by Judy Speltz
This past week, Paul and I caught Ruthie Foster playing at the Dakota Jazz Club in downtown Minneapolis. It’s a small venue — a restaurant with less than 350 seats around a small stage. It reminds me of the “MTV Unplugged” set— but with food and wine, and room to dance if the mood moves you, but cozy.
Judy Speltz of ANTICABLES with Jack Broadbent
Prior to the show, the manager always comes out to engage the audience in conversation and promote upcoming shows. This particular night, he said “we have a surprise”. A slender young man with long hair and a beard/mustache sauntered out on stage holding a pint and introduced himself with a British accent as Jack Broadbent. He then sat down on his small amp, lay his electric guitar on his lap, grabbed the silver whiskey flask he uses for a slide, and put the audience at attention with the first pluck of the strings.
If music were static, then we were all clinging to the whip of his wrist as the whiskey flask traveled up and down the neck of his guitar. I think we were in disbelief for a minute, but soon surrendered to the trance we found ourselves in.
Lucky for us, Jack had just finished a tour with Peter Frampton, and after ringing up someone in the Twin Cities, we found him playing ahead of Ruthie Foster that night. We’ve come to learn that Broadbent has already made quite a name for himself, starting on Youtube playing on the streets of London and Amsterdam. I guess Paul and I are late to the party — but if you haven’t heard of him either, familiarize yourself with this man cause he ain’t goin’ no where but up!
Ruthie Foster is no stranger to fame. She’s been singing since she was a young girl — at 14 Ruthie was the soloist in the church choir. If you Wikipedia Ruthie, her accolades are numerous, too many to mention here. It was a beautiful evening of music from Ruthie and her band. Ruthie’s gospel background flavors all her music and keeps you firmly connected to her southern roots. It was our first time seeing Ruthie, a woman who has been compared to the great Aretha Franklin. It was one of those evenings where you feel so damn lucky.
