Jonathan Richman: Raw & Wild

Jonathan Richman takes the stage like a precocious kid on the first day of school searching the crowd for a welcoming sign. Clutching his strapless classical guitar and still feeling a little unsure of what he's up against, he launches into a seductive number that soon has the crowd swooning...

Because her beauty is raw and wild
She's at the core of the stars we see
'Cause her beauty is raw and wild
She's at the core of the stars we see

A smile spreads across Jonathan's face as he realizes he's with his kind of folk. He nods to percussionist Tommy Larkins, picks up a bell shaker and waves it over the crowd as though dispensing blessings before beginning to soft-shoe across the stage...

Our crowd at the Starlite Room in Edmonton has now been accepted into the club, not the kind for drinking sips, but the one for shaking hips....

Jojo, as he's known by the aficionados, might be 60, but he's forever young. At the heart of his aesthetic is a joy of being, a celebration of life in its infinite plenitude, screw what anyone else might say.