Joy Lynn White at the Mucky Duck

Nevermind the overworked body, the injuries therein, or the tight schedule to make it out to two events Tuesday night. Joy Lynn White was in town and it was but by mere happenstance that I discovered this bit of news the day OF said events.

First up, an instore at Cactus Records. Lucky that, since I'd been way too late in picking up a copy of the new CD. Now, the backstory to all of this review is that I'd never seen Joy Lynn White since being turned onto her music around the release of The Lucky Few back in 1997. I think I stumbled onto it after flipping through a Country Weekly mag at the checkout stand, redheads got noticed rather quickly in those days, and Joy was (and still is) worth noticing. That alone sent me to the record store to sample some music. My first impression was that this certainly wasn't anything I normally would find myself listening to, but there was no denying her voice just has a way of latching onto your soul. Upon picking up the CD, that same voice has been a constant on the CD and MP3 player. The two big label releases of Joys had to be found via eBay, and as dumb luck would have it, the last time she toured, I found some inexplicable way of talking myself out of watching her play the Satellite Lounge (HUGE mistake!).

So here we were, several years later. No big label backing Joy. Not even a full band on tour with her. But upon walking into the record store, my week was probably made just by being in her presence for the first 5 seconds.

The set for the instore was something like 5 or 6 tunes, all new stuff: "One More Time". There was some confusion over Joy & her touring guitarist (name escapes me ... sorry) having the wrong playlist. There was a call for requests, but I tend to be rather lame about those, so I bite my tongue. Most of the tunes I'm likely to shout out a request for are those sappy, sentimental tunes that one simply does not shout out in public. I mean, no guy actually goes to see Night Ranger and raises their voice to request "Sister Christian" ... do they? Same thing. I'd just as soon let Joy peddle the new stuff that happened to be the only CD in the racks that day. I'd only sampled the new stuff from segments online, so the full effect on most of the material still hit me rather new. It was rather clear that the lead-off track to the new CD, "Keep This Love" and "Love Sometimes" were just as strong as anything Joy's done prior. The set was done all acoustical, so the live versions were much softer than the recorded versions. Not exactly a bad thing.

Hard for me to be fair on the musical lineup, though, as the primary draw for me was Joy's voice. During the concert, Joy made some reference to having to lower a few keys to songs due to smoking the heck out of her voice once upon a time. If that was shocking, it was only due to the fact that the natural vibrato of Joy's voice was not lacking one bit. I swear, there's a hypnotic effect to it that just draws you into the song.

Being me, I had to pre-plug a tune to see if I could will it onto the setlist for the concert. Apparently, my reluctance to shout out a request for "It's Amazing" was not hampered during the time I got to chat with Joy and a few other folks looking to get an autograph on the cover. That CD now goes into the category of "prized possessions," but truth be told, I'm bigger on just knowing I got to meet someone. That accomplished, it seemed tough to top such a happening. I was duly warned that my request was for a tough one to play, however. So no dice on the request. It's hard to complain, though. Tuesday night was a good night.

The first set at the Mucky Duck was a lot like the in-store show. Much of the same songs, that is. I did like the way the show was opened by a song that nobody knew. Good fit for the Mucky Duck, since it's something of a songwriter's place. Looking around the place, I had to ask myself how many of the people were there because they were longtime JLW fans versus how many were just Mucky Duck regulars. Didn't help that the two ladies nearest to me spent the entirety of Joy's first set chatting with each other. The guy in the back reading the paper didn't help either. But there was a substantial recognition of some of the older tunes that more than made up for those few.

I hate to be one of those who want to hear "the old stuff" at a show like this. But since it was my first show to catch by Joy, I have to admit that I was dying to hear a good sampling of old stuff. The second set of the night seemed to be the one were we got that rolled out for the audience. There were only 3 primary albums to cover (I tend to omit the Demos 2002 release since several of the songs were redone for the new CD and since that CD is also somewhat new to me after buying it directly from Joy at the in-store).

From "Wild Love"
- Burning Memories
- Tonight the Heartache's on Me

From "Between Midnight & Hindsight"
- Cold Day in July

From "The Lucky Few":
- Life's Just Too Short
- I Doubt If It Does To You
- Why Do I Love You

If there's some I missed, I blame the lack of sleep for the past week.

Sure, I could rewrite a whole new setlist with great tunes left off ... and no, there was no "It's Amazing." But "I Doubt ..." will suffice for sappy, sentimental soulful tunage out of Joy. But there was nothing truly lacking from the show. You go for Joy's voice and leave with far more than your money's worth. No disappointments whatsoever.

Once upon a time, Joy was described as "the greatest unknown goddess of country music." There's a selfish part of some of us that hopes she remains a hidden treasure that we can order the CD online from and doesn't get so overblown that the next Joy Lynn White CD sounds like just another watered down country artist thanks to the high sales demands of yet another big label. But on the other hand, we also hope this isn't the last chance to see Joy in Houston. We don't want her to be destitute for her artform. We also don't want our great state of Texas having a Joy Lynn White song written about sleeping in her car at a truck stop (unfortunately, true story). Maybe there's a happy medium in there for those of us who think like that. But then again, even if we do have that song written about us, I'm sure it'll be another great tune.

Treat yourself ... buy the new CD and thank me later.

Ref: Houston Press ... which I should have dutifully read one week ago.