I’ve lived in Johnson County, Kansas, for more than 30 years. The public schools are excellent. The live music scene is atrocious. Only three of my 50 favorite performances of 2022 took place in my home county. Against the odds, I attended shows on five consecutive nights in Johnson County last week. A log of my unlikely- and lamentably uncommon- accomplishment follows.

An unassuming nightclub shares a stripmall with a Hobby Lobby, a Christian bookstore, a country-themed bar and a coffee shop specializing in kolaches at the northeast corner of a bustling intersection in the heart of Johnson County, Kansas.

I head to Vivo a couple times a year to catch rap and metal performances. On a whim, I hit a free rock show on Tuesday, August 1. The banter of graying rockers smoking on the patio was more engaging than the music of the local based trio I caught. I didn’t realize it at the moment, but I’d embarked on a spree.

The next night was already set. I’d previously purchased a $10 ticket to hear Parker Quartet at Polsky Theatre on the campus of Johnson County Community College. I neglected to mention in my review of the concert that the famed string quartet filled the 424-seat venue.

My life partner accompanied me to hear Ron Gutierrez at Bamboo Penny's on Thursday, August 3. Familiar with the establishment, she didn’t share my shock in finding the upscale restaurant packed with well-heeled diners. The recession I hear so much about was nowhere in evidence.

Backed by a keyboardist and drummer, the man known as the Latin Luther applied his silky instrument to interpretations of songs associated with Daniel Caesar, Freddie Jackson, Kem, and, of course, Luther Vandross. The loud space above the primary dining area was a less than ideal setting for the superlative vocalist.

The realization that I’d spent three nights in a row enjoying live music in Johnson County occurred to me as I drove home. Keeping the streak alive was easy. On Friday, August 4, I took a 15-minute walk to hear Cynthia van Roden at The Market at Meadowbrook. The self-described “vintage jazz vocalist” was backed by a top-notch three-piece band. The matinee show was incredibly charming.

Pushing myself to hit the fifth consecutive Johnson County show was an aesthetic challenge. Attending a concert by The Phil Collins Experience in the courtyard of a tony shopping center on Saturday, August 5, was entirely out of character. Yet I learned long ago that surmounting my biases often leads to positive outcomes.

Sure enough, the tribute band floored me. Tight and fun-loving, the 13 members of the ensemble were fully committed to the bit. Even though I don’t particularly care for the music of Collins or late-era Genesis, I loved the jubilant performance. Maybe I belong in Johnson County after all.

William Brownlee

August 3, 2023

Concert Review: Parker Quartet at Polsky Theatre

William Brownlee

August 3, 2023

Original image by There Stands the Glass.

The members of Parker Quartet were positioned 15 feet from my third-row seat at Polsky Theatre on Wednesday, August 3. Yet I was initially befuddled by the unamplified sound of the elite string quartet.

My primary reference point for Parker Quartet is its sublime 2021 album György Kurtág and Antonin Dvořák. Released by ECM Records, the recording is imbued with the storied label’s characteristic sonic sauce.

What I heard last night was shockingly dry. It took me more than five minutes to reorient myself to Parker Quartet’s true sound characterized by antiphonal violins.

The expressive face of cellist Kee-Hyun Kim helped me get my bearings. He grieved during mournful passages, exhibited elation while playing celebratory segments and chuckled at the humor in three contemporary pieces and a pair of Beethoven's masterworks.

The $10 ticket for the concert by the Boston based group may be the year’s biggest bargain. The maxim about getting what you pay for is usually true, but in this instance I felt like an accomplice in a brazen theft- even if the unprocessed sound threw me for a loop.