Chris Isaak

Tonight's Chris Isaak concert was great! It made me very happy. The beautiful Louisville Palace brings out the best in performers. For various reasons, I was 20 minutes late and might have missed him singing some of my favorites, but I did see him perform his two biggest hits ("Wicked Game" and "Baby Did a Bad, Bad Thing"). Basically it seems the first 45 minutes of the show was devoted to his most well known original songs, then another 45 minutes devoted to '50s and '60s era Sun Studios classics (apparently the theme of his most recent album, which I have shamefully not yet investigated), then a 20-minute encore of more Sun covers, ended by an acoustic performance of his touching '90s song "Forever Blue". There were a few Christmas tunes sprinkled in, including his original "Washington Square" tribute to our armed forces from a couple of years ago, plus a cover of the Willie Nelson classic "Pretty Paper" from 50 years ago. Chris Isaak is a multi-talented singer-songwriter in the rockabilly tradition, practically a modern day Roy Orbison whose music (along with that of Elvis, Johnny Cash, and Jerry Lee Lewis) he makes no secret of admiring and emulating. It was not a surprise that he would put on such an entertaining show, but a welcome reminder of why he is one of my favorite musicians.