Strumming with the Starr
By Wade KwonGarrison Starr has been haunting Birmingham stages a lot this fall, with another gig coming up in December. Her Tuesday show at Moonlight Music Cafe in Vestavia Hills featured something different: guitar in the round, with Michelle Malone and Nini Camps.
The two-hour show was a feast of blues, folk, rock and pop with a lotta Lilith in the mix.
From left, Garrison Starr, Nini Camps and Michelle Malone.
The trio started around 8 p.m. (the staffer warned us that it had been moved back from the originally announced 7:30 p.m. start time). The crowd of around 80 made it standing room only in the upstairs performance area.
Each performed in turn, sometimes accompanied by one or both. Nashville’s Starr (who now calls Los Angeles home) announced Birmingham is becoming one of her favorite towns.
The format recalled Starr’s higher-profile outing at the Alabama Theatre in 2002, sharing the stage with Birmingham native Emmylou Harris, Bruce Cockburn and Patty Griffin at the Concert for a Landmine-Free World. (Starr was ably filling in for an ailing Mary Chapin Carpenter.)
Malone and Camps turned in some energetic guitar work, and Camps is easily the most exuberant (or loudest) of the three. Her raucous tunes added momentum to the show.
Malone’s electric blues riffs stood out, as did her informal emcee-ing for the evening. And Starr seemed to be the laid-back leader of the group, comfortable enough to play it low key.
The triple-bill show was a bargain at $5, though we quibble slightly with the passing of the tip jar during the first hour. Still, fans seemed more than happy to reward the singers with extra scratch.
It’s also a little awkward to have performers on stage for more than hour not actually performing. But the camaraderie and craftsmanship made for a lovely evening.
Starr and Camps return to Moonlight Music Cafe on Dec. 20 with Amelia White and Buck Johnson and again on Jan. 10.
Garrison Starr: "Airstreams & Satellites" (2004)
