WHAT I LISTENED TO ON JUNE 12, 2014-MARC COHN

Last Thursday night (June 12, 2014), I went to see Marc Cohn at the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix.

Marc Cohn

While I own all of Marc's albums (big suprise there, huh?), I, like you, am mostly familiar with his signature song, "Walking In Memphis."


Add to that the fact that I'd not listened to any of his music in quite some time (meant to try that week but never seemed to get around to finding the CD's and they're not up on my cloud drive yet), I was not sure what to expect.

I was seated in row K, but in the MIM, no seat is a bad seat (there are only 300). 

A gentleman came in and sat in the row in front of me, a few seats to my left. I felt bad because I was staring a little-he had sideburns in that distinctive style Nils Lofgren wears. 

In fact, he looked a lot like Nils Lofgren. I got a look that I took to mean "what're you lookin' at?" from him as he at down with his lady companion.


Marc came out accompanied by keyboardist Glen Patscha; Marc alternated between guitar and piano, while Glen played organ and piano.


After a few songs, they called Nils Lofgren to the stage.

See? They are distinctive sideburns!

As it turns out that there was a good reason the gentleman in front of me looked a lot like Nils Lofgren. He was Nils Lofgren! And me without my brand-spanking new Japanese pressing of Night After Night!

It dawned on me that he knew I'd recognized him and was waiting for me to say something, but alas, I am DiscConnected, Lord Of The Idiots.

Nils' guitar work really augmented the keys, and the show reached the ninety-minute mark (the norm for shows at the MIM) all too quickly.

Marc's voice was in excellent form, his between song patter was funny (not Todd Snider funny, but his self-deprecating humor kept things light) and the playing from all three musicians was excellent.

Marc has not been what you call prolific, with a mere five albums over the course of almost a quarter century, but his output certainly is an example of quality over quantity.

Here is the official video for his signature tune...

...and here is Walk Through The World, from his second album... 

All this listening to songs about walking is kind of making me tired, so I'll give you Listening To Levon next, a song he wrote about Levon Helm (may he rest in peace).

 Finally, I'd like to share a live clip from the Musical Instrument Museum. 

This clip is actually from Marc's 2013 MIM show, but gives you a sense of the intimacy of the hall and the performance.

As much as there is to poke fun of in and about Arizona, the MIM really is a treasure. If you are ever in town, I highly recommend you check it out! 

And if you can, see a show-the venue really is something else! Who knows? Maybe Marc will be in town...