What next, a crawfish boil in Battleship Cove?
That might have been the only question after Eric Lindell and his trio turned The Narrows Center for the Arts in Fall River into a steamy cauldron of New Orleans-style funk and soul Saturday night for a near sellout crowd of 400 fans. Lindell and his band delivered 21 songs in a show that lasted about two hours and ten minutes, and still had people yelping for more, even those who had spent most of their night dancing to the greasy grooves.
Lindell and his Natural Three, which included his longtime drummer Willie McMains and keyboardist Brother Joe, performed five of the songs from Lindell's latest album, “Revolution in Your Heart,” as well as a varied selection from his past work. Much of the new album was recorded with just Lindell and McMains, as the singer told us a couple weeks back, and that stripped down style worked marvelously with the keyboards in the live setting. It certainly helped that Brother Joe is a monster player in his own right, so that many of the tunes with Lindell's sinuous guitar melodies set over McMain's torrid rhythms, expanded into gloriously funky jams where the trio sounded like a much bigger group.
In true New Orleans tradition, Lindell–who grew up in San Mateo, California–Saturday's concert featured r&b, soul, funk, blues, reggae and rock in various combinations. If the live show differed from the Lindell records, it might've been just that the hip-shaking, irresistibly funky quotient of nearly every tune was enhanced even more. As someone remarked, Lindell's appealing mixmaster of rootsy American music styles suggests comparisons to Delbert McClinton, and of course his fans and cohorts The Neville Brothers, and in the funk area, his pals in Galactic. And another fan noted that what he most loved was the upbeat, melodic quality in every Lindell guitar solo, and that brightness of tone and approach surely makes his music soar.
An early set favorite Saturday night was “Appaloosa,” a gritty funk/soul song from the new album, and one where Lindell's ability to craft unique solos from his instrument's lower strings added to the funky foundation. “Heavy Heart” was another superb outing from the album, a thoughtful ballad about moving beyond your woes, set to a New Orleans-style rhythmic stew that had anyone still alive moving.
We're not sure of a title on another standout tune, but the chorus started with “Take that weed..” and some other things, and then declared the singer would rather “get high on you.” That song featured Brother Joe creating some classic Crescent City piano lines, and the tongue-in-cheek lyric provoked smiles on more than one face. “Lay Back Down,” a steamy soul ballad from 2008, showed another side of Lindell's songwriting gift. And “Cold November,” another older tune, downplayed the groove element in favor of some wistful poignancy.
But the moving and grooving was back with “Lucky Man,” a brisk shuffle that included one of Lindell's longest and most evocative guitar solos. The older song “Milk and Honey” was prime r&b, but with a feast of New Orleans-style polyrhythms. The title cut from the new album is really superb, recommending an attitude shift both within oneself and your approach to others, and if we'd quibble about anything last night it was that the song was delivered matter-of-factly, and straight through, as an appealing soul song. But it would seem that “Revolution” could be a vehicle for an extended reading, and even jamming, that might elevate it into the anthem status it deserves, while Saturday's version was 'just the facts' close to the recorded take.
The piano was the delectable focal point of “Love Is A Beautiful Thing,” in a laidback stroll. All three musicians took solos on “Take Me Back,” from Lindell's 2016 album “Matters of the Heart,” cranking that funky rocker into a fiery crescendo. A percolating midtempo song we didn't recognize, apparently called “Trouble,” utilized a reggae style rhythm to good effect. And the slow and soulful breakup song from the new album, “How Could This Be?” occasioned one of Lindell's best vocals, pain and confusion expressed in subtle precision.
“The Sun and the Sea” is another Lindell song from the 2016 album, and it's a brilliantly woven rocker where it's never clear if he's advocating coming together as people in a general sense, or just making a plea to a prospective lover, but people at the Narrows Center knew it was a tune full of good times, to end the regular set. Lindell's first encore was the rockin' funk workout “Bayou Country,” a sizzling entry that proved McMains probably is–as Lindell kept reminding us–“the best drummer in Baton Rouge.”
And for the grand finale, Lindell and the boys did a raucous rendition of “Big Horse,” from the new album, a funk strut where the singer intones at the end of a long work week that he's going to ride his 20-foot horse, possibly “all the way to Santa Fe.” Punctuated by one more low-end guitar solo from Lindell that had the old building swaying, that last shot of boisterous release was an apt conclusion to the evening.