Tucker Zimmerman in concert at the Blues-sphere Bar in Liège (Belgium) - February, 5, 2022

It was an inspired, hushed concert in Outremeuse [across the River Meuse], where we had a nice stroll around during the day. Tucker Zimmerman was accompanied by Nicolas Dechêne on guitar and Jack Thysen on double bass, two musicians who felt Tucker Zimmerman’s music and words very well. As a result, he was in good spirits at eighty-one; soon he will even leave for his motherland USA for an extensive tour. Tucker began with a few songs about America, Another America admittedly, his own America in other words and that of his generation. He grew up in the San Francisco of the sixties and flower-power. Jerry Garcia of The Grateful Dead was still a friend of him at the time. Also nice were the song Cowboy and a song about Michelangelo.

In the second part, Tucker Zimmerman first played about three songs solo, including the older Two Hands One Man Band and a song improvised on the spot that day about the Blues-sphere Bar. Then the musicians rejoined for Old Friends and the classic Oregon, a compelling and almost hypnotic song written for his friend Derroll Adams. About this, Zimmerman said that this one meant so much to him that Derroll was always on his mind whenever he was on a stage. We also got to hear a haiku, A Sip Of Wine, simply because he loved this Japanese form of poetry. Other fine songs included Song For A Friend, Don’t Let Jim Stick Around Too Long and I Think I Love You.

Prior to Tourist In My Hometown (about San Francisco), Tucker declared his love for Liège: “Liège is my home town for 50 years now, something I never expected, but the city is in my heart. San Francisco once was my hometown but now not anymore, I am a tourist there as well”. An already long concert was also followed by three encores: the bluesy Watchmen In Their Towers and Ever Down To Memphis, a kind of rap/spoken word song, in which he talked about Descartes and Isis, and even quoted Mahalia Jackson with Didn’t It Rain. As a finale, we were told “we musicians have a language in common”, and that language is the blues — a very catchy 12-bar blues with references to John Lee Hooker and Howlin’ Wolf, in which everyone got a solo for a while and the club owner even blew a tune along on harmonica.

The hand on the clock quietly climbed to its highest point.

Marc Vos
(English translation from Dutch by DeepL.)