The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #27241 Message #2702024
Posted By: GUEST,stevenmcnight
17-Aug-09 - 12:17 AM
Thread Name: ADD: Flight 641 - songs by Lawrence Hammond
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Flight 641: 'Take this plane to Heave
I heard LH and his band in about 1976 at The Drinking Gourd in San Francisco. I cannot even remember who he opened for, but he stole the show I thought then. I particularly remember "Tornado's Coming Down" and him taking the encore with a solo version of "Dustcloud" There was that pause after a song ends and before the applause where an audience lets you know something extraordinary is still sinking in. I saw him again hunched over a guitar off the wall at McCabe's guitar store writing down words to a song and playing a phrase over and over. The guy could really play. I believe he was with the same woman the other posts mention above, she did have almost white hair and dark skin, wore a bunch of bracelets, and they spoke Spanish to each other, which is interesting, since a lot of his stuff has a Mexican ranchero feel to it. (This lady seemed to have a real love of music. I wonder if they are still together?). I was surprised some years later to hear Larry Sparks and then The Judds do "John Deere Tractor" It seemed they took a fast and sort of ironic song, and changed the chords all around, then made it slow and sad (try Larry Sparks on youtube). I am pretty sure LH never sang the song that way. I think the best recording of this song is on Larry Sparks album "40" where Allison Krauss, Dan Tyminski, and Stuart Duncan do harmonies and fiddle.