Michael Doherty's Music Log: Cindy Lee Berryhill at The Federal Bar, 11-5-17 Concert Review

Sunday, November 5, 2017

Cindy Lee Berryhill at The Federal Bar, 11-5-17 Concert Review


Cindy Lee Berryhill performing "The Adventurist"

The Mimosa Music Series continued today with a performance by Cindy Lee Berryhill, as well as an excellent opening set by Derrick Anderson (yeah, a good double bill). I love starting my Sundays with great music, food, drinks and people. There was plenty of all at today’s performance at The Federal Bar in North Hollywood. Before the show, we ended up pushing two tables together to accommodate our group. All of us, coincidentally, were from Massachusetts, that is until Ronee Blakley kindly joined our table. I ordered the bread basket again, as it was incredibly delicious the last time I was there (for the Paul Kelly concert), and this time I used my drink tickets to get a couple of mimosas. I don’t really care for champagne, but today the mimosas did the trick. Everything was working just right.

Derrick Anderson took the stage at 11:45 a.m., and delivered a fun set, focusing on songs from his new release, A World Of My Own, including “Waiting For You,” “You Don’t Have To Hurt No More,” “Something New,” “Phyllis & Sharon,” “Stop Messin’ About” and “When I Was Your Man.” Derrick plays bass, and he was backed by four musicians, all of whom apparently are part of the Wild Honey Orchestra. Guitarist Rob Bonfiglio sang lead on his “Trouble Again.” They ended the set with “Spring,” the last song on Derrick’s new CD, but the crowd demanded one more song, and they obliged with a cover of The Beatles’ “She’s A Woman.”

After a twenty-minute break, series host Gary Calamar introduced Cindy Lee Berryhill. Her group for today’s show was similar to that for the show at McCabe’s in April, and included David Schwartz on bass, Robert Lloyd on keys and banjo, Renata Bratt on cello, Joyce Rooks on cello, Danny Frankel on drums, and Paula Luber on vibraphone. She kicked off her set with “Radio Astronomy,” a song from her 1994 release, Garage Orchestra. “That was from an old record,” she said afterward. “And this is from a new record.” She then played “Somebody’s Angel,” one of my favorite songs from her newest album, The Adventurist. There is no keyboard on this song, so Robert Lloyd took the time to read from his book. Later he was asked what he was reading, and it turned out to be a Walt Whitman book. I mentioned in my McCabe’s review the odd habit of the members of this band to read when not needed for a particular song, and this time around it didn’t seem as strange.

After “Somebody’s Angel,” Cindy asked the crowd how the overall sound was. “Everybody here is a musician,” she noted. She followed that with “American Cinematography,” and then “Horsepower,” both from The Adventurist. Actually, the rest of the set (with the exception of “Happy Birthday To You,” obviously) was made up of songs from that album. “This is fun for us because we haven’t played together since April,” Cindy said. “As a band,” she added. She did “I Like Cats/You Like Dogs,” and then Robert Lloyd switched to banjo for “The Adventurist,” a song which also features some nice percussion. Cindy then introduced the band, briefly mentioning the members’ accomplishments. A talented bunch, to be sure.

“An Affair Of The Heart” was beautiful, and Renata Bratt played the melodica during a section of the song before going back to the cello. The band then performed “Happy Birthday To You” for an audience member celebrating her birthday (even though she had to leave early), and the band finished the set with “Gravity Falls.” The show ended at 1:40 p.m., and the house music came on immediately. Apparently, the venue had another event scheduled soon afterward, so there wasn’t time for another song.

Set List