{"id":552,"date":"2013-05-04T20:00:04","date_gmt":"2013-05-04T20:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/216.71.127.204\/wordpress\/?p=552"},"modified":"2015-10-08T18:30:34","modified_gmt":"2015-10-08T18:30:34","slug":"vince-bell-dana-cooper-anderson-fair-houston-tx","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/houstonmusicreview.com\/wordpress\/2013\/05\/04\/vince-bell-dana-cooper-anderson-fair-houston-tx\/","title":{"rendered":"Vince Bell & Dana Cooper – Anderson Fair – Houston, TX"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n
Written by James Killen <\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
May 04, 2013 at 09:00 PM<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"Image\"I always look forward to Vince Bell coming back to town and even more so to Anderson Fair. This trip he came with Dana Cooper as a bonus. Back in the late eighties I was going through a tough personal time in my life and spent a lot of my free time at Anderson Fair. There many times when Vince would do a short opening set for the main artist there, while he recovered from a traumatic car accident. His performances, at the time, far from perfect, were inspirational to me. My problems were miniscule next to a fellow that had to overcome brain damage, a coma, a lacerated liver and a nearly amputated arm to teach himself how to walk, talk, sing and play guitar again.<\/p>\n

Dana Cooper has always been on my \u201cwish I could catch him live\u201d list. I was disappointed to hear early in the day that he was sick and that he had to strain his voice in order to perform. I immediately set my sights for the evening\u2019s activities a bit lower.<\/p>\n

The evening was divided into three sets, each artist on stage by himself to start out and then the third would be a song swap. Vince Bell took the first turn at the mike. His voice is like a gritty warble with a smoky tone, all his own. He strummed and picked his way through classics like his \u201cGirl Who Never Saw a Mountain\u201d, \u201cEven Cowboys Get the Blues\u201d and \u201cTroubletown\u201d. Between songs, Vince regales the audience with quick jokes and witty insinuations always followed by that short high pitched chuckle. Every time I see Vince he makes me grin and laugh out loud at his ability to shake the world down with a punch line. Vince closed out his opening set with the waltz, \u201cLast Chance at the Dance\u201d.<\/p>\n

Dana Cooper started out his set with \u201cEnough\u201d that he co-wrote with Kim Carnes, featuring the line \u201cIf you work hard enough you could die standing up\u201d. Just watching the energy that Cooper was putting into the guitar, harp and vocals in spite of his illness, you could tell where that song came from. He followed that up with his tongue in cheek, \u201cNo Second Coming\u201d and its jangly finger picking and the tribute to Townes Vann Zandt, \u201cBony Man\u201d.<\/p>\n

Dana\u2019s sheer musical ability, was on display as he tried to work through the notes of \u201cLeo and Lucille\u201d in a lower key so that he wouldn\u2019t strain past his vocal limit on the high notes. It was as if he were rewriting the song on the spot in order to fulfill a request and then ended up doing it in the higher key anyway, since the rewrite just didn\u2019t sound right. Dana ended his first set with \u201cToo Deep a Sorrow\u201d.<\/p>\n

After a brief intermission both artists ascended the stage again for the song swap segment of the show. Someone in the audience complimented Vince on his guitar. He said, \u201cThanks, it\u2019s a custom. It\u2019s made entirely of mesquite so if I can\u2019t get the sound out of it I like, I can use it for the barbecue.\u201d He started out the swap with his most often covered, \u201dSun and Moon and Stars\u201d. That\u2019s one of the songs that Vince wrote and performed before the accident that he had to learn all over again from old films of himself. Cooper revisited the time in his childhood when his blue collar, WWII veteran, father brought home a copy of \u201cMeet the Beatles\u201d in the early sixties by playing his tune, \u201cIn My Living Room\u201d.<\/p>\n

Although neither artist contributed to the other\u2019s performance the swap held the audience in place while Vince played \u201cPoetry, Texas\u201d and \u201c100 miles from Mexico\u201d and Dana led the sing-a-long (whistle-a-long), \u201cGreat Day in the Morning\u201d and ending the swap with an appropriate \u201cThank You\u201d. The encore consisted of Vince performing a gritty version of the Townes Van Zandt Classic \u201cMr. Mud and Mr. Gold\u201d and Dana doing an enthusiastic version of his \u201cLucky Guy\u201d.<\/p>\n

Old guys like me really enjoy it when old guys like Vince and Dana come to town. They bring back all of the old times, good and bad. They help us to remember the friends that aren\u2019t around anymore and, most of all, to remind us how good it is to still be around and enjoying life with a song. Until next time you\u2019re in town guys\u2026<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by James Killen May 04, 2013 at 09:00 PM I always look forward to Vince Bell coming back to town and even more so to Anderson Fair. This trip he came with Dana Cooper as a bonus. Back in the late eighties I was going through a tough personal time in my life and… <\/p>\n

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