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February 6, 2010

Buchanan has his own brand of romanticism

'Women love him, and men want to be him,' said a fan

FROM STAFF REPORTS

TRAVERSE CITY -- With only a guitar, Jay Buchanan manages to fill performance halls.

He'll be at the City Opera House Saturday with opening act Jetty Rae. The concert begins at 8 p.m.

The "Best in the West" show has been described as "the love child of Robert Plant and Janis Joplin." Buchanan uses a soulful acoustic style, vocals and a melodic strumming to almost hypnotize crowds, who following him around as a kind of cult.

"Jay is becoming like a bad, bad habit," said Linda Jamison, a promoter in Anaheim, Calif., who also ran the legendary Doll Hut hangout. Buchanan is from California.

"Women love him, and men want to be him," wrote a blogger at the OC Gazette in a gushing post in January. "He is an intoxicating musical cocktail of rock 'n' roll, soul, psychadelia and pure, undefiled, raw emotion."

Buchanan was the special music guest at the Poetry Olympics last May at the opera house.

Diana Barrie, general manager of the opera house, said about that show, "It was into his second song I noticed that the audience was barely breathing," she said. "After his third song ... a standing ovation." She knew then that she wanted to bring him back for a Valentine's show.

"His song 'Post Coital Kiss' might be the most romantic/hot song I have ever heard," Barrie said.

Those dazed fans also go nuts for Buchanan's cover of "Wild Horses."

Buchanan grew up in Southern California, getting straight Fs in high school while reading Henry Miller and Dostoyevsky for fun. When he was 15, he turned down a recording contract because he was told he could be "the Debbie Gibson for your generation." When he was 20, he hitchhiked to Alaska, playing for whoever would listen. He's since toured the world, worked at a funeral home, served as a chef and honed his own style as a singer and songwriter.

The Feb. 13 show is in cooperation with the Tibbits Opera House in Coldwater, which Barrie hopes is the beginning of many cooperative efforts.

Tickets are $15 in advance, $25 per couple in advance, and $20 per person at the door. Tickets are available at www.cityoperahouse.org or by calling 941-8082. Box office hours at the City Opera House, 106 E. Front St., are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday.

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