Prairie Home Companion at Town Hall - April 11, 2008

Tonight Alison and I saw Garrison Keillor present his public radio variety show live (though not broadcast) at Town Hall. The show had all the energy of the radio broadcast but with stronger degree of intimacy and some local Brooklyn flavor. In addition to the usual suspects on the show Keillor brought three Brooklynites including Raul Melo, a tenor covering the role of Rodolfo in the Met’s production of La Boheme. He also had Chris Thile, formerly of Nickel Creek and now of Punch Brothers, sitting in with the “house” band on a fierce and crisp mandolin. He also had Nelly McKay who had several numbers go over very well with the audience, especially her first “Vote for Mr. Rhythm” and her last “Do the Zombie” though perhaps she was featured a little too heavily. Guy Noir’s story was about him spending a few weeks in New York as a “surrogate,” standing in line for very busy New Yorkers, and almost getting cast as Emily Dickinson in a Broadway musical “Stop for Death” which his competition for the role said they “fleshed out” and turned into four acts.

Tales from Lake Wobegon covered what repressed Lutherans do when they get snowed in (stock up on carbs and fats, go to school in 8 feet of snow, keep old toothless women named Cooter in their houses, and relay their true feelings and opinions on the craigslist-esque zipzone.com). All in all a wonderful 2 and a half hours. Live broadcast from Town Hall tomorrow though I believe it’s sold out. Another Friday/Saturday run next week with Robin Williams.

[Update: I was pleased to see that Richard Dworsky was the leader of The Guy's All Star Shoe Band (Keillor's regular band. I was first introduced to Dworsky when reading the liner notes to the album by his sister, Sally Dworsky on which he played the piano accompaniment. I had first heard her perform "Red, Red, Robin" on PHC a year or two ago. Her presence there is now explained.]

[Update 2:  The show was linked together with the theme of love.  Raul Melo stole the show with his arias from La Boheme and especially Romeo and Juliet.  Garrison Keillor sang a number of love song duets with "sonnets" (Alison pointed out that they were definitely more than the appropriate 14 lines) interspersed through out them.  That alternation he does between stories and song (or in this case poems and song) was, as always, incredibly effective.  It was a nice melding of the theme of love in springtime and national poetry month.]

Neither Here Nor There

Jared, a friend and teacher, has an amazing gig working one-on-one with a student in Abu Dhabi.  He periodically sends transmissions of his experiences there.  Below are a few paragraphs that I found to be particularly enjoyable:

Speaking of driving, I had my first experience behind the wheel when Andrea and I took our trip to Oman, and I must say it was far less harrowing than I had expected, though the fact that we rented a car at the airport, which is half an hour out of town, limited the amount of city driving we had to do and kept us away from most of the automotive lunatic fringe I mentioned in my last email. What I did find interesting about the trip was the border crossing. In order to get to our hotel, we had to enter Oman, but we didn’t cross a legitimate border checkpoint and as a result did not have to have our passports stamped or show any form of identification. Instead what we got was a dude in camo gear with a machine gun standing in the middle of the road and basically waving as motorists immigrated and emigrated in front of him. I don’t think he would have even stopped me had I not rolled my window down in the expectation that he would demand some sort of ID from me. Quite to the contrary, we had a short and pleasant conversation that tested the limits of my current mastery of Arabic (”Hi, how are you? I’m good”) and then he asked me (in English) where I was from and told me how to get to the hotel. Apparently the Omanis are not very discriminating about who they let into their country. The experience reminded me of my stint in south Texas when I would frequently cross over into Mexico and back. Upon returning to the states, I was always subjected to the most thorough of inquisitions by the border patrol: “Are you an American citizen? Yes? Well then, go right ahead! We don’t need to see your ID; you’re white, so we trust you implicitly. Would you like to upgrade your crossing today to our Contraband Special by helping yourself to some illegal fireworks and non-native flora and fauna?” Thank god for the Homeland Security Act: your tax dollars hard at work.

All hyperbole aside, the concept of borders, geographical and otherwise, has come to fascinate me since I arrived here. In a country in which some boundaries, such as those governing interactions between men and women, are so clearly delineated, others, such as where one country ends and another begins, are remarkably fluid. What I find most interesting is that the very same boundary can be both rigid and dynamic depending on where and when you cross it. So as not to delve too deeply into the philosophical, I’ll illustrate with some examples.

In my short time here, I’ve been to Oman four times, each time entering it at a different place; only half those times have I needed to even present a passport and only once has it actually been stamped. Sometimes the border is demarcated by nothing more than the aforementioned dude with the machine gun; other times there are a whole series of toll-booth like gatehouses at which you must present, in a particular order, various legal documents that you may or may not have. And regardless of the type of border post (or lack thereof), it’s not always clear exactly when you have exited one nation and entered another. When going to Muscat, my friends and I first had to stop at the UAE side of the border, get exit visas stamped in our passports, and fill out some other forms. Then we got to the Oman side of the border where we had to get entry visas. Perfectly normal…except that the Oman side of the border is 25 miles away from the UAE side. Where exactly we were in those intervening 25 miles remains a mystery. Though we had officially left the UAE, we had not officially entered Oman. Even better, during one of my rock climbing trips with my boss and a co-worker, we were driving down a road between two fences. On the far side of one fence was the UAE; on the far side of the other, Oman. The road itself, however, was technically not in either country and apparently exists in some sort of liminal zone between the two nations, terra firma’s version of international waters, I suppose – I was tempted to open a casino or rebroadcast football games without the express written consent of the NFL just to see if I could get away with it.

“Alas, that love, whose view is muffled still / Should without eyes see pathways to his will!”

Jenn and I went to see Theater Breaking Through Barriers’s production of Romeo and Juliet tonight.  It was fantastic.  The entire play was performed with a four-actor cast playing the full range of roles.  Moreover, the show followed the TBTB practice of mixing able-bodied and disabled actors.  George Ashiotis was visually impaired if not fully blind (which it took us a while to figure out thanks to his phenomenal skills and a simple but ingenious physical compass rose on the stage floor) and Gregg Mozgala has cerebral palsy which affects the way he walks but not the way he jumps off the various 3 and 6-foot tiers of the multi-level stage.  The entire cast was particularly versatile with Ashiotis’s switching between the Juliet’s nurse and the priest being particularly well done and amusing.  Also, Emily Young’s Juliet was extremely well executed as was her interpretation of an awkward and foppish Paris.  Both of these pairings led to interesting scenes in which the actors engaged in dialog with themselves.  I have Neil Genzlinger’s brief review in the Times to thank for bringing the show to my attention - and now you have me.  The show runs through April 6th.  Call for tickets.  Now.  212-279-4200

Getting back on the (blogging) wagon . . .

The cries for more Rattle My Cage have been becoming too loud to ignore.  Things I still need to post on include: the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, Bruce Springsteen in St. Paul’s Xcel Center, The Red Stick Ramblers at Joe’s Pub, Tift Merritt’s show at Mercury Lounge, and Jerry Lee Lewis at Town Hall.   For now, however, I’ll leave you with a link to a brief article about my CSA farm here.

More soon, I hope.

Guilty Pleasures

So I recently became part of this international mix-tape collective courtesy of Winnie. Sometimes we just exchange mixes based on what we feel like. Sometimes the monthly mix is themed. This month is “Guilty Pleasures.” My mix as it stands now is as follow:

1) Feed My Frankenstein - Alice Cooper: This track from the Wayne’s World soundtrack breaks my thematic organziation but it does start the mix off with a bang.

2) Ignition (Remix) - R. Kelly: I loved this song when it came out in my time in Louisiana. I have a particular memory of hanging out in Eric’s yard, perhaps sipping on a concoction from Snoop Dog Daiquiri and singing this song over and over and over.

3) Iced Down Medallions - Royal Flush: On our way down to Myrtle Beach senior year, Mike, Luke, Elyssa, and I must have listened to this about a hundred times.

4) Ho Down - Nappy Roots - Kari introduced Priam, Monica, and me to this song on one of our trips down to New Orleans.

5) Eye Wish I Was a Tiger - The Flying Dewaele Brothers: This is a bootleg remix I discovered after reading about the FD brothers in the New York Times senior year of college.  It’s a mash-up of Ski Lo’s I Wish I Was a Little Bit Taller, and Survivor’s Eye of the Tiger.

6) Hollaback Girl - Gwen Stefani: I will never forget my camper, Brendan, begging me to play this on van rides with the promise that he knew where to turn the volume down for the “bad words.”

7) Don’t Leave Me This Way - Thelma Houston: I fell in love with this song from the Summer of Sam Soundtrack. The hook when she goes “Oh! Baby!” is infectious! Friend Like Me - This is my favorite song from Aladin. But really, there were so many to choose from.

9) Hakuna Matata - This track from the Lion King would get all the campers singing along. They were 14.

10) Wig in a Box - So I listen to the soundtrack from Hedwig. So what?

11) Gin and Juice - The Gourds: When this track was circulating the file sharing services sophomore year of college the attribution was to Phish. Not so.

12) Papa Loved Mama - Garth Brooks: I shouldn’t feel guilty for loving Garth because he’s great. But I do. Calling Baton Rouge, Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old) could have also appeared here.

13) Queen of My Double Wide Trailer - Sammy Kershaw: Brilliance.

14) I Don’t Even Know Your Name - Alan Jackson: I came on to this AJ song after I came back from the South. It’s stupid but funny.

15) You Ain’t Much Fun - Tobey Keith: It finishes, “since I quit drinkin’” One of his early hits I believe.

16) Tight Fittin’ Jeans - Conway Twitty: This is hysterical.

17) Me Neither - Brad Paisley: Typical BP word play on picking up a woman who is definitely not interested.

1 To Be With You - Mr. Big. All pleasure. No Guilt

19) Brown Eyed Girl - Me First and the Gimme Gimmes - Punk cover. Good stuff.

20) More Than Words - Extreme. Did the 90’s give us nothing else?

Johnny Cash Birthday Bash at Southpaw

 

This past Saturday, Matt and I went to the Johnny Cash Birthday Bash at shosted by the inimitable Alex Battles. We came in to the Susquehanna Tool and Die Company doing 50’s Cash as Cash and the Tennessee Two, later we saw some vintage video of the Man in Black, heard some tunes by WNYU’s Honky Tonk Radio Girl (I particularly appreciated Wynonie Harris’s Bloodshot Eyes) and then Alex Battles and the Whiskey Rebellion took the stage for a full run through–warden’s announcements and all–of the Live from Folsom Prison album. Then they played more. I refer you to Matt’s review here.

I hope to have links to some videos I shot up later.

Another Country

 

Tift Merritt’s third album, Another Country, drops today. Considering how much I liked hearing her new songs at her solo acoustic performances recently (reviews here and here) I’m impressed how much I like the full band versions. There’s a little less emphasis on her voices, but overall the band helps to set the mood without being too intrusive. “Another Country” works well with a harmony part while “Morning is My Destination” and “Keep You Happy” are evocative of the wonderful arrangements on Bramble Rose.

Bluesy Rock Over Broadway - Grace Potter and the Nocturnals at the Allen Room at Lincoln Center - 2/21/2008

This past Thursday Brooke and I went to see Grace Potter and the Nocturnals as part of the American Songbook series at Lincoln Center. This was the first time that either of us had been to the Allen Room which was stunning. The room is laid out beautifully and has a three story glass wall behind the performance area with a spectacular view over Columbus Circle and Central Park South. Photos aren’t allowed and the one I didn’t take didn’t turn out so well but you can get an idea by looking here and here. The room also had some of the best acoustics I’ve heard. Being in a space originally designed for music makes a difference. David Childs may have made a few mistakes when designing the Time Warner center, but this space is not one of them.

I wasn’t expecting much once we showed up. Despite loving a number of the tracks on Grace’s most recent album (which made the top 20 of WSGE’s top 100 albums of2007 ), I was concerned that the older and somewhat stodgy seeming crowd wouldn’t get into Grace’s youthful bluesy rock. Boy was I wrong! The first half of the show was pretty mellow, but the audience was totally into it. The second half really took off. The songs just became infused with more and more energy and when Grace shouted “Lincoln Center! Are you ready to get on your feet?!?!” everybody was. It wasn’t quite Pat Green or the Boss (t minus 22 days) energy. But it was the most energy I’ve felt at a show in a while. This was in no small part due to guitarist Scott Tournet’s shredding guitar solos. I had remembered some great rifs on the album and was initially disappointed by the sedate nature of his solos. In the second half he just simply came alive.

On a related note the whole band was tight. Grace was stellar on three different organs and occasionally picked up the sweetest looking V-shaped electric on a few songs. Bassist Bryan Dondero filled up the lower register with his continually nimble playing and drummer Matt Burr was clearly ready to go from the start. They were tight.

The annotated set list is below:

1) Ain’t No Time

2) Treat Me Right - This song built nicely with some especially funky riffs from Grace and Bryan

3) Mastermind - This song was very, very tight. I should note that Grace transitioned between all of these songs on the organ. All told the band opened by playing for almost twenty minutes straight. It was much appreciated.

4) Stage banter took a turn for the better here as Grace noted that “Just because we’re in a fancy venue doesn’t mean you can’t make noise.” The crowd obliged.

5) Stop the Bus - One of my favorites from the album. It features the lyric “Stop the bus and turn the radio up high / And grab the first guitar you” I love it. Grace and Scott were clearly having fun on this one.

6) Here’s to the Meantime - “If the devil made a fire you’d be the wood”

7) Can’t See Through - New song. Ballad. Not terrible. Not great. It did however feature the nice lyrics “cursing like a sailor, lying like a their.” Maybe I just like the phrase “cursing like a sailor.” [Update: I'm almost definitely mis-attributing the lyric to this song here. See the first comment below.] Ah Mary - The lead-off track on This is Somewhere. Originally intended as a B-side. Thankfully not.

9) Sugar - New song. Recorded at Sun Studios. Repeatedly featured the lyric “don’t need no sugar in my bowl.” The anti-Nina Simone feeling I guess.

10) Lose Some Time - Just her and Scott on acoustic I think (my notes aren’t clear on this).

11) Apologies - Grace solo on the Steinway. Very nice.

12) Over Again

13) Don’t Let the Rain Fall Down on Me - Absolutely killer guitar solo by Scott. Killer. I don’t remember if it was on this song or some other (I lost track a little when we all got up) but I think it was here that all the member of the band, with the exception of Matt, put down their instruments threw up their picks, picked up some drum sticks and all together on the one drum kit embarked on the best four person, five minute drum solo I’ve ever seen. At first I thought it was just going to be gimmicky but it was good and certainly fun. Scott or Bryan was the one on the stool at the kit and Matt was somewhere off to the right with Grace mainly playing the bass drum from the front. When Matt did take over the solo it was on mainly nontraditional items including a table, the speaker stand, the speaker, the wooden owl on the speaker, and a plastic water bottle some guy in the audience was holding up. We all ate it up.

14) “Nothing But the Water is Gonna Lay My Soul to Bear” - Grace started their last song with an acoustic intro that featured this last line of the chorus. The band then transitioned into an instrumental that had separate lyrics I believe but may have been part of the same song. They ended the set by having the audience clap and sing the chorus repeatedly with them as they stepped away from their mikes and walked off stage in line.

“Encore”) Big White Gate - A song for her mother on her birthday.

[Update: You can read Stephen Holden's review of the concert for the Times here]

How Great Thou Art - Gospel Favorites Live from the Grand Old Opry

I’m listening to this album for the second time right now while recoding some data for a paper.  I’m struck by how versatile these gospel classics are.  Some are the same ones I heard last weekend at Miller theater, but done in a very different style.  The versions on the album are more in the country genre but are also much more stripped down.  The power comes from the minimalism and the quality and nature of the vocalists.  Some are no surprise.  Loretta Lynn’s version of “Where No One Stands Alone” is wrenching and could ride just on her voice.  Others, however I think are quite unexpected.  For instance, Brad Paisley, better know for his comedy country hits such as “Me Neither” and “Alcohol” just totally nails “The Old Rugged Cross.”

I’m not sure that this compilation is a must.  But it is quite good.

The Good News - Eric Reed and the Reverend Thomas A. Dorsey at Miller Theater 2/16/2008

(The Reverend Thomas Dorsey at right on piano)

This past Saturday Matt, Dave, and I went to go hear a night of the compositions of the Reverend Thomas A. Dorsey (not to be confused with the band leader Tommy Dorsey) at Miller Theater with an ensemble led by the pianist Eric Reed and featuring trombonist, Wycliffe Gordon. The night was as much about education as it was the music itself and Eric gave us a good bit of background about the career of the good reverend as well as his music.

The concert was broken up into two parts. The first part focused on Dorsey’s blues compositions. And as Eric reminded us, Thomas once said that “The blues is just a good woman feeling bad” and sent this first half of double-entendre filled music on its way with the reminder that a good woman feeling bad still feels pretty good. They played an instrumental piece and then traded verses on a nice little ditty called “Bumpity-Bump,” an onomatopoetic euphemism. The was followed by the equally delightful but less obfuscated “It’s Tight Like That.” These tunes brought some good chuckles from the crowd and at least a few opportunities for the 11 year-old girl in front of us playing her Nintendo DS to consult her mother about why everyone was laughing.

Next we came to the second party.  We heard about some tragedy that befell the Reverend Dorsey and how he came to hear the Good News. This was good news for us because for because he brought out onto stage the amazing vocalist Ella Mitchell (who you might better remember as Big Mama), Damien Sneed (who you can catch having some serious fun here) on organ, Dezron L. Douglas (who was sporting a most excellent neck-beard) on stand-up and electric bass, McClenty Douglas Hunter Jr. on drums. They were accompanied by a chorus of a thousand voices: Stephanie Oplacio, Melonie Daniels, Bettina Harris, Faith Monah, Katrice Walker, and Linny Smith.

They began by featuring Ella Mitchell on “Everyday Will Be Sunday Bye and Bye” and by George it was incredible! The entire theater was instantly filled with a bright blast of sound and energy that just got everyone going. Even the 11 year-old put down the Nintendo DS for at least 15 seconds. This was followed by “Search Me Lord” which featured some delicate, subdued harmonies on the penultimate verse, Ella again on the song most of us know from Elvis Presley, “Peace in the Valley,” and “The Life I Sing About in My Song.”

Each one of these songs was worth the price of admission, but things just got better. We were treated to the variety of forms the Reverend Dorsey’s songs could take. The next two songs were different arrangements of “Walking Up the King’s Highway.” The first version featured Ella Mitchel and was bright and lively straight through. The second version was an alternate arrangemen by (I believe) W. C. Hawkins. This version featured Bettina Harris on lead and man oh man! did she ever bring it. This version was slower and smoother and featured more of a build toward the spectacular finale. Harris was performing these incredible acrobatics with her voice that were as powerful as they were nimble. She got serious applause for this and deserved it. We then got a multi-lead featuring all the vocalists on “Jesus Remembers When Others Forget.” When Ella got to hear verse it reminded me (as I needed to be after Harris’s feature) that despite the fact that she didn’t perform the same vocal tour de force that Harris did, there was a depth to her voice that conveyed age and conviction in a way that none of the others on stage could quite do. There was a reason she was sitting front and center and wearing bright pink.

The group then moved on to an interesting sequence where we heard the chorus perform the standard “Must Jesus Bear the Cross Alone” which Reed put directly into Dorsey’s adaptation of it which became “Precious Lord Take My Hand” featuring Ella. The ensemble then closed with “I’ll Be With You Until We Meet Again.” And despite an almost entirely standing ovation and Matt’s enthused cries of “More! More!” we heard no more of the Good News that night.

It would have to be church on Sunday for that.