Will Kimbrough Beachland Tavern 7/9/10

Last night I went to the quaint Beachland Tavern, not to be confused with the larger and part of the same complex Beachland Ballroom, to see the the ever charming, multi talented, singer, songwriter, guitarist extraordinaire, Will Kimbrough. Will plays a sort of Americana crossed with Rock and Roll, Blues and Southern Rock. He uses a loop machine to play the rhythm section and then he plays the lead guitar over the top of that. He is a very talented musician but Will is also a great songwriter. His songs tell stories about life with his daughters and wife, friends, of being on the road, and even some political commentary.

Will Kimbrough took to the stage in front of a quaint crowd of fifty people. He started the show playing an acoustic guitar, harmonica and slide on the upbeat "Piece of Work". He then broke into two songs off of his new album, the title track "Wings" and "Three Angels". Both songs are sure to grow to be some of Wills' more requested songs in the future. He then performed "Horse Shoe Lake". The next song I am not sure where it came from but it was a cute ditty about a small town big haired girl. He then performed the ever popular "Hill Country Girl".

Will switches guitars to a red electric hollow body possibly a Gretsch guitar. He uses the loop machine to get a full sound. "Nobody From Nowhere", was quite lively with a nice slide solo interlude. The crowd really got into the playful "Wash and Fold". Mr. Kimbrough slowed the tempo down on "Philadelphia Mississippi". Another new song "A Couple Hundred Miracles" was next. Then a nice bluesy jam dedicated to J. J. Cale with the lyrics "It aint cool to talk about people when their not around". Then Will gets the crowd involved and has them sing the second half of the verse, Will "You made your bed" and the crowd responds "You got to lay in it". He again slows the tempo down for "Good Night Moon".

For the encore he gets a couple of requests and plays the fast paced "Cape Henry" and the lazy slow "Champion Of The World". He could have kept on playing and I am sure the very receptive crowd would not have complained.

It is a shame that only 50 people show up to listen to this under rated showman. I love it because it is like my own personal concert. If every thing in the world was just, Will Kimbrough would be a household name. After the show I hung around and bought an autographed, for my wife, CD "Wings". I listened to the CD on my way home, it is exceptionally good. I give the concert five twirls and the CD five twirls. Will Kimbrough gets TEN twirls from me on the night.

PS. Will Kimbrough at the start of the show put things in perspective, he said I know Cleveland feels it is going through a tragedy right now. Down where I live we are going through a tragedy too (The Gulf Coast Oil Spill). I will trade you my tragedy for your tragedy any day. Thanks Will I needed that perspective to bring me back down to earth.