Shout Sister Shout at Fountain Square Park in East Lansing – Friday, 8/15/08

I want to talk a little about two shows this time around -- Shout Sister Shout at Fountain Square Park and Rachael Davis at Meridian Historical Village.

After having gotten rained out the last time I'd tried to attend an outdoor show in downtown East Lansing (Jen Sygit on Sat., 7/19/08), I was hoping for a good whether day when Rachael Davis and Steppin' In It were scheduled to play Fountain Square Park as Shout Sister Shout on Friday, August 15th at 7:30 PM.  Mother Nature didn't disappoint, and it was a beautiful sunny evening.  The sun was in the eyes of the audience a bit more than we might have liked as it set, but sunglasses helped, and we were dry, so we weren't complaining.  I've heard the City of East Lansing, who puts these shows on at Fountain Square Park (Fridays) and Ann Street Plaza (Saturdays) each summer, is planning to have an awning of some kind next year that can be put up to protect the performers from the elements.  This may help with the audience perspective, too, so I hope this comes to pass both for our comfort and that of the performers.  This is a fabulous summer concert series held June-August, and it's quite popular with local music lovers, so I think anything the city can do to potentially improve it is worth their while. 

Shout Sister Shout is tremendously popular, and they don't play in the Lansing area as often as their fans might like, so I wasn't surprised to see the cement in front of the "stage" (a raised cement platform) already packed with people sitting in portable chairs and on blankets when I arrived.  The atmosphere is one of my favorite things about this concert series, as parents bring their kids, folks bring their dogs, and everyone relaxes and has a good time.  Some stay for an entire concert and some just pass through.  Kids run around and dance to the music, but for the most part, no one is really disruptive.  This night was a classic example of all of the above.

Shout Sister Shout performed two sets of their trademark 30s and 40s jazz favorites with about a 15 minute intermission in between, and I'd say about half the songs came from their self-titled CD and half are currently unrecorded.  Favorites included Hit That Jive Jack (one of my favorites of their songs that didn't make the album), CD title track Shout Sister Shout, and It's A Sin To Tell A Lie.  This group performs with so much energy and enthusiasm, and you can tell they really enjoy this music and performing together. 

I also had the privilege of seeing Rachael Davis perform a rare solo show (just Rachael and her guitar and banjo) on July 23rd when she performed outdoors at the Michigan Historical Village in Okemos.  I had never been to one of the concerts held here, and everyone was extremely nice.  It was also a beautiful day, and that made the concert all the more enjoyable.  Rachael did one of my favorite songs off her new Antebellum Queens CD, Atlanta’s Burning, and she also did a cover of a tune she co-wrote with Jen Sygit that Jen recorded on her Leaving Marshall St. CD, Pay For What You Get.  Having heard Jen perform this song many times, it was a real treat to hear Rachael’s version.  Rachael only played one set, so it was a short show, but was well worth attending.

As always, thanks for reading!