Jonah Smith Pt. II

We went to Jonah's show last night. He gets quite an audience out east but on a Monday night, he played to a mere 25 folks here in the great midwest. Much to his and his stripped down band's credit (no drummer nor saxophone), they played a great set for the few of us in attendance.

Jonah is one of the best vocalists that I've heard in a long, long time. And his songs are well crafted and the performances embrace the songs.

Three songs into the set Jonah, who plays a vintage Fender Rhodes, launches into a killer, yes killer, solo version of John Hiatt's "Have A Little Faith." Jonah's version is second only to John's. He got into the song all the way. Turns out he's a Hiatt fan. After being told that Hiatt grew up a mere 3 miles from where he played the song, he was pretty suprised.

Check him out. He's the real deal - a rarity these days. I think you'll enjoy his music, especially in light of much of the sanitized commercial crap that is being peddled these days.

And, Jonah and his band are as nice a bunch of guys that you'll ever meet.

I'll be adding two more tracks from Jonah's first two privately released albums in the next day to two to the Sound Cellar's playlist.