We walked into Union Collective, its wide open spaces, expansive rafters, and industrial chic style inviting in the way few other places cannot hope to match. Charming, still, but not so dingy as the clubs we music fans so often inhabit; it does not hide in the darkness or paint its world black. Cris Jacobs strolls around the stage, guitar strapped, smile painting his face. Maybe five people mill around the space, beaming at this little serendipity – a Friday night beer matched, maybe unintentionally, with muscular grooves and hinted jams.
Jacobs rules the Baltimore roots scene, having ascended some point in the last decade or two (peep The Bridge reunion happening at Charm City Bluegrass Festival!), though especially in the last few years. Following opportunities to open for Steve Winwood and Sturgill Simpson and the release of Dust to Gold in 2016, the seeds of his music spread far and wide, attracting a legion of fans to his songs like honeybees to a clover field. Brimming with soul-stirring verses and foot-stomping grooves, Jacobs displayed his alchemical qualities, fusing the soul, gospel, country, blues, and rock and roll to into a gold-spun synesthesia that redefines what it is to feel music in your bones, if only for the time it plays. When given the chance to see him live, this sound expands to include blazing guitar jams (and sometimes duels), and his voice soars higher and lower with gritty grace.
But this night, it’s not Dust to Gold he’s here to release (though those songs will certainly feature); with new album Color Where You Are released just that morning, Cris checks the sound and the lights for a celebration, a kind of party packed with as many new and old songs as he and his band can ripple into existence. Eventually, Union filtered everyone outside to wait in line before entering, putting on the finishing touches for the night’s show.
The line filled quickly, voices creating a clamor and clangor, fans eager to get inside to see Baltimore’s favorite son sing his new songs. Some people talked about the album, having listened to it on streaming services during the day, whereas others expressed wanting to hear the songs fresh, to fall in love in a fit of surprising passion. I confess I fell in the first group, already able to sing along with half the album.
As the doors open, the crowd disperses, some heading to the stage to wait or stake out a spot, others to the beer or food, and yet others to the merch table to buy the new record. Eventually, everyone has a beer, either from the standard taps or the special taps (I always favor the latter, drinking the rye stout and dark saison, both delicious). Adam Wainwright opened the show, warming the stage with his slow burning rasp that improved with each song.
By the time Jacobs and his band came onto the stage, the raucous crowd had filled in Union, pushing to the stage for a chance to see him. He shouted hello, took a seat, and picked up his cigar box guitar to begin “Under the Big Top” off Color Where You Are, a commentary about society’s devolution into gullibility in the face of social media, all resting over a thick bass line and razor riffs. The crowd went wild seconds later as they glide forward to “Turn Into Gold”, his song about tapping into the musical muse. He and the band thunder through solos throughout the set, sometimes dueling, others just reveling in the glory of their shared gifts.
Throughout the course of the show, Jacobs and the band played every song off Color Where You Are, as well as a baker’s dozen of older cuts. The audience recalled their footsteps and danced furrows into the smooth concrete on now standbys like “Delivery Man”, “Jack the Whistle and the Hammer”, “The Devil or Jesse James” (always a personal favorite), and “Bone Digger,” as well as a host of classic covers like “I Am the Walrus”, “Ice Cold Daydream”, and “Ohoopee River Bottomland”.
Even still, though, the night featured the new songs. From single “Painted Roads” and its air of mindfulness, its call to staying in the present moment – to enjoy life – to the funky grooves of “Rooster Coop”, a song about a barnyard tryst, these new songs brought life and clarity so rarely recognized on a stage. “Buffalo Girl”, a billowing country song, slowed down the pace – necessary in the middle of a marathon set like this – but the set is defined by other kinds of thoughtful moments, like the careful but direct “Afterglow”, a stunner of a song, critical, but still hopeful and empowering. Or the easy beauty of “Hold Close These Things” and the jaunty joy of “Night Birds”. Live, and as one might have expected, “Holler and Hum” evoked a carefree world and lent itself to immediate singalongs and unrestrained hands in the air, beer soaking the floors and a handful of dancing shoulders.
Jacobs talked to the audience a few times, about his band, about Baltimore, about Union and his buddy who made the brewery real, all begun on a couch across from him back in 2011. Now, just like Jacobs has become a national brand, so too has Union become the beer of Baltimore, slowly spreading its craft across the States. Theirs is a special kind of connection.
That connection expanded to include the audience, who all reached out, in their own ways, too Jacobs and his band. They reveled in the songs, his music, in his messages, his joy.
Jacobs will be playing some shows at the Soundry in June, as well as opening for scene stalwarts Greensky Bluegrass on August 1 at MECU Pavilion. Please go see him. He is walking revelation.
