Cornmeal @ The Bluebird, courtesy of Rex Thomson, FestivalFamily.com
Allie Kral, Cornmeal, courtesy of Rex Thomson, FestivalFamily.com
Cornmeal, courtesy or Rex Thomson, FestivalFamily.com
Thursday night, February 18, Cornmeal, the jam-rock-bluegrass band, played a concert at The Bluebird in Bloomington. And if you think getting kicked in the teeth is a good time, then Cornmeal left me with a slack-jawed toothless grin.
This was only my second Cornmeal concert, and they seemed right at home at The Bluebird, Bloomington’s famous venue for rock ‘n’ roll since 1973. Before that The Bluebird was an old biker bar, and the walls are covered with some fascinating memorabilia from the decades worth of musicians who played there. I arrived early and had a chance not only to stare at the walls, but also to talk with some of the band members.
“Wavy” Dave Burlingame, banjo player, said that this show marked the end of their three week vacation and the beginning of their next set of shows where they will travel to Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois. Three weeks is a long time away from the road for Cornmeal. John-Paul Nowak, drummer, said they played 160 shows last year. If you add up the traveling time it takes to crisscross the country, that’s an impressive amount of work. Talking to the band, one word kept coming to mind—professional. This band works as hard as they jam. It’s no wonder that their latest CD release, “Live in Chicago, Volume I,” wasn’t created in a studio but from a collection of recordings at their “home” concert venue, Martyr’s Nightclub in Chicago.
The opening band, New Old Calvary, was a young group intent on producing traditional bluegrass music. Their all-string lineup included an acoustic guitar, upright bass, banjo, slide guitar, mandolin and fiddle. John-Paul Nowak referred to them as “the local flavor,” which cracked me up. I believe they passed around the whiskey jar one too many times before the show, but Old New Calvary still brought people to the dance floor.
By the time Cornmeal took the stage, the crowd had grown to about 250 and more continued pack The Bluebird all night long. Many of their loyal fans had driven in from Kentucky, Ohio, Illinois and elsewhere to see the concert.
The reason Cornmeal has such loyal fans is the unique sound that they have been developing through the last decade of performances. The rhythm is produced by Chris Gangi who plays an electric upright bass and John-Paul Nowak on drums. His brother, Kris Nowak, is on guitar and takes turns leading the songs with Wavy’s Banjo and Allie Kral on fiddle. In my opinion, and not to belittle the huge talent of the others, it is Kral’s fiddle that unifies Cornmeal’s long jams into something magical. The crowd, and Kral herself, dances with her bow, swinging their hips and stomping their feet. Cornmeal didn’t beat a dead horse, they just rode it hard up “High on a Mountain,” back down into “Valley of the jig,” and put it away wet in the “River Gap.”
The vocals are shared by all with some amazing harmonies thrown in at just the right times. Kris Nowak sang some of the more mellow ballads while Wavy took the lead with a vocal style that lends itself well to old-fashioned bluegrass—think young Bill Monroe.
One highlight for me was a great cover of Paul Simon’s “I Know What I Know” off the Graceland album. And their encore was an unexpected and well-received “Rocky Raccoon” by the Beatles.
All I could nitpick from the concert is their tempo seemed to accidentally slow down a couple times, but for the vast majority of the show they would jump from first to fourth gear and then slam on the breaks, demonstrating their control over the adoring crowd. The only thing that miffed me was getting attacked by dread-headed patchouli monsters on the dance floor—usually at the climax of a song. But those creatures thrive off of good high-energy jams, and Cornmeal fed them plenty.
For the set list see the picture I took of Cornmeal’s dry-erase board. I think it’s only missing “Valley of the Jig” from the first set and the encore, “Rocky Raccoon.” I also want to thank Rex Thomson from FestivalFamily.com who was there with a much better camera than mine and kindly shared some of his photos for this article.
