Photo Credit: Blaine Schultz
Songwriter Steve Wynn has found the secret to a long career is adapting. Saturday evening, he played a concert at URSA, the Bay View boutique, to maybe 30 masked fans seated in folding chairs.
You could have done far worse than to hitch your wagon to Wynn’s meandering career. During the college-rock scare of the ‘80s, Wynn’s group The Dream Syndicate developed a sonic template that updated the sounds of The Velvet Underground, Neil Young and Crazy Horse and Creedence Clearwater Revival, among others. Yet all along, Wynn the songwriter, continued to grow and challenge himself and his audience. His side projects with Gutterball, Danny and Dusty, solo albums and a reanimated Dream Syndicate have provided dozens of albums.
House concerts, by their nature, encourage an informality. Wynn’s banter with fans Saturday, added to that sense of intimacy. He explained "Cindy, It Was Always You," a co-write with crime writer George Pelecanos, recently led him to view a few episodes of “The Wire” reflecting on the death of actor Michael K. Williams.
Wynn recognized the near-perfect game of pitcher “Harvey Haddix,” with the song from his aptly described group The Baseball Project and recalled the thrill of performing the “The Star-Spangled Banner” at Miller Park a few seasons ago.
Travelling light with an acoustic guitar and vocal mic plugged into his amplifier, he took a request to demonstrate his looper pedal, a device that allows him to multi-track guitar parts on the fly. The bluesy riff turned into a raucous version of “Daddy’s Girl.” Ending the evening with a final Q&A, Wynn performed “When You Smile,” in response to “what is your favorite song, that you wrote? “That’s my favorite. Today, at least.”
