Storyhill & Cliff Eberhardt at Cedar

Cliff Eberhardt celebrated the release of his new album 500 Miles: The Blue Rock Sessions tonight with a show at Minneapolis' Cedar Cultural Center.

Red House labelmates and hometown favorites Storyhill opened up, starting off with songs from their release coming out in 2010...
- Avalon
- World Go Round (first time hearing this--beautiful)
- Ballad of Joe Snowboard
- Town Talks (really nice new song--bluesy and very catchy)
- Give Up the Ghost
- Blazing Out of Sight (very nice version!)
- Better Angels
- Caught in a Mess (this is a truly amazing song--made me cry)
- Get Away (with a nice intro about how Cliff likes this song followed by some funny banter about stealing some of his chord progressions)
- Happy Man
- White Roses (this was an amazingly high energy rendition of this Storyhill classic--got the rather sedate Sunday audience pretty excited)
- Highlight (written for Chris' wedding but sung for a couple in the audience celebrating their 35th anniversary)
- Well of Sorrows
- Paradise Lost (nice closer)

After a nice break where I caught up with the Storyhill boys and got this year's Storyhill Fest Midwest t-shirt (with my name on it!), Cliff got on stage, starting off with a really nice cover...
- Bye Bye Blackbird
- I Want to Take You Home (one of my favorites from the new CD)
- Have a Little Heart
- I Want Money (the most down and dirty version I'ved heard him do--awesome! Followed by a story about accordion player Joel Guzman who suggested that the CD cover should be of Cliff exposing himself to an ATM)
- Your Face
- Trouble For Life (a particularly nice version)
- Memphis
- The High Above and the Down Below (w/Tim Fast on harmonica--very nice!)
- 500 Miles (w/Tim on harmonica)
- Land of the Free (w/Tim on harmonies--always love this)
- Back of My Mind

Encore: Goodnight
2nd Encore: The Long Road

Funniest moment of the show was when Cliff said that had someone had suggested he make a kids album, and he decided he probably could do a "time out" album with songs like "Think About What You Did." All in all, a great show with Cliff at the top of his game.