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SXSW review: Foster & Lloyd
Everybody knows ‘em—the old, long-estranged college buddies who show up out of the blue. And suddenly the years slip away, the old stories sound fresh again, and it seems like only a day or two has gone by.
Thus it was when Radney Foster and Bill Lloyd made a rare joint appearance in the warm and woody confines of the Saxon Pub on Wednesday night.
Foster & Lloyd had their heyday in the brief singer/songwriter renaissance that flowered in Nashville in the mid-1980s. A pair of uncommonly literate and melodic songwriters, they became more than the proverbial sum of their parts when they joined forces. Along with a slew of songwriters and performers (an uncommon number of whom, like Radney Foster, hailed from Texas), including Steve Earle, Lyle Lovett, Nanci Griffith, Rodney Crowell and Rosanne Cash, they notched up a series of insanely catchy hooks before the remorseless homogenization of Music City marketing ground the last sparks of idiosyncrasy out of mainstream country music.
Foster, with his wavy hair and Buddy Holly glasses, had the more overtly successful commercial career; Lloyd went off (on friendly terms with his amigo) in more esoteric directions. But the two reunited for a benefit in Nashville, started writing songs, and recorded a soon-to-be-released album appropriately titled “It’s Already Tomorrow.”
And, judging by the performances rendered onstage Wednesday by the pair playing as an acoustic duo, it’s a peach.
Even unaccompanied by a rhythm section, the title track surged with Everly-esque harmonies and insanely catchy melodic hooks.
Little lyrical keepers popped up like raisins in a cake: “Let me help you out of that Freudian slip”; “Let your brain go on vacation/Let your body do the rest”; “That clown you just quit/Was not your best fit.” It sounds simple until you try to do it.
Of course, time does take its toll, even among friends. “We’ve been trying to remember the words earlier today,” said Bill Lloyd as the duo prepared to essay “Hard To Say No” from their 1985 debut album. “I’ve got a little cheat sheet down here, but I can’t see it anyway. I’m blind by now.”
Insofar as it matters, Foster took most of the lead vocals and Lloyd played most of the lead guitar parts. But there were delightful moments of interplay as when the pair slipped from their own “What Do You Want From Me This Time” and into its musical cousin, the Beatles’ “I Feel Fine.”
The two finished up with power-charged, Chuck Berry-flavored acoustic version of the title track from their 1989 album, “Faster and Louder,” that dead-solid rocked the house. Some old friends — and some songs — never age.
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