Writing up my description of Curt Yagi’s performance at the Media Center last week reminded me that I didn’t write up my extraordinary junket to go see Curt when he played up in the City on April 25 at the Union Room. The Union Room is the new upstairs venue in the building shared with Biscuits and Blues and is owned and operated by Steven Suen and his wife Tina Zhou.

First I want to thank Steven for opening up the Union Room and endeavoring to find its best expression. Steven is striving for a different experience up there. He’s got the blues covered in the basement. He’d like to create a listening environment suitable for acoustic and rock and all the variations in between and offer it to all ages. The venue is right smack dab in the middle of the city, which means he’ll need to sell alcohol there in order to draw in the crowd. He and his strategists are working to develop best use: how to draw in customers, but also widen the appeal as much as possible. Can they have a teen night or something families can come to. So it will be a venue to watch in the coming months.

I went to the Union Room on April 25 to hear Curt and see if he wanted to be on American Songwriter – which he graciously did. (Curt appeared on the May 5 taping of American Songwriter.) Curt was the third show hosted by the Union Room since its opening last month. There was food and non-alcoholic drinks available. It was a small but enthusiastic turn-out for a new venue just spreading its wings.

Curt and his band “The People Standing Behind Me” gave us a great show. There were five guys standing behind him including Dirk on hand percussion, Larry on drums, Rob on bass, Matt on trumpet and Ben on sax. They performed 14 of Curt’s original songs. When people seemed reluctant to leave, Curt ended the show with some covers.

Curt’s music and easy manner were so engaging that we invited him immediately to be on the show. So please check out my blog on his show at the Media Center to learn more about Curt’s music and his band.

This Saturday Brent Jordan will be performing at 9:00 pm at the Union Room. He’s local, acoustic, folk/rock and he’s original.

A WORD ABOUT EARL THOMAS

After Curt’s show ended about 9:30, club owner Steven Suen took Scott and me down to Biscuits and Blues where the incomparable Earl Thomas was holding court. After a day where I had wrangled balloons on the slopes of Mt. Tam in near gale force winds as part of an Indie film crew for a Scary Cow production (check out www.scarycow.com), I thought I was ready to drop sail for the night and go home. I am so glad I stayed and got to hear much of Earl Thomas’ second set.

Now I had seen Earl before. He’d performed at the 14th anniversary gala party at the Biscuits and Blues back in February. He gave a riveting performance that, but the blues glitteratti were hustled on and off the stage that night so fast that you couldn’t really spend time with the artists like you can when they are it! And Earl Thomas was IT at the Biscuits and Blues Saturday, April 25, 2009. That night the venue was packed with many newcomers coming in and vying for spots with the first-set audience that wasn’t budging. Apparently Earl flies in from wherever he is for the last Saturday night of the month at Biscuits and Blues, his regular show. So in April, he flew in from London where he was on European tour.

I had hardly secured a seat that someone had unwisely vacated at the bar when Earl sang his original song When the Daylight Comes. He had me at the first note. Earl comes from the Smokey Mountains, with a gospel and blues background so he sings with the conviction of an old-time Baptist preacher. (I can speak to this, having grown up in the Baptist Church, y’all.) The song was lovely and powerful and persuasively delivered. And his band matches his groove, sonorous and serious, light and lively. The band would be Mary on violin, Jamie on guitar, Kyle on percussion and Kevin on bass. There was a second percussionist whose name I failed to catch for which I apologize. But they were amazing artists in their own right and apparently reserve the last Saturday night as well to play back-up to a true Div-o of the Blues.

Earl then sang a reprise of a song from the first set that was requested again and again in the second set until he gave in: “Mr. Bojangles”. I thought to myself, “Oh please, this tear jerker from the ’70s!” Well guess who’s crying at the bar? Yep, that would be me! First off Earl is a complete showman and has no right to hog all that talent to himself. He acted out the pathos of that song with an on-Broadway flare that just gripped the room. You felt he was indeed the man who had met Bojangles and seen him on his last dancing legs. Earl was brilliant. And my hometown being Richmond, Virginia, we have a Bill “Bojangles” Robinson Square in the heart of the old city. So I got terribly homesick right then and there, because I became putty when Earl sang. Oh it was just wonderful!

And then Earl sang a song from the olden days. The song about Jesus asking only one thing of Peter, just one thing… to walk on water. Earl put more impact and force into that delivery than a thousand preachers on revival Sunday could have managed. Scott had to practically carry me out of the Biscuits and Blues after that. Mercifully, Earl had to leave to catch a plane or I might never have left.

And Earl didn’t just leave, he took his leave, through the audience, shaking hands with fans as he meandered through the house.

I consider myself an appreciator of the blues but no expert. However, after attending EC Scott’s blues video roll out party, attending Steven’s 14th anniverary blues party and then seeing Earl Thomas, I think I’m getting a clue. I also watch EC Scott and another local blues artist Kenny Neal on local cable access Channel 27. If think you don’t like the blues, it could be that you don’t know the blues. Earl Thomas would be a most excellent tourguide for your first foray out into blues territory.

And one final note – thanks to Steven Suen for a great evening of music. One building two venues… I’m thinking about the possibilities!

On Tuesday, May 5, 2009 award winning San Francisco-based singer/songwriter Curt Yagi played acoustic guitar and sang 5 of his original songs in the Media Center Studio. He was joined by three of the members of his band “The People Standing Behind Me”: Rob “Bass” Bassinette on bass, Dirk Dieter on bongos and the Congo and Ben Doitel on saxophone. “The People Standing Behind Me” have numbered as many as ten at one time. Recruiting and retaining that level of interest among highly gifted musicians says something about Curt’s ability to motivate people, but I confess I digress…

Curt opened the show with his song “Take Me Away” written chiefly out of his experience running a non-prof for at-risk kids in the city. (Check out www.rocksf.org). The song is about the desperate need of these children to escape dismal often dangerous lives and is an homage to the transforming power of love. One of the lines: “A place with no border, love creates order, so clear to me,” sums up what kids need in this beautiful ballad.

Curt then performed “What’s Come Over Me”, a moving portrait of love and loss, “What A Mess” a song rife with clever lyrics about social responsibility, and “When I Think Of You” a song that made me think that it is our shared experiences as people that is the great potential unifying force in the world. And it’s such a simple song really, but Curt’s lyrics are tricky. They draw you in on one level and before you know it you’re experiencing something much deeper. Curt’s final song on the show was a love song, “Sweep Me.”

Curt is primarily a balladeer, but every song sounds different, is catchy and oh so singable…and danceable by the way. It all has to do with the arrangement. Curt is the author of all the songs and he defines the laid-back groove that permeates all his songs. He calls upon the “People Standing Behind Me” to work with him to develop arrangements that are in alignment with the groove.

Ben on sax harmonized with the melodies of the bridge in several songs. The percussion, played by Dieter, is soft and inviting. And Rob on bass gently drove each song. Listening to Curt’s music is kind of like being on a beach without the umbrella drinks. Or Curt’s music is the umbrella drink. Or when you listen to Curt’s music you don’t need the umbrella drink… it’s that relaxing and inviting.

Curt is an extremely nice person, charismatic and easy-going. But he is also very serious about anything he does, whether it be the music or the non-prof or lining up gigs for the band. And he seems to be without any pretensions whatsoever — which is what gives his music a real sense of honesty. You feel like you’re listening to the real deal, that there is almost no stage between audience and performer as if each song flows as easily as a conversation.

Curt is an inspiration to other aspirants. He started the whole music thing after he’d already had a career — which he left to pursue music and to work with the kids. In less than five years, Curt basically learned the guitar, developed his vocal skills, found his artistic voice, wrote twenty songs, founded a band, recorded a CD, and got himself voted best singer/songwriter by the San Francisco Bay Guardian.

Catch Curt Yagi this Wednesday, May 13 at 9:00 pm on Comcast Channel 27 out of Palo Alto. The show will replay Friday night at 9 pm and every Wednesday and Friday until the next edition of the show. It is simulcast on www.midpenmedia.org and works best with Quicktime. Additionally, the show can be seen anytime on keylargomusic.blip.tv. And Curt’s website is www.curtyagi.com.