Music

Some things never change. Wilco and Sleater-Kinney gave audiences at Red Butte Garden Sunday exactly what fans have come to expect from either bands’ live shows. These are the patrons and matrons of their respective genres who keep every number tight and technically clean, whether it’s a new release or a song they’ve been performing for 20 years. 

Some things have changed, however. The members of the bands were spaced out 6 feet apart and transparent plastic barricades were erected around the stage. Oh, and we’ve all gotten a lot older. The bands show their enduring appeal though, with the number of multi-generational parties in attendance. Parents were on their feet, dancing and clapping along with their teenaged progeny. 

Chicago-based NNAMDÏ opened the night sporting an arm in a sling, saying, “My Bird scooter decided to take a little expedition into a pothole.” The ensemble has an experimental punk flavor with an undercurrent of levity in some songs, likewise demonstrated even by his on-stage jokes (“I never paid attention to how much I used my left hand.”). The tone shifted more toward the serious with the rest of the evening but you wound’t know that given the life in the audience at Red Butte. 

Sleater-Kinney opened their set with the title track from their new album, Path to Wellness. It’s Sleater-Kinney’s first record without longtime drummer, Janet Weiss, since Dig Me Out (1997). While the album falls into occasional meandering with a lack of drive (perhaps the absence of Weiss’s influence), the live performance breathes more energy into the title track and beyond.

The rest of their setlist blended the old (“Modern Girl” from 2005’s The Woods and the title track of 2002’s One Beat) and the new (“Price Tag” off of 2015’s No Cities to Love, “Can I Go On” from 2019’s The Center Won’t Hold and “Down the Line” on Path of Wellness). The set is bolstered by Carrie Brownstein’s and Corin Tucker’s undeniable chemistry on stage, even when spaced apart, and Brownstein brings the energy, busting out dance moves, wicked grins and high kicks in high-waisted leather shorts. 

Wilco, meanwhile, brings a different sort of ponderous energy, opening their set with the crowd-pleaser, “A Shot In The Arm” from the essential album Summerteeth (1999). Even performing veterans like Wilco slip up from time to time. Frontman Jeff Tweedy started singing one song and the band started playing another. They course corrected quickly, with Tweedy saying, “I know what the song is now.” The audience was forgiving (even charmed), given the 512 days between this tour and the last. It’s also the longest time the song, “Box Full of Letters,” from the 1995 album AM, had gone without being performed. 

Wilco rounded out their set with popular tracks from their expansive discography, like “Dawned on Me” (The Whole Love, 2011), “Jesus, Etc.” (Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, 2002) and “If I Ever Was A Child” (Schmilco, 2016). The alt rock band also has a new(ish) album out. They had to push back live touring, including the It’s Time tour (originally slated for last year) and their tour for their latest album, Ode To Joy. Tweedy also had a solo album out in 2020, Love Is The King, concurrently published with a book, also by Tweedy, How To Write A Song. 

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Tickets are on sale to other shows for the Red Butte Outdoor Concert Series website. See the full Red Butte summer lineup and Salt Lake’s guide on how to Red Butte.

“We came to Salt Lake City to party!” declared Travis Tritt at his concert on Friday at Red Butte Garden Amphitheatre. And party people did. After the first song (“Drive In Your Country,” Country Club, 1990), Tritt flicked his guitar pick into the crowd, and it landed on our blanket. My accomplice for this evening of Outlaw Country picked it up. One of the Tritt superfans sitting nearby clamored to get a look, ecstatic to behold a little piece of the Tritt. 

The next time she came over to ogle The Pick That Touched The Hand of Travis Tritt, my accomplice pressed it into her hands. “You can have it,” he said. She positively gushed. She looked at me, asking for permission to give my accomplice a hug (a request I do not have the authority to grant) but she threw her arms around him without waiting for an answer anyway.

She jumped up, showing off the pick to her partner, who immediately offered to us that which is most sacred at a Red Butte show: his cooler. “Can I offer you a drink?” he asked. (The answer to that question should never be “no.”) Our generous blanket neighbors introduced themselves as Britney and Scott and kept us in drinks for the rest of the show. Like Travis Tritt, we had all come to party. 

That was the energy at Red Butte that night. Even when Tritt long reminisced about the days you could “Smoke In A Bar” (Set In Stone, 2021) and windingly venerated veterans injured in combat (as well as his own acting career) to set up his song “Anymore” (It’s All About To Change, 1991), the party would not be stopped. 

If you’ve heard a Travis Tritt track before, you’ve heard him sing live (not that there’s anything wrong with consistency), although the singer’s onstage asides make for crowd-pleasing moments. At one point, he looked down at his instrument and begged, “Talk to me guitar.” When Tritt introduced a song off his new album, Set In Stone, his first studio recorded album in nearly 15 years, he leaned into the microphone and crooned, “I’m baaaaack,” earning an approving cheer from the audience. All told, the show came with few surprises. Tritt played the old hits and even the new stuff sounds a lot like the old stuff (once again, not that there’s anything wrong with consistency). 

Tritt’s set, for all of its unholstered fun, also included earnest tributes to Outlaw Country legends and “Honky Tonk Heroes” Waylon Jennings and Charlie Daniels of “The Devil Went Down To Georgia” fame, who passed away last year. 

More in that sober vein, you’ll find the sound of the opening act, Michelle Moonshine. “When I’m happy, I only write sad songs,” she said from the stage at Red Butte. “When I’m sad, I don’t write anything at all.” It comes through in Michelle’s voice—notably with an honest crack in her vocals that will break your heart. 

The power she brought to the stage might have been a surprise for those who hadn’t heard her before, but she’s been a working musician for more than a decade now. Salt Lake magazine interviewed Michelle Moonshine back in 2018 as part of our Small Lake City Concert Series. Her brand of Americana, as she dubs it, features twangy guitar, smokey vocals and hauntingly beautiful harmonies.

It’s a local outfit, too. Their single “Wait A Minute” (2020) was recorded live, reel to reel, at Orchard Studios in North Salt Lake, with Michelle (vocals, acoustic guitar), John Davis (vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar), Bronk Onion (upright bass) and Daniel Young (drums). Their latest single, “Nineteen Ninety-One,” released in 2021, is about the year before Michelle was born and strikes that perfect note of bittersweet nostalgia. 

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Tickets are on sale to other Red Butte Concerts at the Outdoor Concert Series website. See the full Red Butte summer lineup and Salt Lake’s guide on how to Red Butte.

Is it cliché to say there is a little something for everyone this weekend with the Red Butte Garden Outdoor Concert Series? Yes, but not technically untrue. Country musician Travis Tritt has a new album out and his tour is coming to Red Butte on Friday, Aug. 6 with local act Michelle Moonshine opening. On Sunday, Aug. 8, rock duo Sleater-Kinney is co-headlining with alt band Wilco. These three well-established headliners have been on their respective musical scenes for some time and have some new stuff they want you to hear (possibly at Red Butte concerts this weekend). 

Tritt’s new album, Set in Stone, is his first studio recorded album in 13 years. In the album release, Tritt said, “When we told people, they said, ‘Well, what kind of album is it going to be?’ The only answer I could come up with is, ‘It’s going to be a Travis Tritt album,’ and a Travis Tritt album to me represents everything I’ve ever done.”

And Travis Tritt has done a lot since he started recording in 1989, including winning two Grammy Awards, four CMA Awards and a Billboard Music Award for Top New Artist. Seven of Tritt’s albums have been certified platinum or higher and he’s had five number one singles and 20 Top 10 hits. 

Among his influences for his new album, he lists ​​“straight-ahead country, I love the old stuff, the great storytelling songs, songs that make you feel something with the lyrics that are relatable,” as well as Southern rock, blues, gospel and bluegrass. Tritt says that signature outlaw country edge is in the first track on Set in Stone, “Stand Your Ground,” an uptempo number apparently inspired by a conversation Tritt had with Waylon Jennings. “He gave me a lot of encouragement,” said Tritt. “He said, ‘I’ve been hearing all the things that they’ve been saying about you, how you’re an outlaw. I just want you to know that the same people that said that about you said the same thing about me, Willie, Johnny Cash and David Allan Coe. Don’t pay any attention to what those people say. They’re not the ones that buy your tickets to your shows. They don’t know your audience the way that you do, so you just stick with your program.’”

Travis Tritt will take the stage at the first of this weekend’s Red Butte concerts, with special guest Michelle Moonshine, Friday, Aug. 6. Gates open at 6:30 p.m. and the music starts at 7:30 p.m.

Two days later, the audiences at Red Butte will experience quite the tonal downshift. “It’s Time,” said the announcement on the Wilco website, unveiling the It’s Time Tour dates with Sleater-Kinney. “The tour we have waited and waited…and waited for[…]We can’t wait to reconnect.”

The current members of Sleater-Kinney, Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker, came out of the ‘90s riot grrrl scene but forayed into indie rock territory some time ago. They’re first few albums, like Dig Me Out (1997) are basically required listening for any budding feminist or anyone seeking a well-versed punk profile. Now they have a new album branching away from their roots called Path to Wellness. It’s Sleater-Kinney’s first record without longtime drummer, Janet Weiss, since Dig Me Out. Whether or not the band feels like it is missing something without Weiss, we’ll all find out together Sunday, Aug. 8 at Red Butte.

The other half of the It’s Time Tour, Wilco, had some new stuff ready to go just before the pandemic hit. They had to push back live touring, including the It’s Time tour (originally slated for last year) and their tour for their latest album, Ode To Joy. Frontman Jeff Tweedy also had a solo album out in 2020, Love Is The King, concurrently published with a book, also by Tweedy, How To Write A Song. 

Wilco’s latest effort, their 11th studio album, largely appears to be a return to form: the mellow, ponderous alt-rock we loved back in 1998 and ‘99 with Mermaid Avenue and Summerteeth, but one or two of the songs (“Hold Me Anyway”) are almost cheerful. Regardless, it’s probably safe to say, we can expect some classic Wilco at Red Butte. 

Sleater-Kinney and Wilco, with special guest NNAMDÏ, will be live at Red Butte Garden Amphitheatre, Sunday, Aug. 8. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. and the show starts at 6:30 p.m.

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Tickets are on sale to other Red Butte Concerts at the Outdoor Concert Series website. See the full Red Butte summer lineup and Salt Lake’s guide on how to Red Butte.

Opening for Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit Friday night, Lucinda Williams seated herself in front of the microphone and apologized to the crowd for not being able to play the guitar or dance around. “But I can still sing,” she added, drawing whoops and hollers from the audience at Red Butte Gardens Amphitheatre. In some ways, this set the tone for the night: maybe the return to live musical performances wasn’t everything we hoped it would be, but we’ll take it gladly. 

Lucinda Williams is touring again after suffering a stroke last year, which, as a testament to her wits and grit, she was ready to joke about. “I just got out of rehab,” she said. “But not that kind of rehab.” Her humor visibly eased the crowd, who were ready to sink into their seats and make the most out of the long-awaited return of the Red Butte Garden Outdoor Concert Series. 

With that, Williams launched into “Joy,” from her 1998 album Car Wheels on a Gravel Road. William’s voice is more gravelly, deeper now—perhaps even more compelling than on the original studio recording—all earth and heartbreak. “Drunken Angel,” too, a song from that same album, also struck a deeper chord performed live than it might have otherwise. 

Williams was not the only one making a big return. After taking a season off, even the regular Red Butte goers were rusty but happy to be back. Even before the music started, energy was high. “Hello fellow concert goers!” our neighbors on the grass greeted as they plopped into their chairs, twisting around to face us and gush about Williams and Isbell. My companion had never heard of Isbell, but that did not deter our new friends. “You’re in for such a treat! It’s a perfect way to start off the season after these last 18 months.” 

That celebratory energy was everywhere. Williams performed a version of “Take Me To The River” that had people clapping, dancing, rising out of their seats. During the song, a woman in a fringe denim jacket, paisley pants and a Stetson hat took to dancing through the rows of people and swinging around a whirring bubble-making machine. 

The joy of the return was made only brighter by the contrast of the decidedly Nashville, emotional heaviness of the music. Williams did not back away from the personal as the night went on, using her struggle with depression to set up the song “Big Black Train,” “big black train, big black train / I don’t wanna get on board that big black train,” a deep, rhythmic number from her 2020 album Good Souls Better Angels. 

Not everything about the return of the concert series went off without a hitch, either. For those looking to buy concessions, card readers were down and only cash sales were accepted. When you can bring a cooler full of your own food and drinks to the show, that isn’t exactly a dealbreaker, and it didn’t appear to ruin anyone’s good time. 

Jason Isbell was likewise gracious as he took the stage, praising the beauty of the venue and even thanking Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall for allowing musicians to perform in her town. Songs from Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit’s latest album, Reunions (2020), featured heavily throughout the night. The track “Dreamsicle,” played early in the evening’s set, captures and distills the nostalgic storytelling and thesis of the album in an understated way, with its string of childhood images and vignettes, from the standard and seemingly sweet, “A dreamsicle on a summer night / In a folding lawn chair / Witch’s ring around the moon / Better get home soon,” to the devastating, “New sneakers on a high school court / And you swore you’d be there / My heart breaking through the springtime / Breaking in June.”

Isbell, too, remarked on the personal significance of the songs, some of which draw inspiration from his battle with alcoholism and eventual sobriety. The driving, pristine guitar rhythms breathed new life into songs like Never Gonna Change, a ditty from Isbell’s days with the Drive-By Truckers (his former band who performed on that same stage two nights later in the pouring rain). The band likewise lends the stirring backbone to the plaintive “What’ve I Done To Help,” in which Isbell laments his own decisions and the state of society. 

That’s not to say it was all a soul-wrenching look into past actions. “Be Afraid,” a rock anthem from Reunions, is more hopeful and forward-looking with the lively support from the band, who had people on their feet and belting along with the chorus. After the final chords of the song faded, Isbell leaned into the microphone, overlooking the crowd and declared, “That was fun!”

Jason Isbell stands well on his own, too, (if his multiple successful solo albums weren’t proof enough of that already) with the aching ballad “If We Were Vampires” from the band’s album The Nashville Sound (2017). At the end of the night, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit returned to the stage for a soulful, string-plucking encore of “St. Peter’s Autograph” from the Reunions album. Neither song left a dry eye in the house (or on the lawn, rather).

They closed out the show with one more encore, “Super 8” (Southeastern, 2013). Looking around at the crowd, the effect of the more raucous, southern rock closer was restorative. Or, maybe, that was the cumulative results of a night filled with a little regret, a little heartbreak and a little hope—just what we needed to trigger a collective catharsis after the last 18 months. 

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Tickets are on sale to other shows for the Red Butte Outdoor Concert Series website, including Travis Tritt on Aug. 6 and Wilco and Sleater-Kinney on Aug. 8. See the full Red Butte summer lineup and Salt Lake’s guide on how to Red Butte.

Red Butte Garden’s 2021 Outdoor Concert Series kicks off this week with a show that sold out before most of us could even try to get our hands on tickets: Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit.

I first became interested in Jason Isbell’s music in an unusual way. Not on the radio or music streaming app or even a friend’s insistent recommendation. I first took note of Isbell in an interview with him on the political commentary podcast Pod Save America in 2018. From his thoughts on empathy to partisan politics to The Chicks, what struck me was his thoughtfulness and his frankness in sharing his beliefs. In a show of my own ignorance, it wasn’t what I expected from someone known as a Nashville country/Americana singer. I wanted to hear this man’s music. 

It’s apparent why Jason Isbell is widely regarded as one of the Americana genre’s best songwriters (if not one of the best songwriters in general). Isbell seems to apply that same thought to his music as well, and the latest album adds a healthy dose of nostalgia to the mix. Reunions (2020), recorded with his band the 400 Unit, is also a response to their previous success. 

“Success is a very nice problem to have but I think ‘how do I get through it and not lose  what made me good in the first place?’” he’s quoted saying in a band release. “A lot of these songs and the overall concept of this album is how do I progress as an artist and a human being and still keep that same hunger that I had when I wasn’t quite so far along in either respect.” 

Just for fun (and maybe as a bit of a palate cleanser after Reunions, rife with personal history and deep emotion), check out the cover Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit did of Metallica’s Sad But True, featuring a mean slide guitar, for the 30th anniversary of Metallica’s Black Album.

Rounding out the band are Sadler Vaden (guitar, backup vocals), Jimbo Hart (bass, backup vocals), Derry DeBorja (keyboard, accordion, backup vocals), Chad Gamble (drums, backup vocals) and Isbell’s wife and creative partner, Amanda Shires. Shires plays fiddle and sings backup in the 400 Unit, and Isbell plays guitar for Shires’s The Highwomen. 

Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit perform Friday, July 30 at the Red Butte Gardens Amphitheater as part of the 2021 Outdoor Concert Series with special guest Lucinda Williams. No matter where you stand on the politics, you’ve still got good music to enjoy.

Tickets are on sale to other shows for the Red Butte Outdoor Concert Series website.

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See the full Red Butte summer lineup and Salt Lake’s guide on how to Red Butte. 

What better time to start your new job as the head of the Utah Symphony and Opera than at the beginning of a global pandemic? That’s exactly how Steven Brosvik did it. He was hired to help captain two of Salt Lake’s important cultural institutions at precisely the moment when the wind dropped out of the sails. But Brosvik discovered the USUO’s teams already had oars in the water, and together they all started rowing.

“This community told us to do whatever was necessary to keep performing,” Brosvik says of his first days on the job. “We threw out an entire season and completely changed course.”

This involved a lot of puzzling and challenging reconfigurations. They reduced the overall number of symphony musicians from 85 to, at most, 48. Blocking, something usually left to the realms of theater and opera companies (“Lucky us, we are also an opera company,” Brosvik notes) became a factor to choreograph smaller groups of musicians moving around stage. Normally, all of the musicians sit essentially shoulder to shoulder, listening to each other. Musicians now had to sit farther apart. The wind and brass players were stuck at the back of the stage, literally over air return ducts. They had to learn to use more visual cues to work together. 

“It entirely changed our repertoire,” Brosvik says. “With a full symphony, we would just naturally opt to do bigger, larger works. There were all these wonderful smaller pieces that had been in our blind spot. We were doing things with three and five musicians that would have gone overlooked.” 

Many of the hard lessons learned will continue. Performances and educational programs will continue to be streamed and presented in online formats, for example.  

“We discovered a whole new group of music lovers across the state,” Brosvik says. “A third of last year’s audience had never bought a ticket before.” 

Seasons Return

The Utah Symphony and Opera will run a full 2020-21 season, already underway with performances at the Deer Valley Music Festival. For a list of performances and tickets visit usuo.org. 

Utah Symphony

Thierry Fischer conducts nine weeks of performances including Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances, John Adams’ Slonimsky’s Earbox, Stravinsky’s The Fairy’s Kiss and Haydn’s Symphony No. 11, among others.

The Soundscapes series highlights music inspired by landscapes and nature, including movements from Olivier Messiaen’s southern Utah-inspired Des canyons aux étoiles, Nathan Lincoln de Cusatis’ The Maze violin concerto and Arlene Sierra’s Nature Symphony and Bird Symphony.

Utah Opera

In its upcoming season, Utah Opera presents four full-scale opera productions with live performances at the Janet Quinney Lawson Capitol Theatre. Rossini’s The Barber of Seville in October 2021, the Utah Opera debut of Jonathan Dove and April De Angelis’ Flight in January 2022, Puccini’s Tosca in March 2022, and Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance in May 2022.

Learn Before You Go

Online courses by music professors from local universities are available online.

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Outside Infinity holds a band meeting every week at a studio they built in Taylorsville. I called them in the middle of one, the movement of a drum set clanging in the background. Bassist Gary Galvan has a newfound appreciation for these get togethers since the pandemic. “I get to hang out with my friends. Play some music. Get loud. It’s been nice,” he says.

“We’re trying our best whenever we have the opportunity,” says Galvan. “If these clubs go out of business—if they don’t make it because of the pandemic—it takes the local scene out from underneath us.” COVID-era restrictions have meant smaller crowds without packed-in bodies pressed against the stage, but performing through one of the worst crises in modern history requires a sense of duty. “Especially at a time like this, you want to give people something,” says lead vocalist Hyrum Strong. “You can listen to music online all you want. There’s something about a live show that touches you.”

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