Review: Billy Bragg at the Pollak Theatre, West Long Branch

From the opening blast of "Help Save the Youth of America," it was clear that Billy Bragg had weighty matters on his mind as he brought his brief fall tour of U.S. colleges to the Pollak Theatre at West Long Branch's Monmouth University Sunday (Oct. 19).

Over the course of his two-and-a-half-hour, 18-song set, the English singer-songwriter utilized the "one man and a guitar" performance style that has been his trademark for 25 years and called on material from every stage of his career to deliver a clear message to those in attendance: get involved, and keep your head up.

The singer, known almost as much for his left-wing political views as for his songs (the former usually informing the latter), eschewed the most of the personal and romantic selections from his catalog in favor of stirring, rebel-rousing renditions of calls to arms such as "Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards" and "There is Power in a Union."

Explaining that his voice was slightly more ragged than usual due to an evening of screaming at the television during the recent third Presidential debate, Bragg nursed his throat with cup after cup of tea between songs, and made his between-song banter as much a part of his show as the music. 

Bragg had the crowd laughing at tales of the creepiness of Cracker Barrel, applauding at statements against President Bush and grumbling with unease at the statement that Barack Obama should, if elected president, close the detention camp in Guantanamo Bay during his first 100 days in office.

However, the evening wasn't all politics as usual. Bragg also delivered a couple of his well-known love songs, such as "Greetings to the New Brunette" and "A New England."

The highlight of the evening was Bragg's incredibly moving take on "Levi Stubbs' Tears," a 1987 song Bragg said he wrote about the "redemptive quality" in the voice of Stubbs, the lead singer of the Four Tops who died Friday (Oct. 17).

For folk and alternative music fans, Bragg also dropped a fairly big piece of news before playing two songs ("Ingrid Bergman" and "Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key") from "Mermaid Avenue," the hit 1998 album where he and Wilco wrote new music for previously unreleased Woody Guthrie songs. During the project, Bragg revealed, he and Wilco had cooked up new versions of about 50 Guthrie songs, so a follow-up to 2000's "Mermaid Avenue Volume II" can be expected.

Here's Sunday's set list:

1. "Help Save the Youth of America"
2. "To Have and Have Not"
3. "Farm Boy"
4. "Greetings to the New Brunette"
5. "Ingrid Bergman"
6. "Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key"
7. "I Ain't Got No Home"
8. "N.P.W.A."
9. "Sexuality"
10. "Save the Country"
11. "O Freedom"
12. "Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards"
13. "Old Clash Fan Fight Song"
14. "I Keep Faith"
15. "There is Power in a Union"

Encore:
16. "Levi Stubbs' Tears"
17. "Sing Their Souls Back Home"
18. "A New England"