(Milwaukee's
alt. weekly)Touring in support of Begonias, their brilliant album of timeless duets, Caitlin Cary & Thad Cockerell made a stop at one of Gil’s trademark street festivals last Saturday evening. After an overdue afternoon downpour gave way to clear skies, the post-bike-race entertainment took the spotlight.
Following sets by the Uptown Savages and Chicago’s Dolly Varden, Cary & Cockerell and band took the small stage—which could have been a flatbed pulled up for the grand opening of the new shopping center back in 1967. A perfect fit when considering the album recalls great country duos of the past—think of it as the next chapter in the saga that includes George & Tammy, Porter & Dolly and Gram & Emmylou.
In this post-MTV world of pop culture junk, it’s a novel idea for a pair of artists to rely on sheer talent and charisma. Cary & Cockerell dug into lyrical dialogues and harmony vocals that told stories recalling the songs of Jimmy Webb and the heyday of Nashville’s initial forays into pop music. But it wasn’t all pop. The interplay among Cary’s violin, Cockerell’s acoustic guitar and Rich Gilbert’s pedal steel was a lesson in organic interplay.
“Conversations About a Friend” and “Something Less Than Something More” offered non-judgmental fly-on-the-wall observations of life unfolding. “Please Break My Heart” took the country weeper route, while “Party Time” and “Don’t Make it Better” recalled the sounds of vintage honky-tonk and Bakersfield. Elsewhere, gospel sat alongside a textbook country-soul cover of Percy Sledge’s “Warm and Tender Love.” They finally laid their cards on the table, encoring with Bob Dylan’s “Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You.”
Certainly the perfect weather nudged the mood, but a clearly impressed Cockerell recalled a previous visit here when fans waited for the rain to stop so the music could begin. Cary was more succinct, proclaiming Milwaukee as “the coolest city not in the South.”
—Blaine Schultz