After their show at Underbelly this past weekend, Cory Branan and Jon Snodgrass said it better in under 280 characters than I could in the 300 words to which I usually limit myself in this space. Snodgrass tweeted, “Playing a show @underbellylive in Jacksonville FL is something I endorse. Good room, great sound, good people, great times.” For his effort as pithy tour historian, Branan tweeted a picture of his blood stained guitar with the words “working for a living.” And that about sums it up. Snodgrass, a fine songwriter from the equally fine band Drag the River, and Branan, a hard to pin down, but brilliant singer-songwriter from Mississippi, enthralled the robust-for-a-Sunday crowd for hours beyond expectations- workin’ their asses off and literally pouring blood and sweat into the performance. It was a fucking rock show in the truest sense.
Case in point, near the end of the night Snodgrass slowly started to walk backstage and piece a drum kit together while Branan kept doing his thing, and once Jon’s job was complete he just sat there with a huge grin and smiled contently- very little keeping time, just a quirky, fitting exclamation point on a show that included two ridiculously talented musicians giving their fans every penny’s worth.
I mentioned that Branan is hard to pin down, and would be remiss if I did not elaborate. It’s as if Ben Nichols was cross-pollinated with Ryan Adams and then dunked in a vat of Otis Redding’s tears, resulting in a dynamite cocktail of whiskey-soaked singalong songs with equal parts grit and beauty. And the man is a force of nature onstage. He is the rare talent whose music translates equally well onstage and on record. Cory walked away from Underbelly with bloody fingers, both men walked away with new fans, and we all left there with fuzzy memories of one of the best shows I have seen in a long time.
floridabout 
Leave a comment