Saturday was all about Reckless.

Which is greatly unfair to Gary’s terrific “From Where the Sun Now Stands,” to Cody Canada and his boys and band, and to the other fine artists who appeared throughout the week. Not to mention Micky and the Motorcars’ Friday home run.

As Muzzie Braun himself said, “if it wasn’t for these guys, you wouldn’t be here….”

Saturday, a dedicated, wounded audience met a brilliantly crafted and executed performance that salved their wounds: Reckless Kelly with post-pandemic, Braun-Brothers-Reunion-intention. Sure, they had some advantages:

• They had not been touring until very recently due to the paaaaaaannnndemic. The lion’s share of their audience hadn’t seen them in over 18 months.
• They had released a beautifully-crafted double album just as Covid got serious, so almost no one had heard live versions of new songs we used instead of seeing them when they toured through.

And let’s be crystal clear…, these men are NEVER reckless when it comes to their craft.

• Willy Braun had delivered perhaps the best conceived, most relevant online shows during our Covid-driven, live music woes. His were episodic, they were scarce/short, they had cliffhangers and teasers, they were MUCH more than music performances, they were thematic, they were funny, they were personal. They were all of the things that online performances HAVE to be if they are going to continue as revenue-producing components of any musician’s business ethic. No other artist that I saw came so completely to this clarity and truth.
• Reckless Kelly has a significant catalog of possibility – and they use it. They have built a HUGE trove of their own art and uniquely-crafted approaches to music they respect and admire – from Mark Knopfler to Prince, the Beatles to the Boss, Elton to Jerry Jeff, they seem dedicated to channeling the best of the art form they present. This night it was Tumbleweed Connections’ “Ballad of a Well-Known Gun.”
• They NEVER just repeat a set. Unlike, say, the famous Texas band who delivered the exact same set on the pier and on the main stage in Key West this year. Because its lazy, particularly when you command such scope. And because they KNOW that someone will make the effort to see them in D.C. AND in Raleigh or in Manhattan, Kansas AND in Lawrence. And yes, because they know that, like baseball players, some young fan at their show that night is excited to see them for the first time.
• When Reckless plays Kansas or New Braunfels or Fort Worth, they rock like masters, but country music pops because they know their audience that night. When they play in Berkeley or in New York’s Manhattan, it is a rock and roll show, redefining what country music can be.
• Their shows are tight. Every musician in the band is a master at his craft. There are no gimmicks, just great writing and musicianship, consciously tuned to each others’ talents, moods and ethic that night.
• The artists in the band know they own the band — and they act like it.

One last thing. I would also claim they’ve been snakebit by fate not once, but at least twice.

They released their brilliant tribute to an older country artist (Pinto Bennett with “Somewhere in Time”) within weeks of T. Bone Burnett’s Crazy Heart, a movie starring Jeff Bridges, Colin Farrell and Ryan Bingham. Not exactly the same story, but it gobbled up the critical air for the Pinto Bennett tribute.

But much, much worse recently was releasing an album whose lead ethic, “North American Jackpot,” asks us to recognize how lucky we are as members of the human race to have been born in this time and place. It’s an overdue concept, and yet was released into the EXACT time that we had to accept that Covid (and climate and political turmoil) were changing our lives. Our lives, in this place and time, are still blessed with largesse unavailable to almost every other human being who has ever lived on our planet. It is a perspective often lost on us. But it wasn’t possible to land the point in May 2020.

Anyway, my point, and I do have one, finally, is that Reckless Kelly’s performance on Saturday night was sustenance to the starving, water for the parched. It was world-class in it’s delivery. It was simply of a higher level. I’ll share a couple of songs here with you. But I worry you’ll be able to feel what we felt, to see what we saw. An iPhone held from in front of the sound tent is insufficient.

But I am telling you that the 1000-ish people in front of me and the 2000-ish (guesses) people behind me didn’t listen to the music.

We bathed in it.

It was miraculous and funny and wonderful. There were tears in hundreds of eyes. I hope you get some small feel from these two performances.

Finally, I’ll mention that I was fortunate enough to have had opportunities to talk to Willy and his band mates this weekend. And I can’t believe I was so dumb as to not ask him re: the business ethic that might have driven his online Music in the Mountains and Quarantine Kitchen breakthroughs. How much did he plan to differentiate as he did, or did it just come naturally? But baseball, ball-busting, humor and even Jack London took precedence. Oh, and some ribs.

And yes, Lynn took money from both of us in a golf skills sidetrack. You don’t need to look it up — she’ll be happy to tell you alllll about it! This, your Olympics medal count update, includes her lead lengthening in both total medals and gold.

As Howie Baetjer, a running back I mostly watched college football with often said, “Be wiiiild, Be RECKLESS!”

As masters of their craft, with complete, unfettered commitment, I recommend this kind. Of Reckless, that is.