As previously covered and discussed throughout the past months, Baltimore’s best radio station – WTMD – brings six acts to a mini-festival in Canton on the first Thursday of every month during the summer season (May to September). This month featured a diverse run of acts, including the legendary funk/soul of Robert Randolph and the Family Band, the indie power-pop of Super City, the polished timelessness of Hollis Brown, the rock and roll of Emily Wolfe, and the impossibly effervescent Devon Gilfillian and his band.
West Stage
Robert Randolph and the Family Band
Robert Randolph has played the pedal steel for 25 years, give or taking a few months. Born and raised in the Pentecostal Sacred Steel tradition –in which the pedal steel replaces the organ – Randolph never knew the secular scene he’s come to dominate, learning first by watching players at church. Music soaked in faith grows a little differently, its branches familiar to those of us who’ve spent lives in search of revelation; that air of epiphany permeates Robert Randolph’s music, which oozes with funk, soul, and something that feels a little like gospel.
Robert Randolph and the Family Band brought their revival to Baltimore under a tent of clouds. Vocals soared and guitars roared into the night sky, baptizing Baltimore in a sea of sound. Greg Ormont of Pigeons Playing Ping Pong jumped onstage to riotous applause, joining the band for a cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Good Times, Bad Times”.
Super City
Super City returned to the First Thursday stage for the second time this year, having played the rain-soaked July edition. The Baltimore-based band brought their brand of indie-pop to the Waterfront, their wild playing bursting forth with effervescent joy. With two frontmen trading time in the spotlight – Greg Wellham and Dan Ryan – Super City feels like a fully formed band with all of the personality to take over the music world. I hear and see plenty of influences, from Bowie and Mercury to Matt Shultz and Beck. Definitely a band to watch. Their shows are absurdly fun.
Emily Wolfe
Close to 25 years since first picking up a guitar, a little more than a half-decade into her music career, Emily Wolfe strolled onto the West Stage in the early evening glow. Long established as a live wizard, Wolfe’s brand of stomping rock and blues blended with pop hooks hit Baltimore like a punch. Touring her newest album (released in February of this year and recorded with Alabama Shakes’ Ben Tanner) – different than past releases – the band around her lifted her choruses into these massive things, catchy and irresistible. She shreds like nobody else who hit the stage this year at the Waterfront, even treating the audience to a Motörhead cover.
Wolfe and her band will be back to the area in February at the Weinberg Center in Frederick, MD. Definitely don’t miss it.
Maryland’s Best Seafood & Agriculture Stage
Hollis Brown
A rock and roll band from Queens named after a Dylan song. In and of itself, that descriptor tells a story. For better or for worse, it goes a long way to describe their sound, steeped deeply in the interplay of strong songwriting and that New York rock and roll that has shaped at least two generations of sound. If you hear plenty of Velvet Underground (and I do), well, good on ya; Hollis Brown covered the seminal record Loaded for a Lou Reed benefit show and then released a cover album for Record Store Day. If you hear plenty of Dylan and maybe some of The Band and even whatever we’re supposed to call Americana, well just as good on ya. They deliver hear, too. Hollis Brown definitely traffics in a wide range of rock and roll sounds, showing a range seen less often in recent years.
The band arrived in Baltimore touring their newest record, Ozone Park (released in June), which well-captures their approach to music, their wide-ranging sound. They played a set of songs mostly featuring Ozone Park, including the stellar “Do Me Right” and a cover of Jesse Malin’s “She Don’t Love Me Now” (those falsetto harmonies, man). It became clear within moments that Hollis Brown is a live band first, recording band second; they possess a well-honed edge to their music that is best captured live.
Devon Gilfillian
Devon Gilfillian has a voice that can change the world, and he has the heart and swagger to match it. He struts around the stage as readily and easily as Bono and Hendrix, kilowatt smile glowing, massive voice exploding. The music possesses a kind of timelessness, his lyrics an easy familiarity; Devon still manages to address the present, to maintain a conversation relevant to the modern era. He writes about love – good and bad – and he sings about society, life, and what it is to be human. He doesn’t shy away from ehady topics, delving into conversations about place and race. And through it all, he and the band around him compel the audience to listen, to dance, and to join together. This is the real magic of Devon Gilfillian. He makes it easy to live in the present.
It’s not a stretch to say I’m more excited about his new album than many coming out in the next year. Please, please go see him sing his songs, along with Jonathan Smalt on drums, Taylor Thompson on bass, and Carson Cody on the keys. They combine to embody impossible joy.
Reality Jones
The winners of WTMD’s Block Party, Reality Jones opened the Agricultural stage. They delivered their brand of harmonies, hard rock, and an emphasis on instrumentation to an engaged and willing audience. There is something impossibly special about being able to see a band move from a small-time audience to a big stage, and they more than delivered a performance to prime the Canton audience.
