Greene living - Jackie Greene treats Sactown to surprise Monday night show

There might not be anything more refreshing to see than a man who was once “the next big thing,” actually became that “next big thing,” and then proceeds through his career not giving a crap about how much of a “big thing” he is (or isn’t).

Watching Jackie Greene traverse the path of The Chosen One (and dodging a few snake pits ‘long the way) over the last half-dozen years has been a breath of fresh air for anyone fed up with the uniform waltz that all mainstream performers seem to dance. When Greene was a wiry haired young man in his early ‘20s back in the early-to-middle ‘00s, the buzz was rattling the walls here in Sacramento, the expectations were mounting, and the “new Dylan” comparisons were piling up ad nauseum (Greene himself may have been the most nauseated of all).

After inking his deal with Verve Records, “Honey I’ve Been Thinkin’ About You” was popping on the changing room soundsystem at your local Eddie Bauer store and most radio stations across the country with the cahones to play anything edgier than Kansas were picking up tunes from “American Myth.”

Fast forward to 2009. The Verve deal is ancient history, he now resides in San Francisco, and he’s gone indie; and that’s not just referring to his new long hair, beard, glasses and trucker outfit look.

Monday night’s surprise show at the Blue Lamp was Jackie Greene at his finest, playing the music he wants to play with the friends he wants to play it with, not bowing to expectations, labels, or the demands of his own popularity in the town where he cut his teeth.

Last time Greene lined up a surprise show at Blue Lamp was a couple months ago, and the joint sold out at the door in a flash; this reporter was searching for “Plan B” at around 8:00 that night. Monday’s show wasn’t quite as packed, but a still near-capacity room was raucous for a weeknight, and bins near the door were loaded with canned goods to donate (bringing a can of food was part of the bargain admission price of $10).

Sneaking in through the back door around 9:30, Greene and his band kicked things off with their standard road-trippin’ opener “Farewell, So Long, Goodbye,” and graced the crowd with a few familiar tunes like “Gone Wanderin’” and “Animal” before slamming into a gut-tearing cover of the Beatles’ “Don’t Let Me Down,” complete with a heavy and lengthy blues jam.

After taking a quick set break, things really started to get fun, and it became quickly apparent that phrases like “I wish he’d play…” or “I want to hear…” would have to be checked at the door and never reclaimed.

When the band re-took the stage, people might have started thinking they were seeing double, the drugs were turning sideways, or they were caught in some sort of weird time travel movie when Greene perched himself behind the keyboard and his little brother Alex Nelson (also front man of local faves Walking Spanish) grabbed the SG and sang lead vocals on the Greene staple “Mexican Girl.” Call Nelson “Mini Greene,” as (physically) he is a near carbon copy of Jackie circa 2003, with the same youthful flair and quasi-emo haircut that his brother used to sport while playing at Sactown blues dives.

In terms of his stage presence and visibility, Greene kept himself fairly anonymous for much of the remainder of the night, but his keys and strings were ablaze during this second set that featured a clown car full of friends and family taking the lead, including longtime pal Sal Valentino, Nick Swimley of the Golden Cadillacs, and Kentucky Slim.

Valentino may be pushing 70, but the chiseled grit behind his uptown rock club vocals was flanked by an energy that most 20 year-olds would have a hard time matching. Kentucky Slim, also the proprietor of the Blue Lamp, treated the crowd to some greasy slide guitar that could have gotten him fined by the fire marshall, and Swimley snagged an axe and joined the group for a dirt kicking cover of Merle Haggard’s “Working Man Blues,” also a highly popular cover for Greene’s BFF’s the Mother Hips.

Wrapping a set comprised mostly of covers and jams, local musician Hans Eberbach (formerly of Sweet Vine and Looking Star and currently of the Nibblers), himself a former “next big thing,” joined the band and lent his razor-sharp vocal romp to an original of his called “Evergreen” and a soul-seared take on Creedence Clearwater’s “Long As I Can See the Light.”

The Blue Lamp crowd actually deserves a bit of credit for shutting its collective yap when Greene wound down the show with an intensely beautiful solo acoustic rendition of “Sweet Somewhere Bound;” too often in those situations, some patrons actually think that people around them want to hear about their favorite contestant on “Dancing With the Stars” instead of listening to the song they paid to hear.

To see what Greene has become almost belies what many thought he would be. His popularity aside, he is not a “star” and he does not behave like one nor write and perform music like one, and God bless him for it. He’s a man who has ditched any attempt to fit the mold that seemed once custom fitted for him, and the music that has stemmed from his creative liberation is the inspiring reward.

Greene will be winding down 2009 with a couple of solo acoustic shows at the Hopmonk Tavern in Sebastopol and a pair of New Year’s shows at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco.