Richard Buckner's show last night at Davey's Uptown had no opening act. There was no stage banter. He simply took the stage and played continuously, his set clocking in at a little under two hours. Armed with four guitars and a looping pedal, each song bled into the next, and with the chords from the previous song still ringing out and repeating, Buckner would set down his guitar, pull out a new one, tune it accordingly, and launch into a new song before the music faded out.
Buckner released his debut album, Bloomed, in 1994, and in his eight albums since, he's quietly and consistently produced wonderful, captivating folk music. He writes carefully crafted songs about travel and heartbreak, sometimes with a full band, but most often with spare arrangements. These arrangements, an acoustic guitar accompanied by a shaker or an accordion, do well to highlight his singular voice, which is an instrument in its own right.
I was introduced to Richard Buckner when I was an impressionable freshman at KU, and I kept a few tracks on my computer and promptly forgot about him. Five years later, and no longer a freshman, I rediscovered Buckner's music shuffling through the stacks at KJHK, and I've had his songs on repeat ever since. Over the past year he's been the soundtrack to many long drives across the Ozarks and many late nights in architecture studio.
Buckner's songs are expansive. The names of highways turn up without reference to any specific place. These songs could happen anywhere on that stretch of road, with only a number -- southbound 22, a stretch of 99 -- to give any reference. The central theme of much of his music is the need to move away, to move on, and the songs are downright heartbreaking.
Looking grizzled and road weary, Buckner played his songs with the same precision and emotion displayed on his recordings. The night was a display of guitar wizardry, as he mixed both slow and rapid finger picking with forceful, rhythmic strumming. His voice was equally effective in falsetto or low growls, and though Buckner doesn't sound much like Tom Waits, he uses his voice in a similar way, bringing home the material with his distinct delivery.
The set spanned most of his albums, and I caught songs from his early releases Bloomed, Devotion + Doubt, and Since that mixed well with his newer material and his most recent album, Meadow.
Davey's had a good crowd for a Monday night, and after Buckner left the stage, they launched into one of the longest cheers I've ever heard for an encore, clapping and stomping like some bad version of "We Will Rock You."
When he returned, however, he didn't take the stage again, he only stopped to talk graciously to people in the crowd.
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