Welcome to Saturday Sounds. This week features a recent concert at the Tennessee Theatre with Rayland Baxter and Grace Potter. Rayland brought a band – which isn’t always the case – and Grace left the Nocturnals behind for this tour, though she also had a band.
Rayland Baxter is an excellent singer/songwriter whose songs reflect a real depth and whose vocals resonate with meaning. While I’ve seen him before, at the late, lamented Scruffy City Roots/Ramble, I’ve seen his father many more times. Bucky Baxter is the long-time (since 1988) pedal and lap steel player for Bob Dylan and I’ve probably seen Bob over 30 times in that span. Bucky keeps the train on the tracks and Rayland seems to have some of his father’s steadiness. Very professional, always a pleasure and he’s not afraid to whistle.
All of which makes him sort of an odd choice for an opening act for Grace Potter. Grace rocked the stage from beginning to end with her hard-driving, guitar-driven rock and roll. There was nothing singer-songwriter-ish in her set. That said, she can do ballads very well and she comes across in excellent fashion when she does. I’ll post one of her CMT performances below.
In any case, it was another top-flight night at the Tennessee Theatre with great lights, perfect sound and a dynamic performance by an artist who has talent to spare. Enjoy the photographs here and I’ll try to post the full shoot to the Inside of Knoxville FB page later.
