While our primary focus remains Canadian folk-roots music here at GDW, when Nashville-based singer-songwriter Jim Lauderdale is in the neighborhood, it would be foolish to miss an opportunity to connect with a respected GRAMMY Award winning artist. Not only was this legendary artist of the country music scene performing this close to GDW HQ, but he was also bringing his bandmates ‘The Game Changers’ to town. Tickets bought!
Regular readers know I love to wax poetic about what I consider the ‘revival era’ of country music from the late 80s through the mid 90s. Drowning in the mediocrity of mainstream British music, the arrival of CMT Europe to satellite television in the UK around 1993 (two years before I would ever visit North America) was like a breath of fresh air, introducing a new and fresh generation of artists keeping the country music traditions alive.
A few more years would pass, however, before I first discovered Jim Lauderdale’s music – initially name-dropped by TNN host Katie Haas (during The Wildhorse Saloon dance show) as the songwriter for Mandy Barnett’s 1996 cover of “Maybe” – and shortly after when one of Jim’s original videos was aired. Jim’s name would crop up frequently once learning just how prolific a songwriter he was – penning hit after hit for the big hitters. Shame on me for not digging deeper back then and discovering Jim’s own music and performances. I’d veered down my Americana music rabbit hole by the end of the 90s (I’m still there), so this opportunity to see him perform locally was not to be missed.
Jim Lauderdale and the Game Changers originally planned to play this gig back in November, but due to a late postponement, had to reschedule for the spring. Using this revised date to kick off his 2025 tour at Live at Hub City Vinyl, Jim (lead vocals/acoustic guitar) and his band – Craig Smith (electric guitar/vocals), Frank Carter-Rische (guitars/vocals), Jay Weaver (bass) and Pat Bubert (drums) – performed a solid one hour and forty minutes set to a packed house.
Offering an early disclaimer that he does not converse too much when up there with the band (let the music do the talking, right?), Jim came out swinging – launching immediately into “It Blows My Mind” and progressing through several popular cuts with the minimum of dead air in-between. The appreciative crowd lapped up the one-two punch of “The Road is a River” and “Wild on Me Fast” from Jim’s 2018 “Time Flies” album. Ditto for “Life by Numbers,” one traced back to Jim’s 1998 “Persimmons” album – here was an artist with a larger-than-average back catalogue, and he was not afraid to blow the dust off these timeless tunes.
Following a performance of “I’m a Lucky Loser” from Jim’s most recent “My Favorite Place” album (and a tune he declared as being a true story), the band would light up the room with several lively cuts from “Game Changer” – from the album’s opening tracks “That Kind Of Life (That Kind Of Day)” and “Friends Again,” then progressing into the title tune before pausing to offer some insight about another album cut. “Here’s one I wrote with a friend of mine called Raghad Tmumen,” Jim announced. “We were talking about if Conway [Twitty] and Loretta [Lynn] were still around, what were some song titles that they might do? So, we came up with this one, ‘You’re Hoggin’ My Mind’.”
Originally scheduled to perform two sets with an intermission, while the band took their brief hiatus mid-set, Jim was clearly feeling the love from the room, opting to forego the break and instead perform a handful of solo-acoustic tunes. Prompted by an earlier conversation about his past collaborations with Robert Hunter (The Grateful Dead), Jim craftily wove four of those co-writes into this segment, taking time to discuss their origins before delivering “Patchwork River,” “Alligator Alley,” and “Trashcan Tomcat,” much to the audiences’ delight.
“Here’s the very first song I got to write with Robert. I was getting ready to do my first album with one of my heroes named Ralph Stanley,” Jim shared, prior to his performance of “Joy Joy Joy.” “So, a friend of mine … contacted Robert. We talked on the phone, and he was a big fan of Ralph’s and the Stanley Brothers, and I didn’t know how to email at the time. I was very slow about things, and it was 1996!!!” Pausing as the room filled with laughter, Jim would continue reminiscing. “So, he faxed me some lyrics, and I put down the melody and overnighted him a cassette. And that’s how we started writing. Eventually, because of that, I learned how to use the internet, and I can still do it too. But I know he [Robert] wrote this lyric for his wife, Maureen, which I thought was so sweet. It’s called Joy Joy Joy.”
With the return of his band, Jim kicked off a rocking second set with a new and unreleased tune. Prior to the performance, he would take time to enlighten the audience about the song. “We’re gonna try one now that’ll come out as a single in a few weeks, and I was mentioning the whole thing about the internet,” Jim offered. “I’m not sure I can wrap my head around this next thing, and I wrote a song about it, but I’m not sure if another song has been written about it yet. But maybe so, I hope it’ll be the first country song, at least, about this subject.” And just two words into the new song, everybody understood Jim’s sentiments: “Artificial intelligence / Might make some mistakes / Testing our common sense / Is it real or deep-fake / Is it hell or heaven-sent / It’s still not hard to get / Almost as real as it gets / Artificial intelligence.”
Thrilling everybody with more popular tunes down the stretch, Jim and the band cranked out cuts such as “King of Broken Hearts” (Jim stating that this was written as a tribute to both George Jones and Gram Parsons), “You Don’t Seem to Miss Me” (popularized as a duet by Patty Loveless and George Jones back in 1997), and “Halfway Down” (another Patty Loveless hit). Jim would also invite guest musician Cole Moran (from Blind Wind) to the stage, who added some amazing harmonica during a performance of “Headed for the Hills.” “We’ve never performed this one live together before,” Jim announced. “But we did spend last night at the Holiday Inn Express. Y’all will have to have us back so we can do that again.”
Exiting the stage following a rousing performance of “The Opportunity to Help Somebody Through It,” the Hub City Vinyl crowd were not willing to call it a night just yet, offering enough applause and hollering to lure Jim and the band out for an encore. Commencing with “Whisper,” a tune co-written with Buddy Miller, Jim would address the room one final time before the closing number. “We’ll leave you with this one, and it’s a song I got to write with a couple of guys. One was Del Reeves, and my friend Jeremy Tepper and I wrote this too,” Jim shared. “This is about a ghost truck. I was thinking as I was writing, what if the late, great Cary Grant had done one more movie, and if he had played a long-haul trucker. Then, maybe his catchphrase had not been Judy, Judy, Judy, but would have been Diesel, Diesel, Diesel…”
Set List:
- It Blows My Mind
- The Road Is A River
- Wild On Me Fast
- Life By Numbers
- Don’t You Treat ‘Em That Way
- I’m A Lucky Loser
- That Kind Of Life (That Kind Of Day)
- Friends Again
- Game Changer
- Hoggin’ My Mind
- Patchwork River (solo-acoustic)
- Alligator Alley (solo-acoustic)
- Joy Joy Joy (solo-acoustic)
- Trashcan Tomcat (solo-acoustic)
- Artificial Intelligence (**Unreleased**)
- Sister Horizon
- King Of Broken Hearts
- You Don’t Seem To Miss Me
- Headed For The Hills
- Hole In My Head
- Halfway Down
- The Opportunity To Help Somebody Through It
Encore:
- Whisper
- Diesel Diesel Diesel
The British guy that crossed the ocean and crash landed in central Pennsylvania (to quote Greg Keelor, “And I wonder what am I doing here?”). As the youngest of four siblings, exposure to music from a very early age nurtured my passion and appreciation for many musical genres. Continuing to discover some amazingly diverse and talented musicians based in Canada, I gravitate to live music experiences and remain devoted to spreading the word about such a vibrant music scene.
