Last weekend, I had the pleasure of seeing Elana James in concert at Acoustic Music San Diego. Formerly Elana Fremerman, she is the former fiddler of the former Hot Club of Cowtown, one of my favorite bands, which sadly broke up last year. Whit Smith was in my opinion the superior vocalist within Hot Club of Cowtown, but Elana's fiddling was really the star attraction, so I hoped the band's charm would remain with Elana's new group. The show was advertised as Elana James and her Hot Hot Trio, but by the time they made it to San Diego, they were calling themselves Elana James and the Continental Two, the Continental Two being Beau Sample (formerly of Cave Catt Sammy) and Luke Hill.

To my relief, Elana James and the Continental Two captured much of the joy of a Hot Club of Cowtown show. They're not completely at that level yet, but I imagine they sound much like Hot Club of Cowtown must of sounded with only a few months of experience playing together. Probably better, as James has the knowledge she gained with that band (and from playing in Bob Dylan's band last year) under her belt. They played two sets, made up of western swing and jazz classics, original songs written for Hot Club of Cowtown, and new material. Hearing Hot Club classics like "Secret of Mine" and "Forget-Me-Nots" (the song which first introduced me to the group) gave the evening a familiar feel, even as they tried out new material which mostly worked well. Their set included ample opportunities for Elana to burn up the place on some western classics like the instrumental "Draggin' the Bow" and some tune about barnyard animals, the name of which escapes me, set to the tune of "Froggie Went Acourtin'" or "The Crawdad Song." Quite a few jazz numbers were also included in their performance, including a cover of Duke Ellington's "I Don't Mind." Another swinging jazz number, "Atomic Cocktail," gave Beau Samples a chance to show off his voice, and he nailed it, making the song a high point of the evening for me. I assumed "Atomic Cocktail" was a product of 1950s nuclear testing (it seemed an appropriate ditty to spout out in some club on the Las Vegas strip for the atomic sightseers), but it was actually recorded in 1945, scant months after Hiroshima. The new songs written for the new group were somewhat more hit-or-miss, but mostly hits, including the beautiful "Eva's Waltz." All said, it was a fantastic evening of music, and I'm just sad it didn't go on for another hour (they had an early plane to catch in the morning, so they could record with Willie Nelson the next day).

There is no official CD of Elana James and the Continental Two yet available, but they were selling a "Top Secret Illegal Bootleg Sampler." I've been enjoying my copy very much, but as their first CD will be coming out in Europe very shortly, and, one can only assume, will have no trouble finding an American distributor, you might want to wait for the full album (especially since five of the eight songs on the sampler are currently on their website). But I didn't think to bring any Hot Club of Cowtown CDs for her to sign, so it was nice to have something for her to autograph. I always feel uncomfortable meeting artists I admire, as I never know what to say, but I found Elana as charming in person as she is on stage, and was instantly at ease with her. As sad as I am that Hot Club of Cowtown is no more, it was quite heartening to see that Elana James' musical career is still on track.