W.S. Walcott Medicine Show

Lydia Loveless, John Calvin Abney & Loose Cattle Live at Mercury Lounge (20215-11-16)

Going out to a show on a cold, windy Sunday night is never an easy choice to make. But you make the effort when the show in question is Lydia Loveless and John Calvin Abney joined by New Orleans’ very own Loose Cattle.

The choice to venture out was 💯 the right one. John Calvin started things off with a mix of new tunes off his recently released Transparent Towns LP along with a smattering of older tunes, most notably “Weekly Rate Palace” off of 2016’s Far Cries and Close Calls. This rock-a-billy banger, all by itself made the show worth coming out for.

The middle set of the evening was offered up by Loose Cattle and it was a truly inspired collection of NOLA branded Americana, highlighted by a rockin’ “Sidewalk Chicken” off of their Heavy Lifting collection.

Closing out what was already a stellar evening of music was none other than Ohio’s favoriye daughter, Lydia Loveless. Accompanied by JC on electric guitar and later by Loose Cattle, Lydia played predominantly new unreleased tunes. Now, ordinarily a set comprised of songs to which the audience is unfamiliar with might lose the crowd’s attention but this was anything but the case here. New tunes like “Rocket”,
“Oklahoma”,
“Jane, Get Me Off This Crazy Thing”, and
“Avoiding Highways” had the room hanging on virtually every word.

And to close things out we were yreated to everyone taking the stage for a reprise of Lydia doing The Replacements’ “Bastards of Young”

A truly great night!

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