From: owner-believers-digest@smoe.org (believers-digest) To: believers-digest@smoe.org Subject: believers-digest V2 #39 Reply-To: believers@smoe.org Sender: owner-believers-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-believers-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk believers-digest Sunday, March 15 1998 Volume 02 : Number 039 In Today's believer's digest: ----------------- susan at the iron horse in northampton, ma (3/13) ["Stephen E. Moshkovitz] Re: believers-digest V2 #37 [E100QUITY ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 14 Mar 1998 11:26:53 -0600 From: "Stephen E. Moshkovitz" Subject: susan at the iron horse in northampton, ma (3/13) Okay, here's the rundown of Susan's show last night in Northampton MA. The show was at the legendary Iron Horse, a fairly small and intimate setting that has hosted virtually anyone you can think of from the contemporary folk scene (Dar Williams, Cheryl Wheeler, Vance Gilbert, Ellis Paul, Moxy Fruvous, Patty Larkin...). Apparently there were going to be two shows originally (7 and 10), but for some reason the 10:00 was cancelled. This, of course, was fine by me, as it meant she had no time limit for the 7:00 show. The show opened with a Boston area performer named Kevin So. Kevin is very cool. He opened with a tune called "Five Days in Memphis". He started to play, made some more adjustments to his guitar, and then added that he'd be playing "the in-tune version". He then followed with "Krista", "Cadillac Queen" (inspired by Tom Waits, although his TW impersonation reminded me more of Louis Armstrong), "Hathaway's Song" (played at the piano and dedicated to Donny Hathaway, Michael Hedges, and Stevie Ray Vaughan), and the title track of his new album, "Individual". He came back for one encore and someone in the audience requested "How Did Bruce Lee Die" [real title, I believe, being "Bruce Lee Blues"]. He closed the song, and his set, with "Spice Girl kick!! Just call me Sporty!" He's got some great tunes, and the presence to pull it off. If you can check him out, do so, especially if you get to see him do the pocket dance (trust me, it'll make sense when you see it). Right, then Susan came on. She wasn't as casually dressed as the Valentine's Day gig in Concord, last night wearing black pants, and a white blouse over a red t-shirt. She opened with David Cooper's "Standing In My Own Way". After the song she looked around and asked "Anybody jonesing for a smoke? Is this a non-smoking club? Don't you hate that? You're doing fine and then someone goes and mentions it!" Then, after verifying that the forecast for the next day was cold, she went into "Petaluma Afternoons" complete with the ending involving tube tops, roof tops, baby oil, 17 magazine and pictures of Parker Stevenson, and the Doobie Brothers. Then it was time to start exploring her new direction of songwriting - that being "profound feelings of personal inadequacies". From there she went into "Your Old Mistake" After that it was time to reveal that the secret to having a good romantic relationship was to "lower the bar" and next up was "Bad At Love". She then addressed the crowd, "I know some of you are married... Thanks for coming anyway." She then went on to compare marriage to a ferris wheel - sometimes you're at the top, and the view is just amazing. You're glad you came and that you bought the ticket. Sometimes, though, you're at the bottom right by the carnie. She then admitted that "I'm secretly hoping you break up and keep coming back to my shows." From there she went on to "Last Of The Good Straight Girls", and mentioned that with her little cold/flu/chicken virus she "sounds more Etheridge". She followed that with Mike Sumner's "I Can't Let You In". Then she starts the intro to "Yes To You (Tappan Zee). She said it's like the old show "Let's Make A Deal". Do you want the box or the curtain? The box is right there. It has silverware, china, even health benefits. But she chose the curtain. Toward the end of the song she starts into "Going to the chapel and not gonna get married..." Somehow the subject of the Grammys came up, and with the exception of the two women sitting behind me, no one watched them. Susan then started talking about how Luciano Pavoratti cancelled his appearance at the last minute, and that Aretha Franklin filled in for him, singing the tenor part of a section of "Turandot". However, she added, Pavoratti said he will definitely come back next year to make up for it. Then came her impression of Luciano singing "Chain Of Fools". Way too accurate. Next up came "Love Her Alone". Then she was talking about Northampton. "Where's the other H? Come on, North Hampton. No wonder people think you're uppity! I'm from Piladelphia." I was very close to telling her that they put it into Amherst (which everyone in the Pioneer Valley pronounces "Am-erst"). She then played "Weird In School/Sorry About Jesus And All That" [still unsure about the title] and a new (to me) song called, I think, "My Little Town". This was followed by "Already The Grey" and how she has already caved in a little (she lightened her hair just a tad), and by "Bonsai". She asked if we thought it was weird about the girl not going to high school. She used the Iron Horse as a focus group and took a survey of how many of our parents didn't go to college (about half), and how many of our parents didn't go to high school (only a handful). The crowd seemed somewhat hesitant to respond to that part of the song, at which point my friend said, "Maybe if you had a better introduction... Not that yours was bad!" Susan responded, "A better introduction? Great, thanks. No, really. Are you okay with the fact that everyone's looking at you? Yeah, they can only see the back of your head, but with your blue sweater and white top..." She was then at the piano (a real piano that the Iron Horse has, not her usual keyboard) for "Much At All", Cole Porter's "You'd Be So Easy To Love", and, possibly my favourite new song of hers, "Movie Of My Life". She closed the regular set with "Pleaure To Be Here". She came back for the encore and did another new song, "Lucky Things", with Kevin So on harmonica, and she closed with "When Will I Be Loved". As always, she was amazing! However, I just found out that I will be unable to attend her May 2nd show in Framingham, as my friend is getting married that weekend. I passed on an invitation to Susan, but since it's not being catered, she said "Forget it". Therefore, I am going to request that a fellow believer get all the info on that show, so I'll know what I missed. Rock on! MOSH "I'm gonna have to get in touch With my inner adult someday." -JJ - -************************************************************************************* - -This has been a posting from the Susan Werner "believers" list - -To unsubscribe send mail to Majordomo@smoe.org with "unsubscribe believers"in the body of the message. - -To post to the list send mail to believers@smoe.org - -To reach a human, send to charlies@voicenet.com - -Susan's CD's are available on your desktop at songs.com - -************************************************************************************* ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 14 Mar 1998 15:17:30 EST From: E100QUITY Subject: Re: believers-digest V2 #37 Saw Susan at the Iron Horse. My first Susan show. She was as great as I have been told. What can I say? I'm in love. Can't wait for her new album----July 1998 release date. Bob - -************************************************************************************* - -This has been a posting from the Susan Werner "believers" list - -To unsubscribe send mail to Majordomo@smoe.org with "unsubscribe believers"in the body of the message. - -To post to the list send mail to believers@smoe.org - -To reach a human, send to charlies@voicenet.com - -Susan's CD's are available on your desktop at songs.com - -************************************************************************************* ------------------------------ End of believers-digest V2 #39 ****************************** -************************************************************************************* -This has been a posting from the Susan Werner "believers" list -To unsubscribe send mail to Majordomo@smoe.org with "unsubscribe believers-digest" in the body of the -message. -To post to the list send mail to believers@smoe.org -To reach a human, send to charlies@voicenet.com -Susan's CD's are available on your desktop at songs.com -*************************************************************************************