Wowing the Crowd @ Beaner's One Week Live: Opening Night Delivers the Goods

Let's start with expectations. One Week Live is a series of six evenings of music with three groups each night except midweek's singer/songwriter competition and Friday's four-group menu. Last night's opening featured a set by Dan Dresser, solo guitar, followed by the trio One Less Guest and the wrap up by Jacob Mahon and the Salty Dogs. By evening's end there's little doubt every person in the room was feeling it, that sense that they'd witnessed something exceptional, that unless the earth is shattered by an asteroid we'll be hearing and reading more about these young people who poured themselves out to us tonight.

Dan Dresser, who has been part of the Beaners core from the beginning, or at least seems to have been, is a veteran here and pretty much a known commodity. He writes songs and performs in an easy-going, laconic manner, as if he doesn't have anything to prove. In his standard leather hat and jeans he opened with "Sad & Lonely Is Where You Are." From the start the audience was with him as he sang candidly about relationships and faltered love. "Lovin' you ain't easy on this far away island I've become." Another tune laments, "My heart's made up, I can't go back." The fully packed house was generous with applause, at times even hooting their approval, especially when he showed his vocal range, indicating they were fully engaged.

One Less Guest

The second set featured One Less Guest, a trio comprised of stand up bass, guitar and violin. They sand original songs that were resonating with the audience, opening with a gently flowing tune about Washburn County, followed by "Where You Are" with lyrics that went something like this."I want to bottle up the sunshine... mail it to you and make you smile." The voices blended with a sweet flavor that worked well in this beautiful story in song.

Amping it up a notch they had a mature sense of how to bring energy to their songs then pull back a bit and show their vocal skills, blended harmonies seasoned by the sounds of their instrumental accompaniments.

At one point Lauren Cooper's violin brought to mind Charlie Daniels' "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" and edged toward Scarlet Rivera's violin work on Dylan's album Desire. On stage, Nick Glass and Nick Muska served as bookends, the bass player occasionally using the bow and at times a fanciful finger-plucking style. They were a tight group and clearly in control as they went through their setlist, culminating in a fast kicker sound with awesome violin action, and amazing bass and guitar picking.

(L to R) Joseph Anderson, Adam Johnson, Camille Marston, Owen
Mahon on drum and Jacob far right on guitar.

Jacob Mahon & the Salty Dogs then filled the stage, the room itself bristling with anticipation. The young Mahon from Longville, Minnesota (population 156, outside Walker) has captured a lot of attention since he moved here a couple years back. I don't know if the group he's assembled at this time is going to be a permanent fixture in the Duluth scene, but their performance showed staying power with John Coltrane on sax, Miles on trumpet, Mingus on bass and Jacob's brother Owen on drums. (You'll have to sub a few names for the real team, but they showed some seriously smashing flourishes, tightly choreographed and spot on sophistication. Joseph Anderson, sax, Adam Johnson from upstate NY, bass; Camille Marston of Luck WI, drums; and the Mahons)

I first became aware of the young performer when he won the Duluth Dylan Fest singer/songwriter contest at Clyde Iron Works in May 2017. His confident stage presence and original song made an impression on the judges. I was unaware that the tall, lean and lanky kid from Walker had won the 2016 singer/songwriter competition here at Beaners in 2016. (Wednesday evening 20 competitors will vie for that honor here during One Week Live.)

Jacob Mahon

Before the show I got a few minutes with the now 19-year-old where I inquired about how he got into music. "My dad showed me a Bon Jovi video," he said. He took up the guitar and applied himself to the craft. "A guy (he shared the name but I didn't catch it) taught me chord progressions," he said, following on that by getting lessons. He arrived in Duluth in the Fall of 2016, just in time to make a splash.

He recently released a CD which got a blistering review from the DNT's Tony Bennett, emulating Greil Marcus' famous put down of Dylan's Self Portrait. Of course the daily newspaper can't print what Marcus really said, so he only repeated the first three words a half dozen times. "What is this?" Interestingly, the review didn't phase Jacob Mahon since Bennett didn't really try to understand what the artist was doing.

I asked what he's doing as regards school or work and he said, "I'm making a living doing music." He's been busking down on the Lakewalk through the summer and that's gone well. "My life is music. At this point I'm somewhat unemployable."

As a songwriter Mahon has drawn inspiration from Tom Waits, the Grateful Dead, Joni Mitchell and even some 90's Hip Hop, as well as Dylan, "Obviously." His commitment has been to the music, writing two to three days a week when not busking.

Jacob Mahon wore a white shirt and necktie for the show, with baggy tan shorts. Once the group was efficiently assembled onstage they sized up the space, looked to Jacob the cue and then let go with an uncorked energetic burst that seemed a cross between Tom Waits and the Talking Heads, the lead singer Mahon looking comfortable being over-the-top. It was fun watching them perform because Camille on trumpet couldn't keep a straight face, smiling broadly and almost on the verge of laughing at Jacob's antics. After the first number Jacob stated, "That was in G major," which --for this evening at least -- became his schtick.

A second tune followed and then a riff that showed their skill as a team. The fourth tune was another power blam, and the group was hitting on all cylinder, pure uninhibited power, and really tight. This song ended with Jacob saying, deadpan, "That's my brother on drums." It's no understatement to suggest the drummer could have been playing with Hendrix at one time.

The group wasn't all about instrumentals. Their fifth cut involved four-part harmonies as uplifting as the Fab Four in their day, with sax player Joseph Anderson switching it to clarinet. Jacob Mahon's humorous take on everything is woven throughout the performance, spliced into the lyrics with no sutures showing as he sings, "I am what I am... if you can't see the nice in the spice, don't go with habaneros."

He's ready.

Bro' Joseph has the humor thing as well, remarking at the end of that song, "This crowd is McDonalds." A beat. "I'm loving it."

The set list was comprised entirely of songs written by Jacob Mahon, the second half of the show including "Guillotine", "The Way I Am" and "It Only Comes To You in the Dead of Night." The second to last song was another four-part harmony that you could swim in just before the explosive summing up "Dead of Night" that concluded the show with several flourishes that showed an exceptional level of professionalism.

Afterwards I spoke with the 22-year-old trumpet player Camille Marston who said she's been playing since 6th grade. The group she'd been playing with before meeting Jacob here at Beaners was called The Skunch Brothers.

The feeling I had by night's end was something akin to when I saw Sly & the Family Stone back in the early 70's. Energy and harmonies, and a rollicking good time.

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Tonight is Day 2 of One Week Live at Beaners. You can review the full schedule for this week's OWL events here.