Tuesday right before five o'clock my friend Max called me and asked me to accompany him to see Edie Brickell at the Moore. It has been years since I'd heard anything about her so of course I was very interested and intrigued. She's been raising her family (three children by Paul Simon) and has matured both musically and emotionally by all accounts.

When Max dropped by my apartment before the show I found out the invitation was offered by a co-worker who knew Edie personally and included a backstage pass. Someone commented that Ms. Brickell had appeared that afternoon on The Mountain to promote the show and had hoped to fill the Moore.

The opener for the show was this cute sixteen year-old canadian with just a steel string guitar. His name is Kyle Riabko and as soon as he struck his first few notes on his guitar I knew this was going to be a very special evening. If Edie had this boy as her headliner, I figured she was pretty confident in her own prowess. His voice was high, clear and sexy. His guitar licks were carried off by a skill of someone three times his age. His diction style was something this side of Billie Holliday and Bessie Smith, but he sounds like a young Al Jerreau. I say that because in the chorus of his song "Estrogen", I was hearing him sing about "Ass & Sloe Gin", which tells you more about my own state of mind at the time. He sang with the authority and confidence of someone in love with music and with an electricity that had the audience clapping and singing along with him by the end of his set.

I had to pick up his EP which definately does him justice, but misses some of the intensity of his performance. I'm going to watch him for the next few years because he will doubtless improve with age. Right now he's singing about the joys of sex with older women. What could he sing aboout with some mellowing?

The mood for the evening was set. By the time Edie showed up on stage we were ready for a rollicking good time. Edie was a bit nervous at first but once she had her first ovation she warmed up and made some attempt to joke with the audience. You get a very immediate impression that she is at her best when she is singing and playing guitar. Public speaking is not something she is very comfortable with. Even so, by the end of the first hour she told a very personal story regarding one of her newly written songs which only enhanced its poinancy.

Her band is awesome. For starters she's hired Charlie Sexton on lead guitar. He makes his guitar sing like a bird. It doesn't hurt that his looks haven't mellowed much. He's more drop-dead handsome than I remember when he was doing his badboy rocker routine back in the early ninties. The other players she's worked with before and it turns out her drummer was her son's drumming instructor.

After the show we were ushered back to Edie's dressing room which at the Moore was pretty bare-bone exposed concrete. She was very gracious and talked about her family and plans for the tour. She seems very dedicated to her family, while still retaining a shy quality that speaks to the truth in her music. It is hard to think of her as being Mrs. Paul Simon because her music has its own identity and she hasn't lost any of that through the years.

There was a notice on the Rolling Stone website which lists the cities she will be performing in. I was very disappointed to find out she will not be returning to Seattle. I guess I will have to satisfy myself by running out and buying her newest release, "Volcano".

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/newsarticle.asp?nid=19452