Sour Grapes played a solo acoustic set on June 28th 2012 at Starbucks.
I was asked by a personal friend to check out the Sour Grapes show the other night. He had been playing in the Chicagoland area for the better part of 18 years. He used to be in a Grateful Dead cover band called Mother Slims Uptown Saturday Night Stockyard Band with two twin cokeheads but they disbanded over royalty arguments.
So after a binge or two in Los Angeles, Sour Grapes was back in town and playing small gigs locally more as therapy and less as artistic.
It was hotter than Ginger Lynn's ass in that Starbucks but I was there to listen contently and I did.
Sour Grapes opened his set with a rousing rendition of KC Moan, a Traditional song made popular by Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead. Sour Grapes did a fine job of getting that hoarse, road weary sound to his voice during the song.
He then went on to cover Ripple, one of the Grateful Dead's most famous songs from the American Beauty Album. He did a nice "jerry" imitation, with hints of an original voice in there at times.
Then Sour stumbled a bit on the song Good Night Irene, another traditional song first sung by Huddie 'Lead Belly' Ledbetter. Sour started to forget the chord progression and I'm pretty certain he made up an entire verse of lyrics when he forgot them. It was in true Jerry Garcia fashion. At least Sour made up new lyrics rather than mumble his way through the forgotten words.
Sour became aggrivated during this fumble when he went to a D chords rather than a C chord. He cried out, "God Damnit!!" then quickly apologized and finished the song. It was still good but had its faults.
Then while the crowd was chatting, Sour dug into It Must Have Been the Roses by the Grateful Dead. This was the first time Sour had played this live in almost 16 years. The chords were spot on and so were the lyrics, but he was holding back . He shortened the song but kept it sweet.
He then dove into an amazing version of Bob Dylan's, When I Paint My Masterpiece. He was back commanding the microphone and allowed the song to gain momentum all the up to the point where he cries out, "it sure has been a long hard ride." You could feel the emotion all over this song.
Sour follwed up his Dylan two-fer with guest star Joel on the song She Belongs To Me. He sang it beautifully, this time not making it so obvious that two different voices take verses in this song. I've heard Sour play this before and he sometimes goes into two different voices to sing this song. But this time he managed to keep it to one.
Sour ended the show with a short story about the legend that is Daniel Johnston and what an amazing lyricist he is. Sour sang an extended version of the song True Love Will Find You In The End.
Let's hope it does. Sour was a bit rusty but overall gave a great performance during such hot weather and after such a long time away from the microphone.
