August 18 2007: John Prine, Josh Ritter - Charlottesville Pavilion, Charlottesville VA

Third stop on the list: expensive folk music in Virginia.

So I was camping with Ryan and Heather at Shenandoah and we decided we needed to check out Charlottesville, where none of us had ever stepped foot one, and watch Josh Ritter play some tunes. For $35. But somehow $50 bar tabs and care-free on-vacation living seem to make $35 folk shows not seem like as big a deal as they might otherwise. And it was pretty great fun.

The amphitheatre was right in the middle of the downtown area, and about the size of the Pines in Northampton, and we got some really nice spots on the grass and watched Ritter win over folks who’d mostly (as we could tell) never heard of him. He opened with “Monster Ballads” into “Good Man” into “Wolves,” all of which sent tingles down my spine. He only did one new one (“The Temptation of Adam”), which was a shame because I was really really excited about hearing how “Rumors,” aka the greatest song of all time, would sound with just an acoustic guitar. “Harrisburg” was great, “Kathleen” was strange to hear without the usual Oh My God He’s Playing Kathleen cheers at the opening guitar bit, and “Girl in the War” was nice to hear, as always.

And then as he closes (with “Kathleen”), he gets a standing ovation! And the people keep cheering until he comes back out and does “Me & Jiggs.” And it was a great show…but…but I think I just perpetually hold Ritter to such an insanely high standard that he’ll always slightly disappoint me. Especially on songs like “Girl in the War,” which is near perfect but he never seems to quite pull it off live in a way that rings 100% true with the way it sounds in my head (which is directly informed by the one time I saw him when he DID play it brilliantly, the first time I ever saw him play in '04, when he opened with it and brought down the house). But that’s just my problem. And the first step is admitting you have a problem.

And then John Prine played for almost two hours, mostly keeping me utterly rapt but sometimes losing me a little bit. He played the two songs of his I knew (“My Mexican Home” and “Paradise,” which Ritter took the third verse on), and absolutely blew me away with three songs I didn’t know but that I intend to hunt down on record: “Six O’Clock News” (somehow he really drove home that “C’mon baby spend the night with me” line), “Angel from Montgomery” and “Sam Stone” (brilliant! “There’s a hole in daddy’s arm where all the money goes / And Jesus Christ died for nothing I suppose”). In all he was fantastic. Backed by a bassist and a guitarist, and I really wish I had known more of his stuff going into the gig.

And then when the show finished we made our way to the South Street Brewery where their Satan’s Pony ale reminded me more of Mac and Jack’s African Amber than any beer I’ve had otherwise. So Ryan and I had a few. Naturally. And then back to the Motel 8. What a night.