Steve at Telluride #15: Talkin’ ‘Bout My Jenny-ration
Jenny Lewis
Okay, how cool was Jenny Lewis? Rocking a red scarf and Risky Business sunglasses, Jenny took control of this stage and crowd with fierce, rock-star versions of songs from her two albums, especially this year’s crazy-good Acid Tongue. The title cut from that album was a special winner tonight, one that Jenny played solo acoustic backed vocals-only by her band of indie-rock rascals. The other solo-acoustic was a sublime version Rilo Kiley’s “Silver Lining.” And her version of the Traveling Wilburys’ “Handle With Care” was pure fun. (From the crowd, I took the Roy Orbison part; Shane took the Tom Petty lines—just FYI).
But perhaps the crowning moment of this whole festival came midway through the set when Jenny brought out Elvis Costello, as I so hoped she would, for a ripping version of “Carpetbaggers.” Elvis came out in black leather, no hat, and, since he’s appearing later tonight with a drum-less acoustic band, this was our chance to hear him in his rock mode—that strangulated Katherine-Hepburn-being-attacked-by-a-cat punk-pub voice. I was beaming. One of the pick sets of festival so far.