Dawn Landes Live at the Bluebird Theater in Denver, 02/16/11

The lovely and talented Dawn Landes stopped in Denver again last week to open for Justin Townes Earle. The Bluebird was packed for the show with a wonderful crowd, eager to hear some great music.

The show opened with the enthralling and exciting “Sweetheart of the Rodeo”, href=http://www.whatstheruckus.com/2010/06/the-interview-dawn-landes.html>a true story about Landes’ grandmother. Ms. Landes stood atop a wooden box that she had carted with her on the plane from Brooklyn to stomp on. Thanks to a great sound person, it provided a really cool effect. This was just the beginning of a quality and innovative performance.

Dawn Landes – Sweetheart Of The Rodeo

I’ve rarely seen a single person with an acoustic guitar fill up a room with so much sound and presence. The routine was never boring. Dawn took us through a collection of songs including “Little Miss Holiday” (inspired by the film Taxi Driver, “Twilight” (introduced as “a love song”), Dawn’s distinctive cover of the traditional “I Don’t Need No Man”, and closing with an energetic “Young Girl”. The set also included a brand new track, for which Dawn played the harmonica for the first time in performance. She explained that she’d been watching a lot of Bob Dylan videos to prepare.

As always, I seriously enjoyed myself and can’t wait for the next round.