One-night-only live concert performance where all-star folk aristocracy old & new celebrated the music that inspired 'Inside Llewyn Davis" movie about early days of New York Greenwich Village. Contrary to a intensely gloomy movie (which I loved) music here is joyous, virtuosic and perhaps more in tune with what we expect folk scene might have been - for everybody who complained that movie presented those times as too dark and depressing, this concert will be a revelation because its all about camaraderie, togetherness and collaborations.
The idea behind the concert was to give each performers one old and one new song to show off their skills - that new songs often sound as they are ancient just proves that genre still has huge appeal and freshness, specially as this is mostly acoustic, kind of unplugged setting. As someone who had survived synthesisers and 1980s , to me this is surely wonderfully real music and no studio wizardry spoils effect of musicians creating magic on the spot. Apparently the audience shared my opinion because they yell, whoop and applaud the whole way trough the concert, it must have been great experience. There is a huge list of performers so it would be unfair to single out a particular name, however its a joy to hear people as awesome as Rhiannon Giddens whose passion and focus echo legendary Odetta. Obligatory cameo by elderly veterans (Joan Baez, Bob Neuwirth) are welcomed with great affection for what they once represented but at this point they are clearly past their prime and they can't match energy of their younger colleagues. Although at first it seems that Elvis Costello don't really belongs here, he is joy to hear as wonderful Oscar Isaac who was not only main focus of the movie but is actually surprisingly good singer. I dare anybody not to sing along when band joins him on refrain of "Hang Me, Oh Hang Me".
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