Dave’s Photo Blog

Billy Beard

The July residency at the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge hosts two spectacular bands: Mia Dyson opening for Dennis Brennan. Mia Dyson is an Australian singer, songwriter and musician with tremendous talent who relocated to the United States earlier this year. She brought along her bassist, James Haselwood and sound man Lloyd Barratt. With Billy Beard joining on drums, Mia has a powerhouse trio that showcases her considerable talent. She has a fantastic voice and is equally impressive on guitar. And Dennis Brennan delivers captivating songs with some of Boston’s best musicians backing him: Duke Levine and Kevin Barry on guitar, Billy Beard drumming and Richard Gates on bass. This show is a must-see for any fan of roots or folk music in the Boston area, especially in an intimate setting like the Lizard Lounge. Even blues and country music fans will find something to like here.

I had not heard of Mia Dyson before I saw this show and it was a real treat. She is certainly far better known in her native country than in the United States even though she has won awards that span geographies. But in Australia, she’s opened for Eric Clapton and Bonnie Raitt, among others. Her father is a well known luthier – the guitar she is playing is a Jim Dyson guitar and it looks and sounds great. Mia plays a mix of folk and roots music with plenty of blues and country thrown in. And some of these songs rock pretty hard with good breaks and changes in them and rough and poignant lyrics. This is all brought together by her voice and her guitar work.

Billy Beard, Mia Dyson and James Haselwood

When I heard Mia for the first time, I immediately thought of Bonnie Raitt. I won’t compare the two directly except to say that they have similar level of ability when singing. That means that Mia can really sing, man. Her voice can be strong or smooth or rough or scratchy and with a broad range and really accurate pitch. She also has a beautiful vibrato to back all that up. And if that weren’t enough, her guitar is excellent as well. For her first song, With The Blue Sky, she sang and played guitar by herself and sounded absolutely great. That may seem obvious to some, but let me tell you it is really, really hard to pull that off. Her guitar was spot on – full of rich sounds to provide a pretty and big background for the vocals. Then James and Billy came on and things started to roll. She played a 12 song set firmly grounded in her second (Parking Lots) and third albums (Struck Down) with a few older songs as well. There’s a good mix of uptempo and slow songs and as you can see below, Mia also plays a pretty mean lap steel guitar on one of the latter. And although she didn’t play this one at the Lizard Lounge, her lap steel work on the song Down, from Parking Lots, is wonderful – slow, evocative and full of texture.

James Haselwood does a marvelous job of laying down the bass line and backup vocals as well. He’s got a very good presence on stage as well. Whether he’s moving around slowly in synchronization with the music or singing or interacting with Mia or Billy, he provides a critical part of this trio. For one, he’s the only other on-stage musician that came to the United States with Mia. I imagine he provides an important link back to the vibe that Mia’s band had in Australia as well as playing seamlessly with Mia’s guitar work. All that helps Billy Beard as well, given that he’s basically new to the music and had to learn fourteen or fifteen songs in short order.

Billy Beard is quite an accomplished drummer anyway, but I’m sure it’s much easier to get comfortable with the songs when the two you are playing with are tight. Billy sounded great playing with Mia and James. The photo below is classic Billy Beard. Eyes open, watching Mia for the changes and keeping time with a wide variety of techniques. By the way, I should point out that from here on out the photos are black and white. If you are wondering why, it’s basically because the light levels got so low that there are too many artifacts for color, but the “grain” that appears in a black and white print is still acceptable.

And this now brings us to Dennis Brennan. Dennis has been performing in the Boston scene for years and is one of the best performers in town. He gives it all for every song. The set list for Dennis was all over the map, loosely based in root music but with blues, jazz and many other influences mixed in. He’s a great songwriter and it shows – he won the best singer songwriter reader’s poll from the Boston Phoenix last hear. Songs like Everybody’s Running Away and When You Were Loving Him speak to situations most can identify with and they are also very well crafted. When played by his band, they really come alive, but more on that later. Dennis Brennan usually plays every Wednesday at the Lizard Lounge; occasionally he’s joined by long-time friend Peter Wolf.

One of the highlights of his first set was him bringing Mia Dyson and James Haselwood back on stage for a ripping version of Rock and Roll Doctor by Little Feat. And that’s something that really comes through in his performances – a musical form of generosity. He’s surrounded himself with some of the best performers in Boston and he is not shy about letting them play. He sings and plays guitar for many of the songs but lets his band loose, particularly Duke Levine and Kevin Barry, and he appears to genuinely enjoy the music that comes from those situation. And Dennis brings in a dedicated group of fans week after week. Some are so dedicated they even wear the same style hat to the show.

Now Duke Levine and Kevin Barry are both spectacular guitarists. They have different styles, though, with Kevin often playing the lap steel while Duke sticks to six and 12-string guitar. And these guys just play their heart out all night. Duke Levine played a solo during one song in the second set that was long and fast and was composed entirely of two note intervals with both notes usually played at the same time. At least, that’s what I think I heard. He is capable of just about any speed and complexity of solo and it just depends on the song and the moment as to what he plays. But when he wants to rock, he can just fling notes around the Lizard Lounge like nobody’s business. It’s a joy to watch, especially in a setting that intimate.

Kevin plays a more soulful style, especially on the lap steel. Don’t get me wrong, he can and does put fast, rocking solos together. But in many cases he plays more slowly but with really stellar articulation of each note. And his lap steel is really good too. He can slide a note up to pitch so slowly you’re hanging off the edge of your chair waiting for it to arrive. He gets a lot of opportunities to play the lap steel and also cranks out some pretty complex solos on it.

Mia Dyson and Dennis Brennan have two more dates when they play together: July 15th and July 22nd. Then she’s off to the West Coast and Canada for some dates out there. Dennis Brennan will be taking August off and then back at the Lizard Lounge on Wednesday’s in September. So get out and see these two great bands this month while you have a chance – you will not regret it.