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By Tiffany Razzano
All of the songwriters, whether performing covers or original material, stood out in their own way. But it was Huntington's own Martha Trachtenberg that really blew everyone away with a song called Just Like That, written in memory of a close friend. Tempered with intelligent songwriting and emotional vocals and lyrics, this talented songwriter could have easily contended with Gilkyson, the main act of the night. Gilkyson, backed by her son on drums and vocals and Robert McEntee on guitar and vocals, easily won over the crowd not only with her extraordinary songwriting and vocals, but with her humor as well. The show was broken up into two sets. The first half of the night was composed of songs from her latest album, Paradise Hotel, which was released six months ago. During the second half, she played her older songs, including several audience requests. She kicked off her first set with the song Borderline, showing off her gorgeous, husky vocals and drawl that can be compared to those of Lucinda Williams, without sounding as though she has marbles in her mouth. She followed this with the title track from the album, Paradise Hotel, a slower track on which Gilkyson chronicles her search for happiness, lamenting that "pleasure never lasted very long." Performing in the center of the church, with an enormous, wooden cross hanging over her head, Gilkyson stopped while tuning her guitar in between songs, and typical of her sense of humor, said, "I'm going to be skipping all questionable songs tonight. I don't want to press my luck." She also entertained the audience with a tale about dropping acid at a Grateful Dead show at Fillmore West in the '60s and a naked Jerry Garcia and Mountain Girl likening themselves to Adam and Eve. Next came the Americana tune about her love for guitar players, The Beauty Way, which had a roots rock feel and was once again reminiscent of Williams, as well as Canadian singer-songwriter Kathleen Edwards (who of course has garnered many comparisons to Williams). In the song Ophelia she writes about the demise of a relationship, singing that she "doesn't want to be Ophelia in the end/or lose [her]self to anyone again/or be a victim of passion." She ended the first set with Man of God, which inspired the audience to stamp their feet and bop their heads to the raucous roots rocker. During her second set it was obvious she had many fans in the room, as members of the audience kept calling out names of songs they wanted to hear. Gilkyson, in turn, kept forgetting the songs that had been requested, prompting the audience to once again yell out. She played most of the requests, peppering the set with a few of her own choices. The first audience request she played was the song Cost. She also played two stand-outs, The Ballad of Yvonne Johnson and Jebediah. Yvonne Johnson goes back to the social commentary roots of folk music as far as both music and content, having been written about a Canadian woman who was raped and abused throughout her life and is now in prison for the murder of her husband. Jebediah is also a true story. The song is about a relative of Gilkyson's who was a general in the Revolutionary War. All of the lyrics come straight from letters he wrote to his father while at Valley Forge. Gilkyson closed the night with, Calm Before the Storm, off her new album, introducing it as a "honky tonk song for days to come."
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he mention of open mic nights often causes chills and shudders to run down the spine of any intelligent and critical music fan. However, the open mic that set the mood of the night for Austin singer/songwriter, Eliza Gilkyson, at the Congregational Church of Huntington, a show sponsored by the Folk Music Society of Huntington, was actually, and surprisingly, good.
