Concert Review/Photos: Birdie Busch’s Philly Opry @ Johnny Brenda's
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
The place was as packed and friendly as a family reunion.
[ 6/7 ] Up until Birdie Busch’s Fourth Annual Philly Opry, the street outside Johnny Brenda’s was alive with music, food, beer and the excitement of summer with Fishtown’s Philly Beer Week grand finale. It only made sense for the party to wander into JB’s to see the girl who finds endless inspiration in summer, Birdie Busch. For four years now, Birdie Bush has curated Philly Opry, a concert featuring her own band as well as “local and out of town acts perhaps not everyone in town has heard.” Inspired this year by the four directions, Birdie strove to create an all-American set to encourage dancing (both fast and slow) to welcome summer to her hometown of Philadelphia.
The stage was decorated with a huge cardboard compass rose made out of leaves that accidentally looked kind of like a huge pot leaf. Pieces of the compass were clothes-pinned to the bead curtain behind the stage, and pieces of the decoration would occasionally fall into the audience. The evening reminded me of a low-budget prom, especially since Birdie’s parents snuck in a few slow dances to the sweet music of the first band Slowey and the Boats.
“This one’s a little spacey. We’ve been known to hypnotize people with this one,” winked the Slowey and the Boats steel guitarist Isaac Stanford in his unexplained Southern accent. Even more incongruous was the band’s classic Hawaiian style, but no one seemed to mind. Slowey and the Boats played Hawaiian classics with an impressively authentic lineup including of course the steel guitar and a real Wurlitzer. Though no one seemed to know the hula (or the tango, a few of which they also played), that didn’t stop the crowd from swaying.
Birdie Busch and her band the Greatest Night took the stage next, and boy, was she charming. Considering how long as she’s been playing in Philly, it’s no wonder the place was as packed and friendly as a family reunion. Birdie told the crowd that she made the decorations out of cardboard boxes she took from the Italian Market, and it was clear just how much care and love she put into this concert. Her sweet, innocent, summer-loving lyrics sang through her pure, vibrato-less voice and after a day of such high summer spirits, nothing could have bade us goodnight better than Birdie’s lullaby of a set. She even had a flower in her hair.
