Mason Jennings, Nathaniel Rateliffe & the Wheel @ the Bluebird Theater – Reverb

Mason Jennings, Nathaniel Rateliffe & the Wheel @ the Bluebird Theater – Reverb

November 15, 2009 Off By Billy Thieme
Mason Jennings played an excitingly surprising set at the Bluebird last Wednesday night. (Photo:     )

Mason Jennings played an excitingly surprising set at the Bluebird last Friday night. (Photo: Evan Semón)

You might think that Mason Jennings’ decision to become a member of Jack Johnson’s Brushfire label family would be an iffy move for the fiercely independent singer-songwriter that he is, and whether the association would soften his style. I did, until I saw him play at the Bluebird last Friday night. I was certain I would be subject to a too-clean, pop-folky string of bouncy, happy tunes, the ilk of which build up the majority of Johnson’s oeuvre. Not so. Jennings remains a strong, almost surly and unabashedly political songwriter, with more in common with Paul Westerberg or Elliott Smith than the lighthearted crooner.

Catch the entire review at Denver Post Reverb!

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  • Billy Thieme

    Aging punk rocker with a deep of all things musical and artistic, enough to remain constantly young and perpetually mystified. Billy has journalistic dreams, but of a decidedly pastoral, Scottish nature.