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| Don Conoscenti blew into town in the Lavender Cloud (which needed new
tires) just in time to relax and eat a bit before his concert. He had driven
all the way from Kansas and was rarin' to go. And what a concert it was!
About 70 people listened, laughed, joked around and generally had a good
time hearing some good music.
Don set up four instruments for his concert - a beautiful acoustic slide guitar, a 12-string electric (played at a very pleasant volume), a 6-string acoustic and a banjo that he'd fallen in love with at the Rocky Mountain Folks Festival a year ago. He played them all in about equal proportion through the evening. Starting with "Only the Truth" on the slide guitar, he settled the audience in. Then he picked up the electric to begin an interesting method he carried through the rest of the show. He would play a song, go straight into an instrumental bridge and another song, then sometimes even a third. It was an interesting way to do a show, that the audience, judging from the applause when they finally got the chance, enjoyed tremendously. The first of those started with "The Burren," an instrumental pseudo-Celtic piece inspired by a bar by the same name, named after a place in Ireland with standing stones. That turned into "Crooked Little Smile" which then became "Anastasia." |
Don talked about his new hobby of photo journalling to try to document
all the strange things he sees travelling around the country, and the strange
folks he meets like Ples who claimed to be Will Roger's grandson, an interesting
fellow to say the least. He talked about the Rio Grande which starts in
Colorado and flows through his adopted home town of Alamosa, and he picked
up the banjo to play his tribute to the "Beautiful Valley", which then
became "Vigilante Man".
One of the few songs he did by itself was "The Other Side" which his audiences say put them in touch with lost loved ones. It was magical. The title song from his new album, "Paradox of Grace," inspired by grafitti seen along the road, segued into the title song from a previous album, "Brilliant Masterpiece." "Mysterious Light", on the other hand, has developed into a different kind of medley. Don didn't have any choice about the encore - the audience was so thick in the front that he couldn't get out of the stage area until they were ready to let him go. He finished the encore with the sing-along "Drink Another Round" and crept through the audience still singing. |
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| After the four amazing weeks of Wildflower and Kerrville, Tom Payne stopped by for a few days and a concert on June 16. He has rarely performed in this area and it was a special treat. | Tom has an amazing way of making powerful social comments with such seemingly \ innocent lines as "You can buy a whole chicken for just five ninety-five" and "I'm your one bozo today." Tom Noe says those lines are still playing on his brain radio all these weeks later. It was a pleasure to host the concert and get to know this special California songwriter. |
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| Four days later, May 5, Eric Taylor brought his unique music, and surprised us with the wonderful Susan Lindfors. Susan sang harmonies with several of Eric's songs, and did a few of her own as well. | Eric started with a few songs from his Resurrection album, including "Walk on Back to Texas" and "Two Fires". He did Townes Van Zandt's "Buy a Little Mercy" and his own "Chicken Pie," which once got him thrown out of a Catholic church. He talked about the UU Church, shooting mudballs, and sang "Solid Gone," the story of Curtis and Delia, partly from Willy McTell and partly from Pegleg Sam from Spartanburg, SC. | He finished the concert with Tom's favorite "Joseph Cross."
The picking circle was exceptional, with Donna and Kelly (from Still on the Hill) sitting in as well as Eric and Susan and a wide array of our local folk. |
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Ellis Paul started us out on May
Day with large crowd on a Tuesday evening, very unusual for us. He rewarded
us with a new song, just 2 days old - I think it was called "Why
Do We Fall So Fast" - and broke a string.
While changing it, he told us about Sandy and the Tornado. During the next song he broke another string. The rest of the concert, however, went without a hitch. We sang along with the ones we knew, but were treated to several new songs including "The Speed of Trees" and "Bryant Street," cowritten with Darryl Purpose. He also threw in a few cover tunes, including three from Woody Guthrie. He joked with the audience, mingled at the break, mugged the camera as he showed Tom the chords for "Did Galileo Pray" again and generally had a good time. So did we all. |
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The Banded Geckos did a kind of reunion concert. Two previous members,
Fred and Gary, joined them occasionally throughout the concert. They kicked
it off with their delightful signature rendition of the Inkspots hit Java
Jive with all five voices. This was followed by a variety of mostly
original songs by band members and few by friends, from straight-ahead
folk to swing, blues, romantic and down-right schmaltzy. Each member and
erstwhile member did a song or two of his own, including a banjo instrumental
(Remington's Run) from Grey and Jenny I Sold My Prize Bull for
You from Gary.
The song circle after the concert faded from wonderful original songs to a Beatles retrospective. Tom said, "How many songs did the Beatles write? I think these guys know them all!" |
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| There's too much to say and too little space to say it in. Dave and
Tracy looked great and sounded great, and the mythological music continues
to grow.
Dave introduces his songs with the same level of poetry with which he writes them. He talked about trying to "break the lacquer bucket of the logical mind"; "piling illusion on illusion until you have a whole castle and then one day, either by chance or on purpose, you pull out the keystone"; hitch hiking while in college with a cello and getting picked up by Merle Haggard; inspiration at the Taco Den in Shasta Lakes, CA; and a mystical experience in a math class that led him to attend the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology. He introduced Gentle Arms of Eden with a story about us, including this place, Tom's telescopes, the concerts and religious discussions over breakfast. Tanglewood Tree is "Everly Brothers meets John Bradshaw". A new song, Power and Glory, is a "hero's journey for songwriters". Farewell to St. Delores is post-modern blues, and we got a taste of a brand new song called Quick-Draw Southpaw's Last Hurrah. Both voices and instruments sounded better than ever, if that's possible. If you missed this concert, you missed a real gem. Get the new album when it comes out next month! |
Relaxing a bit before the show... |
It was the month for the Smiths. When Tom mentioned that they might be brothers at the beginning of the second concert, Michael said, "Actually, we're the same guy." With little talking between them, Michael Smith took us through a perfect mix of old and new songs. We sang along with Tom Mix (Tall in the Saddle), Crazy Mary, and the vocal instrumental in Famous in France. A bright little sea chanty, Unless Somebody Drowns, was followed by another new song, Finely Done. Many of us were in tears at the end of the first set for Byron's song about Kerrville, I Came to See the Little Girl Dance. The second set started with audience-pleasing classics, but then bowled us over with the new, hilarious Life Gets Pretty Zippy When You Quit Doing Weed. When we all got up off the floor and stopped wiping the tears out of our eyes he brought us back with another new one, Look Look followed by Red Leaves of October and Big Twist. |
The second set ended with a new, short, bitchy song we all identified with: You may see me walking down the street crying You may see me walking down the street smiling But you'll never see me walking down the street dialing. The encore brought us Elvis Imitator and Spoon River. Michael, even with his low-key persona, energized the crowd so much that the song circle went until after 1am on a Tuesday night! |
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| For the month we had concerts from two guys named Smith, both wonderful
concerts from excellent songwriters, they were, however, quite different.
John was his usual cheerful self, if a bit sunburned, and had us singing
or smiling along from the beginning.
John has an amazing ability to deal with the most serious issues, like the death of a parent (That's My Dad), alzheimers (From His Window), and child-rearing (Where are You Going) in songs that end up feeling good. It's like he's worked the problem through to its solution, or to a level of comfort at least, before he writes the song. |
Even the funny songs, like the Jesus, Oh Jesus (about
a near-miss with a tornado) deal with serious situations, even beyond the
obvious, and have a reason to be. You might call it a moral, but it doesn't
come across as preachy but rather as a story that has not only an end,
but a meaning.
No matter how gloomy things seem to be, "look up ahead, there's a hole in the clouds," a bright outlook that has sustained this son, friend, husband and father through good times and bad. John is always a joy to have around. |
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| Don Haynie and Sheryl Samuel have been travelling around
this country in a motor home doing their music for a long time. They've
learned a lot about life and America, and it comes across in their songs
and their presence.
Lots of folks came out in spite of the rain and the mud, and they got what they came for. Don and Sheryl started out with the title song from their newest album, "Playin' in the Minors" and continued the theme with "Still In the Game." They're big fans of minor league baseball, where the game is still the game and not so much a business deal. Wouldn't it be nice if professional sports weren't just about the money? Several songs in the evening were inspired by travelling, including "Sign On the Interstate" about a town that got passed by, "Stations Along the Way" and "Blue Highway." There was a need expressed for a new bumpersticker in "Idiot at the Wheel." I think marketing might be a problem, but there are sure folks who need it. Sweet sadness in "My Grandmother's Piano" was balanced by the nervous energy of "Are You Sure That Was Decaf?" Sometimes waitresses get a little mixed up. |
If you love beautiful, tight vocal harmonies, you have to love this
pair. No one does it better. The too-short show ended with the audience
singing along with Don's famous anthem, "Great Divide".
The song circle after the show was also lots of fun, with new faces and new songs and lots of talent. We missed Bill Nash, who was off at the Folk Alliance Conference in Vancouver, and look forward to his return at the next concert. |
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| Rich and Jacquie were at least as much fun as we thought they would
be. They arrived just 6 minutes before showtime (we started a little late)
and by way of introduction Tom read a little poem by James Durst called
Pre-Minstral
Syndrome to the very crowded room.
The Spuds took it all in good humor and launched into it with a signature song, Keep Me in Mind. Jacquie was back in form after a severe injury in which she removed the tip of her thumb. A doctor from Iceland restored it, and she's been in therapy for 6 months. One of the abilities she had recently regained was the finger-snap. Good thing - that's one of the coolest things about their performance of Boy Around the Corner. |
They dedicated their perfect rendition of the Heidi Muller song
Talk
a Little Texan to an 88-year-old woman named Evelyn who kept asking
her niece to play the recoridng over and over again. Evelyn died this year.
We heard about the Toilet Seat Museum in the garage of 79-year-old Barney Smith, a story that puts craziness in a little better perspective, and Michael Smith's Crazy Mary from Londonderry was the sweetest I've heard, bringing the story into crisp focus. Moving on to the ridiculous, we all sang along with Honoluluwhoopitiyiyo. How could you not? |
The first set ended with a little mouth music, the award-winning
1000
Cranes, the wry They're Not Normal Like Us with a reference
to pro wrestling and the song they learned from Paul and me, Waltz of
the Wallflowers, a dysfunctional duet. What a set!
The second set kept up the pace with lots of Celtic music, originals like The Dollar Song and Violets are Red, a song written for Patsy Cline (who didn't use it) and requested by Woody. Wonderful cover tunes like Hope is What I Need by Dave Morrison of Pasadena CA and Avocado by Pete Norman of Sandwich IL enriched the show. |
A little yodelling to loosen things up in Big Ole Prairie Moon
and a classic encore I Will Pass This Way Again and we were done.
Rich Prezioso and Jacquie Manning always present an engaging, exciting, enjoyable show and this one was no exception. We hope to be able to bring them back many times. The song circle was quite a bit of fun. Paul and I did a song for the Iowans in the room (and there were several) and later nervously performed Jacquie's song Waltz of the Wallflowers for her and Rich. Paul also had a hilarious tribute song for Tom, commemorating his motorcycle encounter with the concrete truck and written to the tune of Pierce Pettis's She Walked Away Just Like Jim Brown. Sorry, Paul, I'm afraid there will have to be a sequel. |
by Linda M. Silas
lsilas@wtd.net
Copyright ©
1998 The Annex Studios