La. performers share spotlight

• By JOHN WIRT
• Advocate music critic
• Published: Jul 4, 2009 - Page: 3B

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Four Louisiana singer-songwriters, each taking turns in performances of their original material, shared the stage Thursday night for a special evening at the Manship Theatre.

Joe Stark, a 27-year-old singer-songwriter from Houma, demonstrated his pop-rock tunesmith skills and expressive singing.

Kristin Diable, 26, a Baton Rouge native based in New Orleans, brought her earthy sound to the evening.

C.C. Adcock, a member of the multigenerational supergroup Lil’ Band O’ Gold and leader of the Lafayette Marquis, made the connection between his Louisiana-music foundation and such roots-music-connected stars as Robert Plant.

And leave it to Larry Garner, a great Baton Rouge blues artist, to illustrate the fact that Adam and Eve are ideal material for a blues song.

Stark opened the show with “Independence Day,” a passionate love song that straddles soul and country.

Up next, Diable veered into Southern-drawl affectation during “Sister Sadie” but the performance nevertheless dripped with humid Southland flavor.

Garner began with “Juke Joint Woman,” a funny, sharply observant song inspired by one of his many nights at the original Tabby’s Blues Box and Heritage Hall on North Boulevard.

Authorities ripped the old Blues Box down, Garner mentioned wryly, so they could build a street nobody uses.

Staying with place-based songs, Adcock followed Garner with a rolling boogie, “Maison Creole,” featuring lyrics about a hop spot where ladies and lovers congregated before the venue was, like the Blues Box, demolished into history.

Diable ventured in Southern literary territory with “Poor Boy,” a character song about an unfortunate soul who has little more than his shoes and his Bible. Another Diable song, the lovely, haunted “Gypsy Queen,” was among her most effective, and clearly sung, turns of the night.

Stark, after describing his selection “Savannah” as a stalker song, gave it a killer performance.

Garner and his “Dog House Blues” extracted loads of humor from a bad situation (of his admittedly own making) and Adcock celebrated the joys of being a rock ’n’ roll musician in his “Stealin’ All Day.”