August 18, 2006

I have seen Steve Oliver twice this year in settings that were polar opposites; a huge outdoor festival in a big city and an intimate concert in a smaller town. Both times the effect has been the same; he has the crowd mesmerized and amazed that so much music can come from one person. Onstage it's just him, a percussionist and the Carvin Guitar Synthesizer that he designed. It's a beautiful instrument that seems like a physical extension when he is playing it. What he does with just his voice (voices would be more like it), the guitar and some crafty effects proves that technology doesn't have to compromise musicianship. In the right hands it just adds more tools to the toy box. Like the best singer/songwriters on the acoustic circuit, Steve Oliver can hold you in a song.

Like a lot of local and regionally promoted concerts these days, this one was held in one of the larger meeting rooms at a hotel.  The atmosphere was casual and the crowd was small, mostly due to weather and the fact that Gainesville is a college town on the last week of summer break. Everyone got to sit close enough to see how animated and into it he is throughout the show. Between the guitar synth and Oliver's ability to vocally imitate musical instruments, it sounded like he had a five piece band onstage with him. Eager to show us what the new guitar could do, he colored the songs with with orchestral shadings and multi-instrumental effects. Every song was a highlight: the bouncy "Chips and Salsa" with Steve's trademark vocalese, the sleek speedy fretwork on "Good 2 Go," a jazzed up version of "Midnight At The Oasis" that sounds totally different from the version he recorded and features a trumpet solo by Steve, sans trumpet. "Walking," his get out into the crowd song, has him playing in the same league as McFerrin and Jarreau, singing all over his range and creating a synthesized vocal chorus that sounds like Take 6. Percussionist Humberto Vela was engaging and entertaining throughout, keeping the backbeat going and stepping out to do the fun stuff, which means he got to walk around the stage and bang on things. His most inventive moment was an extended solo on a boxlike instrument that he must have pulled 100 different sounds from.

Instrumentally, Steve Oliver is amazing. His guitar work is complex but he makes it look effortless and fluid. Still, when he sings, you want him to jump onto the singer/songwriter track. His vocals aren't incidental. He has a voice that is agile, expressive and melodic with just enough roughness to keep things interesting. Hearing him sing the sixties nugget "For What It's Worth" is to hear the song transformed. "Show You Love," with its irresistible jazzed up hook, sounds like those songs George Benson used to do back when Jay Graydon was producing him. "Radiant Dreams" is just spellbinding. Lyrically he has tapped into something a lot of us feel and vocally he completes the connection. Although he doesn't sing on his acoustic version of "Imagine" his playing is so expressive you can practically hear the words.

When I saw him at a festival last April, the couple sitting next to me were completely overwhelmed. They had never seen him before and they were wide-eyed through the whole set. During the standing ovation the guy turned to me and said "I don't believe what I just saw." I know the feeling. I've seen him quite a few times over the last 10 years and every time I see him that's exactly what I say.

- Shannon West