BFTV’s concert is a rocking hour of cover tunes, and for guys who have pretty full day jobs (and even for guys who do music full time), they gelled very nicely on stage. Going from tun
e to tune (from “Mary Ann” featuring Laurie on vocals and piano to “Devil Went Down to Georgia” featuring Jesse Spencer on fiddle and “Walking in Memphis” with Grimes’ sweet vocals) BFTV gave each of the band members a moment to shine—and a moment for their fans to see their favorite television actors in an unfamiliar role.
They are all fine musicians and Guiney, who handles most of the vocals has a great voice. He was particularly effective on the ballad “Don’t Try to Explain,” a new piece just added to
their repertoire by Laurie. Because they are all actors, they really know how to milk a song to good effect, but they were all clearly very into the music, and everyone put their collective heart and soul into all three sets. They clearly all take the music seriously, and even after three shows (one in blistering daytime heat and humidity) they had as much energy after the Vic show (which was more than an hour) as they had at the start of the weekend--something even more impressive when you realize that they’ve made not one nickel from their performances or the CDs and T-shirts they hawk outside the venue. It’s all for charity.
Laurie is an excellent jazz and blues pianist (as many of his fans have known for years), but he surprised many by bringing out an electric mandolin for one song (“John O
’Reilly”). Spencer, who’s only just come to country fiddling in the last few years after training classically, bowed the heck out of his strings on “Devil Went Down to Georgia,” handling those difficult breakneck fiddle solos with deft ease. The band delighted the Vic audience closing the night with the Who’s “Baba O’Reilly” challenging the audience to guess the song with very first synthesizer note.
Article comments
1 - sdemar
Thanks for the review, Barbara. Glad you had fun. One question, was the song that BG sang added by Laurie or was it BG? It was mentioned somewhere that BG heard it and it had an impact on him because of his situation (he's getting a divorce).
Glad everyone had fun. I am curious as to how the ballgame went for them and who threw out the first pitch. Any idea?
2 - Orange450
Thanks for a great article, Barbara. You really make the experience come to life for us unlucky ones who were unable to be there! Thanks for sharing :)
Kudos to a great group of individuals, who give so much of their (limited) time and (unlimited) talent to help make the world a better place for everyone - not just the recipients of their worthy causes.
3 - Olga Parera
Thanks for the great article, Barbara!! Glad to hear that you had a blast. I wish I could attend one of their concerts someday. I think they are getting better and better after a new concert
4 - Tourmaline
Lovely writeup, Barbara - and I loved the photos, so sad I couldn't be there! I love how Hugh always looks so happy and content when he's making music, now if only they'd record and release a follow-up DVD to Hoggin' All The Covers!
5 - barbara barnett
Tourmaline--
Jesse Spencer told me that they were very much hoping to do one.
6 - Donna
Thank you Barbara. Followed your tweets and video/picture links on twitter. With all that you did to provide coverage to us over the weekend, I'm very happy to hear it didn't prevent you from enjoying the shows. Wish I could have been there in person. Happily you helped make it the next best thing to being there.
Thanks again
7 - Tourmaline
Thanks Barbara, now I'm looking forward to seeing & hearing more of Jesse the musician!
8 - Jadenmur
Thanks so much for sharing your experience with the rest of us fans! I also follow you on twitter and enjoyed seeing all the great pics and videos you posted as well. They really seem like such a talented and awesome group of guys -so down to earth and full of energy. I am really happy that so many ppl came out to see them!
9 - Chicken
Nice article Barbara, enjoyed all the pictures and vids from the event also it looked great.
The song "Don't try to explain" was suggested by Hugh Laurie To Bob Guinney, very moving.
10 - barbara barmett
Hey Chicken--really nice video. I didn't get to record Thanks for sharing
11 - Chicken
You're very welcome Barbara! You did a great job with all your pics and thanks for editing my post : )
12 - barbara barmett
Thank our comment editor! He's the one!
13 - Sabrina
Hey Barbara! It was really cool to meet you! Thanks for the article and all of the great pics. I had the absolute time of my life this weekend!! :-)
14 - Houseguest
Great article, Barbara, and gorgeous pics, esp. those of Hugh! It was a fantastic, time-of-my-life evening, and I was glad to spend some of it with you! I'm up for another BFTV concert already, but am eternally grateful to James Denton and Greg Grunberg that they chose Chicago as their 4-gig venue! And to Hugh, for participating in this one! Nice that BFTV put your article on their website, only wish they had included your byline!