“I’ve got 60 years of on-the-job training.”
Those were the introductory words of 82-year old blues/jazz legend at his performance Saturday night at Colorado College’s impressive Armstrong Hall in Colorado Springs.
The sardonic style of the Mississippi-born Allison, exemplified by his deceptively rudimentary, boogie woogie piano and the cool, laconic drawl of his vocal delivery, has influenced a multitude of musicians. Tributes can be heard in the form of cover versions by rockers such as the Who, Blue Cheer, Elvis Costello, Van Morrison and the Clash as well as in the work of musicans like Tom Waits, whose own unique brand of Beatnik bop is forever in Allison’s debt.
Rightfully labeled the “Poet Laureate of the Blues,” Allison’s compositions, from his 1957 debut “Back Country Suite” through his works of today, are two-to-three minute lyrical gems. In both his songwriting and his vocal delivery he lingers in a singular spot between the dry baritone of Hoagy Carmichael and the comedic, yet poignant social commentary of Oscar Brown Jr.
No stranger to the Springs, Allison actually spent time tickling the ivories for a military band in the late-1940s while stationed at the then-dubbed Camp Carson. On this evening he took the stage in support of his latest cd “The Way of The World” with a pair of excellent Rocky Mountain-based guns for hire, Kenny Walker on bass and Chris Lee on drums.
After an uptempo instrumental blues warm up, the trio swung through several of Allison’s tunes and a few works by other composers. They began with Allison’s “Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde” from his 1990 release “My Backyard;” followed by “City Home,” “Tell Me Something,” and the humorous “Your Molecular Structure.”
The mature crowd (read: average age 50-plus), filling slightly above half of the theater, laughed along with lyrics such as “Your molecular structure baby, is really something swell, a high frequency modulated jezebel.” Alternately, “You Are My Sunshine” — in Allison’s hands, which gently landed altered chords on the grand piano — became a ballad of lingering loss rather than an overly-sentimental standard.
At points, the oft-improvising rhythm section had trouble following Allison’s skewed tempos; he seemed to be following his own metronome. Walker and Lee more than redeemed themselves with tasteful solos and by really keeping things in the pocket during most songs, such as “Fools Rush In” and a wonderful version of Percy Mayfield’s “Stranger In My Own Hometown.”
The show closed with two numbers lyrically apt to Allison’s legacy and longevity. The sly self-parody of “Ever Since I Stole The Blues” finds him singing with a wink, “The blues police from down in Dixieland/tried to catch me with the goods on hand/they broke down my door but I was all smiles/I had already shipped ’em to the British Isles.”
The final number, “My Brain,” from his latest release, rewrites the tune of Willie Dixon’s classic “My Babe.” Lyrically, Allison amusingly reflects upon the ever-changing capabilities of his gray matter, noting most importantly, and with an underlying sense of gratitude undoubtedly shared by those in attendance, that this legend is still “Alive and Kicking.”
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Michael Behrenhausen is a Denver-based writer, and regular Reverb contributor. The worst crime he ever did was play some rock ‘n’ roll.
