Down Home With John Sebastian
John Sebastian made a perfect entrance Saturday night for his first visit to the Stephen Talkhouse in nearly a decade. As the crowd was patiently monitoring the stage for any sign of The Lovin' Spoonful's affable founder - he was almost 40 minutes late in starting - there was a commotion at the front door. Suddenly a banjo-toting Mr. Sebastian waltzed through the door, followed by a full-fledged jug band.
"That jug band music. . .," he sang as the band strolled through the crowd, unamplified, playing back-porch blues in its most idyllic form: a banjo, a harmonica, and a guitar, and a big, round jug that provided the breathy bass beats.
When Mr. Sebastian finally reached his microphone, he joked, "Well this is it, folks. . . . As you can tell, we're off the deep end now!"
Teddy Bear
As unpretentious as they come, John Sebastian has always seemed like rock-and-roll's teddy bear, a funny and sincere performer with a body of lighthearted yet poignant songs. His running dialogue with the crowd Saturday night was almost as entertaining as the folksy set itself. Each number got an introduction, whether it was a humorous anecdote from the Greenwich Village coffee-shop days or a snippet of music history.
Mr. Sebastian, who during the heyday of The Lovin' Spoonful spent time rehearsing with the band at a house in North Haven, offered a healthy balance of stripped-down blues and the pop hits that earned him (and The Lovin' Spoonful) a name. Among the favorites were short, sweet versions of "Daydream," "Nashville Cats," "Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?" and "Darling Be Home Soon."
Best Moments
The show's best moments, however, came during a series of Delta blues covers that brought out the musicianship in each of the band members. It started when Mr. Sebastian put down his acoustic guitar and picked up his harmonica for the first (and only) time and joined the band's gifted harp player, Annie Raynes. Their heartrending duet of the blues classic "Feelin' Bad Blues" evoked the same emotion as one of Mr. Sebastian's most unforgettable recordings, a duet of "Amazing Grace" with the legendary harmonica player Paul Butterfield.
One of Saturday's disappointments, actually, was the lack of harmonica from Mr. Sebastian. As a harp player, Mr. Sebastian is one of the best among his contemporaries. He has even produced a set of how-to harmonica videos through the Woodstock, N.Y., company Homespun Tapes.
It could have to do with Mr. Sebastian's voice, which he has been struggling with in recent years. The casual, unstrained delivery of the vocals on Saturday pointed to this.
Duets Too
Nonetheless, the mood continued after the duet with two Delta blues numbers sung by the band's lead guitarist, Paul Richelle. Introducing Mr. Richelle, Mr. Sebastian reminisced that his first thought upon hearing a tape of Mr. Richelle was, "Is this guy still alive?" Indeed, when Mr. Richelle twanged the first notes on his steel Dobro and began singing, it sounded like a scratchy record of Robert Johnson had taken over the sound system.
Down-Home Feeling
Throughout the show the band's bassist alternated between blowing into his jug and plucking on a one-string wash-basin bass. Besides creating a colorful stage, the contraptions made for a wonderfully down-home rhythm section.
In fact, Mr. Sebastian and company turned the whole evening into a down-home one, inviting the crowd to sing along (or whistle along, in the case of "Daydream"). Mr. Sebastian could have been your guitar-playing neighbor and the Talkhouse could have been your living room.