Loving Live Music at Lestats with Keith Tutt II

It's good to get out of your normal routine every once in a while, change things up a bit, meet people, learn something new.

I mean, I love Imperial Beach and all, but sometimes a guy feels a little boxed in by the water and our neighbor nation, Mexico.

So I decided on Thursday night to blow this taco stand to check out my friend Keith Tutt II who played at Lestat's in Normal Heights along with some other So Cal artists. I hadn't seen him perform any of his singer/songwriter material yet, so this was perfect.

I met Keith years ago in San Bernardino and our paths always seem to cross through mutual musician friends. I always knew him as a sort of auxiliary session-type musician, having backed up Alice in Chains, Switchfoot, Tom Morello of Rage Against The Machine and Cypress Hill, as well as up and coming artists like Samantha Farrell, Brooke Fraser, Kina Grannis and Joe Gil, whom he performed a set with Thursday night.

So, needless to say, it was a night of excellent musicianship.

Keith's set started with him and Sid Cabrera both on steel-string acoustic guitar playing in a mid-tempo folk style mixed with jazz, R&B, and pop sensibilities—soul-folk, you might call it.

Keith held down a steady finger picking pattern over a moving bass line, while Sid followed along, subtly accenting and outlining. When the vocals came in, I was immediately struck by hints of Paul Simon, but with a slight raspy quality.

Very soulful.

Despite his history of being a backup player, Keith definitely knows how to write and deliver a good tune, and is a skillful artist in his own right.

The second song was a cover of Samantha Farrell's tune "I Believe" which Keith prefaced with an explanation of the meaning of the lyrics.

"It's about not looking at the bad, but believing in something better," he said.

He was later joined by an alto saxophonist who provided some smooth, soulful harmonies and improvised lines of his own.

Next, Keith brought up vocalist Elayna Boynton to display some original material from their project The Freedom, starting with a tune called "Home." It started off with some very intimate finger-picked chords.

Wow. What a VOICE.

Elayna's mature vocal stylings were dripping with soul—no, something way heavier. She gave a little background on their next tune "How to Breathe," telling the audience how their friend's comatose father passed away on his own wedding anniversary on New Year's Eve.

"After a tragedy like that, you need to relearn the simple things in life," Boynton said.

The Freedom are great storytellers, expertly weaving heart-wrenching lyrics through slow-moving bass lines and elegant finger picking.

Keith closed out The Freedom set with a tune heavy with religious overtones emerging amid minor-key guitar chords, forming a sort of off-kilter blues. The closest thing I can compare it to is some of Dustin Kensrue/Thrice's acoustic material, but with an R&B twist.

Next up was Joe Gil on guitar and vocals, along with Sid on guitar and violin, and Keith, who backed them up on cello. You could immediately tell that Joe had complete command of his dynamic voice and solid guitar chops.

He has his own distinct sound not quite like anyone else, but it still gives definite nods to artists like Coldplay, Dave Matthews Band and even Björk.

His stuff was very patient, painting dream-like folk/pop landscapes. Gil absolutely nailed Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" and even elicited a comparison to the vocal stylings of the late Jeff Buckley.

Gil also performed some material he composed for a film.

"It's fun to interpret something you haven't even seen," he said.

Big bowed cello sounds, sparkling guitar chords and strumming served as a canvas for the lyrics "We can't believe in what we see."

Other noteworthy performers from this evening included one-man acoustic act Zach and Big Toe, whose vocalist Mark Goffeney doubles on electric bass played with, well, his big toe.

I got to catch up with Keith for a bit after the show. He explained to me that performing out on his own was a fun new venture for him.

"What I like about it [the folk genre] is that it's wide open. If it sounds good, then cool. Anything goes," he said.

It definitely doesn't sound like Keith's new to music. His performance Thursday night was that of a seasoned folk artist. I strongly believe that Keith and his collaborators will make a name for themselves in this unique niche emerging from a well-trodden genre.

He tells me he's in the process of recording demos at the moment, and plans on releasing his own original material soon.

I'll be waiting for it.

You can keep up with Keith Tutt II on Facebook.

Check out Joe Gil's self-titled album. It's available on iTunes.