no backing apart from his own guitar.
This performance was a fantastic reworking of an already great show. It breathed new life into songs that I have seen performed many times before. The awesome musicianship of Wilson & the band blurred the lines between a serious country band & their parody of one. This was illustrated after Wilson complained about the validity of country artists such as Billy Ray Cyrus & Keith Urban. He thanked the audience for coming out to see real country music because he was no impostor!