Review: JEFF DANIELS A Revelation at 54 Below

In April, I attended a performance at 54 Below, and, in the days following the show, a tsunami of life swept me off track and out of my lane, and, before I knew it, a month had gone by and I had not written the review.  I felt terrible about it because (first) the club gave me that ticket and I never welched on a review before and (second) I couldn’t stop thinking about the show.  I couldn’t stop talking about the show!  Before I knew it, so much time had passed that it just seemed impossible to turn in a story so very late, but I kept thinking about how hard I had responded to the show.  So I emailed the powers that be at 54 Below to ask if they thought there was any benefit in a much belated review, and they wrote back, “YEAH, we wanna see that review!”  (In my head, it sounded just like Eric Cartman.)   So, with apologies for my tardiness and gratitude to the fine folk at 54B, I have a few words to say about the Jeff Daniels show.  I hope everyone finds them as enjoyable to read and I will find them to write.

I wasn’t prepared for how good the Jeff Daniels show was going to be.   Since my teenage years I have had an obsession with famous actors who also had singing careers, collecting albums by Sissy Spacek, Albert Finney, Cheryl Ladd, and Linda Carter (during those teen years) and (as an adult) Mare Winningham, Minnie Driver, Jeff Bridges, and William Shatner (don’t knock William Shatner - his album Has Been is a work of art).  Over the years, some of these actors turned singers didn’t quite ignite, while others made a respectable go of it, so when I saw that Mr. Daniels was doing a show at 54B, I jumped at it.  I knew he played music because of the TV show The Newsroom (which I watch from start to finish at least once a year) - you can tell that he’s not faking it in that program, that he’s a real musician.  But I just didn’t know how great he was going to be - and although I can be prone to hyperbole, I mean it when I say he was great.  Underline and bold it.

First of all, Mr. Daniels' program was made up of compositions by himself.  Check one.  There is nothing (NOTHING) like hearing and seeing a performer tell the stories that they wrote, but this was one of those times when it was particularly satisfying.  The melodies were a mixture of beautiful and intricate, the lyrics were pure poetry, and the storytelling was exquisite, and a big part of the whole aesthetic was the ineffable quality of Jeff Daniels only to be described as ironically laid back.   The Emmy Award winner simply strolled up to the Stage Holding his guitar, took a pause, and then opened up his arms as if to say, “Well, I’m here,” and for seventy-five minutes he played his songs and told us the stories behind the songs - how they were created, what they meant to him, adventures they had brought him, visibility they had brought his music, and always with that laid back, ironic Jeff Daniels style, sometimes benevolently looking the audience members directly in the eye, sometimes tongue planted firmly in cheek, but always, always, always authentically himself.   One wonders if, away from the roles he inhabits as an actor, Jeff Daniels has always known exactly who he is/was and been able to embody that.  Many of us did not have that wisdom and luxury in our youth.  Mr. Daniels seems, from the fourth row of a cabaret room, like the type who did.  Factually, it would be a pleasure to sit for a Jeff Daniels storytelling show… but a show with music is inarguably the best.

Now, about the music.   Jeff Daniels is a WONDERFUL musician, and in that one word I mean, the guitar playing, the singing, the songwriting, and the acting that goes into his songs.  Listening to him perform these musical stories, I had visions of the storytelling of Carson McCullers and Jack Kerouac.  I had visuals in my head of groundbreaking films from the Seventies by Peter Bogdanovich and Robert Altman.  There is a singular quality to these songs that is built on the triumvirate of melody, poetry, and humanity.  Mr. Daniels has tunes brewing from a place that seems most properly detailed as the soul, lyrics melding equal parts emotion and intellect, and storytelling that savors of both honesty and heart.  This isn’t acting, it isn’t on his face, it is entirely in the quality of his voice and the feelings that he layers into every sentence sung, every stanza performed, every tale told, whether the feelings are imbued with pathos or hilarity.  You can’t help but wish that, after ten albums, he were as famous for his music as he is for his movies, because this is stuff everyone should hear.  

Particular highlights in the Jeff Daniels set (this is not a cabaret show - it’s like a roadhouse set, a coffee shop set, a living room concert) were “The Dirty Harry Blues” (which is fun to listen to online, but, in person, you have the pre-song anecdote), a song rich with lyrics both relaxed and sophisticated, “When My Fingers Find Your Strings” (again, heightened by the Kelly Clarkson preamble), a woeful and wonderful “Grandfather’s Hat” that made me scribble on my pad, “I need a J.D. album” - again, he has ten on Spotify (link HERE).  There is poetry and profundity in “Are You As Excited (About Me As I Am)” and incredible (inCREDIBLE) guitar playing during “Real People, Not Actors,” and impeccably orated stories about Lanford Wilson, Ryan Reynolds, Esther Williams, Margaret O’Brien, and the adventures Mr. Daniels has had in show business, as well as the lessons he has learned (I will never recover from his turn of phrase “the stench of ambition”).  It has to be said that the Lanford Wilson collaboration "Roadsigns" is next-level, and no mistake.  There really aren’t enough superlatives to say how great this night out was - but the truth is, I don’t think Jeff Daniels wants or cares about superlatives.  From those seventy-five minutes in a room with this present-day troubadour, all I can think he cares about is this:  Dangnab, was this satisfying musical storytelling.  I have spent these last three months listening to the Jeff Daniels catalogue on Spotify, calling up his videos on YouTube, and wishing for another chance to see him perform live.  This is cabaret and concert for lovers of true storytelling.  If you get the chance, go.  I hope you get the chance.

Find great shows to see on the 54 Below website HERE.

Visit the Jeff Daniels music website HERE.

Photos by Stephen Mosher