The legendary New York club The Living Room is in the middle of celebrating its 10th anniversary, five years at its present home on Ludlow St. and five at the original hole in the wall around the corner. A whole bunch of Living Room alumni have returned to pay tribute to their old stomping grounds, and last night’s festivities were pretty phenomenal, with an all-star evening in front of a packed house.

Kelly Flint, erstwhile Dave’s True Story chanteuse turned singer-songwriter, kicked things off around 7:30 with a set of mostly new songs and a great cover of Patty Griffin’s “Making Pies.” She was followed by Griffin House, in from Nashville to promote his new CD and pay homage to the downtown NY music shrine. Noam Weinstein then did a short set showcasing his gentle tunes and engaging personality.

Things kicked into a higher gear for Sasha Dobson’s set. It was her birthday, so she was doing some celebrating of her own. She was joined by seven other musicians, including boyfriend Richard Julian on guitar and Jesse Harris on banjo, and worked her way through some sultry bossa novas. Then she called Norah Jones up to the stage to sing harmony on a number. Norah got a nice hand, but no standing ovation. It was like everyone figured that, with all her friends performing that night, Norah was bound to show up. Definitely downtown NY cool.

Jesse Harris, who provided Norah with her Grammy-winning hit, “Don’t Know Why,” was up next. He didn’t have Norah sit in, but Tony Scherr was there on guitar and Tim Luntzel on bass, so it was like a Ferdinandos reunion. “In the spirit of The Living Room,” Jesse said, “we’re going to play some new songs that no one’s ever played before.”

Richard Julian showed he’s at the top of his game as a songwriter and performer with a tight set of his slice of New York life gems. “There sure is a lot music tonight – holy shit!” he raved. He was so hot that he didn’t miss a beat when he broke a string, then he had pianist John Dryden play variations on “Cold Gray Morning” while he changed the string.

The only thing that could top that was, of course, Norah – and a little after midnight she took the stage, looking sylph-like with a new short pixie haircut and color-coordinated in red and black. She proceeded to play a solo version of “Cold Cold Heart” on her red guitar, confessing, “I love this place, but I’ve never played solo here before.” She followed that with a new song, “My Old Man Of The Hour” (“I couldn’t choose between a vegan and a pothead, so I chose you”) – which turned out to be about a dog!

Norah had just turned 29 on Sunday, so she brought her fellow birthday girl Sasha back for a (somewhat shaky) duet of Willie Nelson’s “Bullrider.” Then she invited a real guitar genius, Jim Campilongo, to join her, as she and Sasha sang a waltz called “How Many Times Have You Broken My Heart?” – music by Norah to lyrics by Hank Williams that were never set to song. That proved to be just a prelude to a full-blown Little Willies set, with Julian and Campilongo on guitars, Norah’s ex, Lee Alexander, on upright bass, Dan Reiser on drums, and John Dryden on organ…”Lovesick Blues,” “Gotta Get Drunk,” “Roly Poly,” “Tennessee Stud,” “Best of All Possible Worlds,” on and on well past 1:00 am.

If it wasn’t the best of all possible worlds, it was damn close – and a perfect way to celebrate the freewheeling music and camaraderie inspired by The Living Room for the last 10 years. The festivities continue until Friday, April 4th, with even more special guests – and a tribute to Elliott Smith on Thursday, April 3rd.

http://www.livingroomny.com/ 

(Thanks to Gordon Nash for the photos.)

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