Submerged in a sea of bling-bling rap and garage rock is a
growing pool of talented singer-songwriters. Along with musicians
like Iron & Wine and Ryan Adams, Mark Kozelek is at the
forefront of this movement.
One of the most quietly prolific songwriters of the last decade,
Kozelek has brought his angelic singing and Nick Drake-influenced
folk to both the Red House Painters and Sun Kil Moon. Saturday
night’s show at the Troubadour was a rare solo performance
where Kozelek braved the audience on his own, and earned its
approval with flying colors.
After local singer Josh Haden and his band opened the show with
45 minutes of slow jams of the droning Pink Floyd variety, Kozelek
entered uttering only one phrase: “Don’t ask me how
I’m doing.” His monologue on his “350th”
breakup would have to wait until after he played drastically
reworked acoustic versions of two Sun Kil Moon songs,
“Salvador Sanchez” and “Lily And Parrots.”
“Salvador Sanchez” became a tense anthem, while
“Lily And Parrots” abandoned the Led Zeppelin stomp of
the recording for a finger-picked ballad worthy of Drake or Simon
and Garfunkel.
While he continued to play Sun Kil Moon songs like “Carry
Me Ohio” and “Glen Tipton,” Kozelek interspersed
them with older Red House Painters songs as well as an AC/DC cover
that drew a chuckle from the crowd. He alternated between a
six-string and a 12-string guitar, playing both with a mastery that
hypnotized the audience. The show’s highlight was an
emotional version of “All Mixed Up,” a song from Red
House Painters’ “Songs For Blue Guitar”
album.
Finally, the encore arrived. Someone in the crowd shouted out
the name of a Red House Painters song.
“I’m not gonna play a 20 minute song!” Kozelek
said in jest. Instead, he played a shorter version of the usually
14-minute epic “Duk Koo Kim.”
“Sing to me once more, my love,” he repeated like a
mantra. Throughout the night, his warm, inviting chords wrapped
around the audience like a blanket and his gentle melodies were a
mother’s kiss good night. No matter which band or moniker he
appears under, Kozelek remains a comforting voice in an ocean of
shallow music.
-By David Greenwald