Cd review from The Netherlands

Vans Moors Magazine in the Netherlands

S.F. Says Goodbye to Powerhouse Oddball Jimmy Sweetwater at Thursday's 'Last Schmaltz'

​ When you finally say fuck it, I'm outta here, will your tribute concert at the Great American Music Hall include mod-pop, hard country, swamp rock, cynical Tom-Waits-y balladry, and sweet bluegrass folk among its 17 acts? At "The Last Schmaltz," many, many San Francisco musicians will uncelebrate the departure of one Jimmy Sweetwater. This tall redheaded stranger (have you heard the phrase "hot ginge?") has probably played in five million bands since his arrival here in 1988. His soulful, sharp Delta-style harmonica playing made him the go-to harmonica guy for roots musicians soon after that; Sweetwater recorded with Chuck Prophet, Bone Cootes, and others from the much-loved scene that had the Albion as its center in the mid-1990s. He also started making elaborately crazy custom washboards, with literal bells and whistles, which he plays with brushes. It's a more subtle sound than your standard-issue thimble-wearing washboard guy; cue five million more bands, including JimBo Trout & the Fishpeople, Poor Man's Whiskey, and his current main thing, the Mission Three.

And then there are the lamps. Like a lot of highly creative people, Jimmy does whatever the hell he wants, and what he wants, sometimes, is to make a lamp out of a Hyfrecator. Or a blender, or a space heater, or a Tonka truck. Someone told us this story: "I was walking down the street one day, and I saw Jimmy. I was all 'Hey Jimmy.' and he was all 'Hey.' We passed by this thing sitting on the sidewalk, like an old metal machine, with lots of knobs and dials and tiny screens and shit. Jimmy was all 'I'll see you later, man.' The last thing I heard was that thing scraping along the ground." As Judd Nelson's "criminal" pointed out in The Breakfast Club, "Without lamps, there'd be no light."

Thus, the city loses a powerhouse oddball, a highly experienced music professional, and a hot ginge, but not without a party that will make everyone under the floor at the Great American Music Hall fear for their lives. Jimmy Sweetwater is available; he can do "add-on member for a band, recording work, stage production and touring." (And he can make you a lamp out of harmonicas.) Only from now on, he's only available in New Orleans. (Full disclosure: Jimmy has lived just down the street from me for years, and he's been a fine, fine neighbor. The micro-neighborhood will miss you, Jimmy!)

Vandella headlines "The Last Schmaltz" starting at 8 p.m. July 22 at the Great American Music Hall, $14.

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