Singer-songwriter Sharon Van Etten has been getting a lot of press this month, and deservedly so. Her third and latest album, Tramp, is a strong collection of songs, with some of the moody introspection of her previous records as well as a new, harder-charging sound on the standout track “Serpents.” Van Etten played to packed houses last Thursday and Friday nights at Lincoln Hall in Chicago; I was there Friday (Feb. 17).

When Van Etten played the very first afternoon set of the 2010 Pitchfork Music Festival, her seemed a little tentative, like someone unaccustomed to playing on such a big stage. On Friday night, her singing was more assertive, and she had a trio of musicians helping to give her music a fuller sound. She still seemed a bit unnerved or uncertain about being in the spotlight. Van Etten was in a silly, giggly mood, joking around quite a bit in between songs, creating a strange contrast with her more serious lyrics. The fumbling around in between songs was charming at times, but after a while, the show’s erratic pacing became a distraction. Van Etten joked that we were watching her learning how to have a band, and that’s just what it felt like — not entirely a bad thing. Most interesting was the way Van Etten and her band stretched out the openings of some songs, creating drones that set the mood for the songs that eventually emerged.
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Sharon Van Etten's band

Sharon Van Etten's band

Opening act Shearwater played an impressive set dominated by songs from its new record Animal Joy. Although most of the musicians backing Shearwater’s singer-songwriter Jonathan Meiburg were new to the lineup, but they played tight, rocking versions of the band’s art rock.
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Shearwater

At the end of the night, when Van Etten played her encore, the members of Shearwater came back onto the stage, too. Van Etten and Meiburg swapped lead vocals in a cover of Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty’s “Stop Dragging My Heart Around.” From what I hear, they teamed up the night before on a cover of the Soft Boys’ “I Wanna Destroy You.”

Sharon Van Etten + Shearwater

The record I’ve listened to the most so far in 2012 is probably the self-titled album by the British band Veronica Falls. It came out last fall, escaping my attention at the time. It probably would have ended up somewhere on my best of 2011 list if I’d known about it. Anyway, I’m catching up now, and I caught Veronica Falls playing Thursday night (Feb. 16) at the Empty Bottle.

Veronica Falls is a standout in the school of recent bands reviving the sounds of 1960s girl groups, garage bands and one-hit wonders. At least, that’s my impression, but they’re making other critics think of ’80s British rock bands such as the Smiths. I can heart that, too. In any case, Veronica Falls’ melodies — both the melodies being sung and the ones being played on the guitars — are especially strong and catchy, which was just as obvious at the Bottle concert as it is listening to their record. The female-male harmonies are a delight, reminding me a touch of Sons and Daughters. And the contrast between the bright tunes and the often melodramatically dark lyrics (just look at the song titles: “Found Love in a Graveyard,” “Bad Feeling,” “Misery”) adds to the charm. Veronica Falls included a few new songs in its set, making me all the more eager to hear their next record. The band closed with a fine cover of Roky Erickson’s “Starry Eyes.”
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The show also featured opening sets by the affable Halamays and the scrappy Brilliant Colors (who did a fine cover themselves, of the Who’s “So Sad About Us”).

Brilliant Colors

Brilliant Colors

Welsh singer-songwriter Cate Le Bon’s really grown as an artist since I saw her playing some solo acoustic music at SXSW in 2008. That was nice, but her new record, Cyrk, is simply great, going deeper into the folk melodies of the British Isles while turning up the electric guitar a bit. Le Bon was also pretty great when she played a set dominated by those new songs Tuesday (Feb. 14) at Schubas. Le Bon sometimes sang with a touch of Nico in her delivery, but Le Bon’s vocals aren’t quite as chilly or monotone as that. Her hair hung in front of her face as she sang, and she spent most of the show playing electric guitar, moving over to the keyboards for a couple of songs. The climax of the set was the terrific two-part suite that also ends Cyrk — “Ploughing Out 1 + 2.” The moment where part 1 shifts into part 2 is a brilliant example of a transition that enhances the music on either side of it, and it worked just as well live as it does on record.
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The enduring strength of the songs on Aeroplane is clear now that Mangum has finally emerged to play concerts. He delivered powerful performances of that Areoplane material and a few other Neutral Milk Hotel songs when I saw him Monday, Feb. 6, at the Athenaeum Theatre in Chicago and Wednesday, Feb. 8, at the Pabst Theatre in Milwaukee.

Other than a few moments when other musicians joined him onstage to blow horns, bang drums or bow cello strings, the shows consisted entirely of Mangum sitting down on a chair, strumming acoustic guitars and singing. Mangum has one of those loud, proclaiming folk-singer voices — early Bob Dylan filtered through the droning British accent of John Lennon, with a touch of Syd Barrett — and his singing has changed very little in the years he’s been missing. Mangum showed that he’s capable of subtlety with a few, quieter turns of phrase, but he was more interested in belting out notes for the whole world to hear. When he slipped into wordless phrases, singing syllables such as “dee dee dee dee dee,” the melodies sounded like ancient folk laments and marching tunes.

The opening sets both nights were by a trio of musicians from the Elephant 6 collective, who also helped out with cameos during Mangum’s set: Scott Spillane and Laura Carter, both of whom played with Neutral Milk Hotel back in the day as well as the Gerbils, and Andrew Rieger of Elf Power. Spillane and Rieger each sang some nice songs, but the musicianship was ramshackle and sometimes blatantly off-key. The Elephant 6 scene and other lo-fi rock bands have always had a touch of amateurism, which can be charming in a naïve way, but these performances just made me wish they’d tuned their instruments better. And the songs paled in comparison with Mangum’s.

The crowds in Chicago and Milwaukee greeted Mangum rapturously, but the rapture felt a bit more intense in Milwaukee. Fans at both venues shouted questions in between songs, eager to hear some words from Mangum, but the questions tended more toward the sophomoric in Chicago. One audience member asked Mangum to compare Superman and Batman. Another asked his opinion of Stravinsky. One of these off-the-wall questions did generate an interesting response. Someone asked, “Jeff, how do you feel about reincarnation?” Mangum replied, “I’m doing it right now.” Despite his reputation as a recluse, Mangum seemed completely at ease performing onstage and interacting with the audience.

At the Pabst, a few audience members walked up to stand near the stage as Mangum played the second song of the night. At first, the venue’s ushers shooed those fans back to their seats, but then Mangum encouraged fans to get up if they wanted to. The whole front part of the main floor filled up soon with a throng of enthusiastic fans, standing and swaying to the classic Neutral Milk Hotel songs they’d never had a chance to hear live. Mangum remarked how gratifying it was to see his songs reaching people out in the world, years after he’d sent them out — “messages in a bottle.”

Four and a half years have passed since the last time indie folk-rock band Ida played in Chicago. And the group hasn’t had a new record since Lovers Prayers, one of my favorite albums of 2008. But the trio was finally back in town Sunday (Jan. 29). One member, Elizabeth Mitchell, was playing a concert of children’s music early Sunday at the Old Town School of Folk Music, which led to an opportunity for Ida to play a free show in the evening at the Saki record store.

The members of Ida remarked that they’d barely had any time to prepare for the show, but they certainly didn’t skimp on playing a generous selection of songs for the 40 or so fans at Saki, performing for 90 minutes. It was a delightfully intimate show, showcasing the hushed harmonies of Mitchell, Daniel Littleon and Jean Cook. They played some of Ida’s best songs, along with covers of songs by Richard and Linda Thompson, the Band, Bill Monroe, the Minutemen, Michael Hurley and the Secret Stars. A former member of that last band, Geoff Farina, opened the show and joined Ida for a couple of songs. Jon Langford also sat in with Ida for one song. But the main attraction was seeing Mitchell, Littleon and Cook sitting together and quietly meshing their singing, guitar, harmonium and violin into lovers’ prayers.

This show was the latest in a series of performances at Saki recorded by Epitonic, so look for a recording of it to show up in the Epitonic Saki Sessions.

Geoff Farina

Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra makes stirring, majestic rock music with a strong orchestral sound that rivals anything else today. Few bands deliver live performances as powerful as Silver Mt. Zion’s, and the ensemble proved its excellence once again with its show Saturday (Jan. 28) at Lincoln Hall. It wasn’t just the beautiful sound of those violins melding with the guitar, drums and upright bass to create epic peaks of sound — it was also the way all five of the musicians joined their voices together in otherworldly hymns.

The band (which includes members of the older and recently revived group Godspeed You! Black Emperor) played three new songs that carry on Silver Mt. Zion’s tradition of making long, dramatic pieces of music: “Take Away These Early Grave Blues,” “The State Itself Did Not Agree” and “What We Loved Is Not Enough.” That last song, along with another new one called “Psalms 99,” were for sale at the merch table in a limited-edition set of two 7-inchs — the songs are so long that each is split up into Parts 1 and 2 on these singles. Now there’s something you don’t see too often. Silver Mt. Zion played eight songs Saturday night. Few, if any, clocked in at less than 10 minutes, but every minute felt absolutely necessary.

Campbell bravely let the world know he had Alzheimer’s disease. And he announced he would make one final album (2011’s Ghost on the Canvas) and tour one last time. His “Goodbye” tour included two shows this week at the Rialto Square Theatre in Joliet.

At the concert on Thursday evening (Jan. 25), Campbell never directly said anything about his illness or his imminent retirement from making music. It didn’t need to be said. You could sense the deference, love and admiration that Campbell’s backup musicians (including three of his children) and the audience of longtime fans felt for him. And Campbell kept saying how glad he was to be there and thanking everyone for showing up. That’s boilerplate stage banter you might hear from any musician, but it took on a whole different depth of emotion this time. Campbell seemed to be thanking all of the fans who had ever come to his concerts and bought his records, thanking them one last time while he still could. It was a sad occasion, but it was also a beautiful celebration of this man’s terrific career as a singer-guitarist who transcended genre boundaries and recorded some of the great songs of the ’60s and ’70s.

Campbell showed some of the effects of his illness and age, but he seemed remarkably sure of himself. It helped that he had such a good band playing behind him, and it must have been comforting for him to know that his children were there at his side. But he was still essentially standing alone out at the front of the stage, a 75-year-old man who’s losing his memory facing an auditorium full of people. It appeared that he was reading lyrics off three screens arrayed along the front of the stage — his need for the prompter was more obvious when he performed a few of his new songs than when he did the old standards. Whenever one of the new songs started, he would declare, “I like this song!”

Campbell seemed uncertain where to stand. He kept moving the microphone stand away from center stage, as if he were being drawn to the side for some reason. But when he sang one of the old songs, you could almost see the memory of those words and melodies clicking into place and bringing a smile to his face. His voice was a little weathered, but still strong and confident. At a few points — including the last note of “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” — his voice ascended into a falsetto and hit a high, lovely “ooh.”

During “Galveston,” composer Jimmy Webb’s lyrics took on a new poignancy, as Campbell sang about being afraid of death: “Galveston, oh Galveston, I am so afraid of dying/Before I dry the tears she’s crying/Before I watch your sea birds flying in the sun/At Galveston, at Galveston.” As the song ended and the applause welled up, Campbell started playing the opening riff of “Galveston” all over again on his guitar — until his daughter, Ashley, interjected: “We just played that, Dad.”

Campbell spent much of the show with his blue Strat strapped over his neck, holding onto it for the moments when he would play a guitar solo. (He complained a couple of times about how heavy that guitar felt on his shoulders.) When those moments came, Campbell looked down at the neck of his guitar — and you had to wonder: Can a man suffering from Alzheimer’s disease remember all those notes? Campbell hesitated a few times, but once his fingers started moving, they really moved, and the notes rang out loud and clear. All of the night’s guitar solos belonged to Campbell, and they offered plenty of proof of his skills.

At one point during the concert, Campbell apologized for playing something not quite right — whatever it was, it was a barely noticeable mistake. Campbell told the crowd, “Always remember this, friends: If you do it perfect, they’ll want it that way every time.” Wise words worth remembering from a great musician.

Glen Campbell finished the show with a lovely, wistful song from his new record, “A Better Place,” which he co-wrote with producer Julian Raymond. Campbell sang: “One thing I know/The world’s been good to me/A better place awaits, you’ll see.”

SET LIST: Gentle on My Mind / Galveston / By the Time I Get to Phoenix / Try a Little Kindness / Where’s the Playground Susie / Didn’t We / I Can’t Stop Loving You / True Grit / Lovesick Blues / Dueling Banjos / Hey Little One (sung by Ashley and Shannon Campbell) / Any Trouble / It’s Your Amazing Grace / Country Boy / The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress / Ghost on the Canvas / Wichita Lineman / Rhinestone Cowboy / Southern Nights / A Better Place

The Louisville singer-songwriter Cheyenne Marie Mize has performed with Will Oldham, and now she’s establishing a solo career of her own. Her introspective 2010 debut, Before Lately, had an intriguing mix of styles, and her adventurousness continues on the new EP, We Don’t Need. When Mize performed Wednesday (Jan. 25) at Schubas, she started off her set with the song that opens the EP, “Wishing Well,” which features little more than her singing and chanting to a drum beat. Throughout the rest of her set, she switched between guitar, keyboards and violin, while two other musicians (a drummer and a multi-instrumentalist) provide subtle backing but kept the songs sounding spare and direct.

The Montreal band Plants and Animals doesn’t easily fit into any of the typical rock genres. Their music has a bit of late ’60s/early ’70s hippie vibe, and there’s a tendency toward jamming, but they don’t sound to me like a jam band. Their 2008 record Parc Avenue is a strong set of songs with unusual turns that stick in your mind. Somehow, I completely missed their 2010 album La La Land until now, and now they’re on the verge of releasing another album, The End of It. They played at Schubas on Jan. 12, part of the bigger-than-ever Tomorrow Never Knows festival. The Parc Avenue songs were excellent in concert, and the new ones were promising.

The evening also featured opening sets by Canon Blue, Herman Dune and the local acoustic folk-rock trio Cloudbirds, who include former members of The M’s. (Cloudbirds are giving away their album online.)

Cloudbirds

Cloudbirds

Herman Dune

Herman Dune

Canon Blue

Canon Blue