The live career of Jeff Lynne and Electric Light Orchestra unfortunately ended with a whimper instead of a bang, when Lynne had to cancel the final two concerts because of illness. So the July 9th show in Manchester ended up being the final bow of ELO. But, at least that night featured two great covers.
Dhani Harrison, the opening act for the final shows, joined Lynne and his band mates for covers of two Traveling Wilburys classics. Harrison’s father, George, was part of the super group. The other members included Lynne as well as Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and, on the first album, Roy Orbison.
Harrison (Dhani, not George) joined Lynne for “End of the Line,” which is a pretty fitting song to wrap up a career as a live act. The two also played “Handle with Care.” The songs were pretty close to the original (given in no small part to the fact that Harrison’s singing voice sounds a lot like his dad) and you can clearly tell the audience was thrilled and having a great time, given the number of voices joining in the choruses of both songs.
Both songs were from Traveling Wilburys, vol 1. The 1988 album started as a recording session for a B-side to a single from George Harrison’s Cloud 9 album, which was produced by Lynne. Below is the video for “End of the Line,” from the July 9th show. The performance of “Handle with Care” comes from the July 6th show in Birmingham.
Sometimes it is the lower key and lesser heard that most catches the ear, and Adam Holmes a prime example. If you follow the contemporary Scottish folk (and beyond) scene, you may well know Holmes already, for having one of the more soulful instruments in the country, a warm burr with a distant flavor of John Martyn. Starting off as a member of neo-trad outfit Rura, Holmes’ singing and songs were a tidy contrast to their instrumental elemental fare of fiddle, flute and pipes. With time, the mix became perhaps too schizophrenic, he needing a platform to stay on stage the whole set. This he found, forming a band, the Embers, lasting for a well-received year or three.
Let’s start with a quick nod to the elephant in the room. Dr. John’s Things Happen That Way isn’t a cover album per se, given there are a number of Mac Rebennack originals on this posthumous release. But given the dude has released his 32nd studio album after having been gone these past two years, we’re of a mind to forgive that. Plus, with the otherwise wealth of covers included, heck, of course we had to review it. And for extra kudos, it is a splendid and unexpected joy, delving into the more country flavors of the N’Awlins voodoo meister.
