Steve Poltz – March 10th – Soiled Dove Underground

I got introduced to Steve Poltz several years ago at the Rocky Mountain Folks Fest in Lyons and since that first show, Steve has been growing on me and has become of those acts I don’t want to miss when he’s around. This show at The Soiled Dove was just over a mile from my house, so there was no way I was going to miss out on the Steve Poltz experience.

We arrived midway through Dan Tedesco’s opening set of originals and well placed covers and after he was finished it wasn’t long before the lights went down and the voice of Steve’s sister came over the PA. Now this is funny because, last summer at Folks Fest, Steve introduced his sister to the crowd (she was there in person) and then two days later I was in Grand Lake and noticed a woman wearing a Folks Fest shirt. Having just left the festival myself, I approached her and her friends and started up a conversation about the festival. As you may have guessed, the woman I was talking to was Steve Poltz’s sister! She shared how incredibly proud of him she was and we had a nice chat. Clearly she’s supportive of her brother as her recorded introduction was very complimentary and then Steve took the stage and launched right into a set that was one part stand-up comedy and one part folk music with “Let’s Stay Together” from his brand new album Stardust & Satellites.

Poltz then dropped his voice an octave or two and delivered the pensive “Windows of Halifax” (Listen Here!), a story song that is laced with silly one liners. As he meandered his way through the show, Poltz shared tunes from his long career including “Check Your Head,” “My Boyfriend,” and “Can O’ Pop.”

By way of an auto-biography of sorts, he explained that he was raised on Liza Minnelli and Barbara Streisand tunes by his gay uncle Louie and told us a story about how his parents met. Several times during the evening Poltz riffed on “You Were Meant for Me” a song you might remember as a big hit for Jewel in the mid-90’s. This might seem out of place, but Poltz penned the chart-topped with Jewel while living in a van all those years ago and he’s still (according to him) living on the royalties.

While his stage presence is very animated, what strikes me most about Poltz is that he has the unique ability to be at once hilariously funny and downright vulnerable on stage. Whether you are a folk music fan or not, Steve Poltz can suck you in and win you over.