From: owner-believers-digest@smoe.org (believers-digest) To: believers-digest@smoe.org Subject: believers-digest V2 #140 Reply-To: believers@smoe.org Sender: owner-believers-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-believers-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk believers-digest Tuesday, September 15 1998 Volume 02 : Number 140 In Today's believer's digest: ----------------- ATTN: SEATTLE FANS ["Charlie Sweeney" ] boston folk festival ["Stephen E. Moshkovitz" ] Re: ATTN: SEATTLE FANS [pauly on the shore ] Review from Boston Globe [Jeff Wasilko ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1998 06:41:00 -4000 From: "Charlie Sweeney" Subject: ATTN: SEATTLE FANS The show originally scheduled for 9/18 at the Greatful Bread had been moved, and th etime changed. The New info is as follows: Susan Werner at The Gift of Grace Church- 8:30 PM North 40th and Meridian info 206-622-0515 days 206-322-1351 evenings- ask for Robbi. Sorry for the inconvenience, once again a venue related problem. HELP! owner-believers@smoe.org Send mail to believers@smoe.org Susan's CD's are available on your desktop at songs.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1998 07:39:59 -0500 From: "Stephen E. Moshkovitz" Subject: boston folk festival Did anyone in the Boston area who wasn't fortunate enough to get to the show have a chance to tape it? Rock on! MOSH "I was two people at once: a Romantic with strong ideals on one hand, and at the same time a cruel observer with no mercy." - Ray Davies HELP! owner-believers@smoe.org Send mail to believers@smoe.org Susan's CD's are available on your desktop at songs.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1998 20:44:21 -0400 From: pauly on the shore Subject: Re: ATTN: SEATTLE FANS also sprach Charlie Sweeney: >Susan Werner at >The Gift of Grace Church- 8:30 PM uh oh. another church gig. is there a ramada inn nearby too? ;) +w HELP! owner-believers@smoe.org Send mail to believers@smoe.org Susan's CD's are available on your desktop at songs.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1998 00:09:39 -0400 From: Jeff Wasilko Subject: Review from Boston Globe Has anyone found the Billboard review yet? - -Jeff MUSIC REVIEW Plenty of great folk, not enough folks By Scott Alarik, Globe Correspondent, 09/14/98 What if they gave a folk festival and nobody came? That was very nearly the question answered by last weekend's musicially exciting, free, and yet woefully under-attended attempt to launch the first-ever Boston Folk Festival. Sponsored by a variety of cultural organizations under the umbrella of local folk station WUMB-FM, the event was a major artistic success on nearly every level. But its startlingly sparse crowds - barely a thousand on Saturday and a few hundred at best on Sunday - left real doubts whether the Boston area, which boasts scores of successful small folk venues, will support this large an event. Watching what was happening onstage, however, offered more satisfying ruminations. Evidence was everywhere of a major generational shift in the music, of legacies being honored and new traditions born, of torches being passed from those who ignited the '60s revival to a hot new wave of folk musicians. Kentucky banjo virtuoso J. D. Crowe, for example, was once the fierce bluegrass rebel, the maverick who ignited the newgrass revival and launched the careers of such innovators as Tony Rice and Ricky Skaggs. Saturday, he was every inch the white-haired elder statesman of bluegrass, his banjo playing elegantly melodic and spacious, even during breakneck blues runs and hot exchanges with fluid dobroist Phil Ledbetter. The zesty and irresistible young Freight Hoppers drew cheers Sunday with their deeply traditional yet fiery brand of old-timey music. Their playing was laugh-out-loud joyful yet always smooth, savvy, and steeped in tradition. Torches were passed on the songwriter front, too, as up-and-coming Philadelphia troubadour Susan Werner managed to excite a scattered crowd of a couple hundred at the main stage Saturday. She handily filled the meadowy common with her expansive soprano and brightly pulsing folk-pop melodies. Tom Paxton, among the most prolific and influential of '60s folk songwriters, unabashedly milked his seniority for laughs. In a masterful yet front-porch friendly set, he said we need topical songs now more than ever, then proved it with a savage roasting of Linda Tripp and a cautionary ditty called ''Zip It Up,'' aimed at, well, you know. When he sang his lovelorn classic ''Last Thing on My Mind,'' prefacing it with wistful recollections of his salad days at fabled local coffeehouses like the Unicorn and Club 47, the lonely ballad became a hymn to the enduring powers of folk music. Odetta, another '60s folk hero and still a stage-owning force of nature, displayed her deep, bold voice at its emotional best. She sings the way a great jazz musician plays, treating each verse as a separate journey, and she roamed with an improvisational immediacy that made chestnuts like ''Shenandoah,'' ''This Old Hammer,'' and even ''Kumbaya'' seem shiny and new. Among lesser-known highlights were the Disabled in Action Singers. With their topical wit and rabble-rousing balladry, they are an Almanac Singers for the disabled, and a provocative treat for any who love timely lyrics and heart-lifting melodies. Bill and Bonnie Hearne, longtime sweethearts of the Southwest folk scene, offered beautifully sung ballads set to an adorably gentle Western gait. And the Blazers brought a rivetingly merry, rock-solid pulse to their rootsy Latino rock. Sunday, the festival moved to Back Bay, and the crowds were even thinner. On Newbury Street, only 30 or so watched the Silverleaf Gospel Quartet offer their classic church harmonies. At the Prudential Center, brilliant fiddler Matt Glaser's informal band smartly pushed the edges of folk and jazz. A morose Emily Dickinson poem became an alluringly phobic blues, sung with mesmerizing tension by Jennifer Kimball, but barely 50 saw this eccentric and captivating jam session. Pondering the paltry attendance will surely be a hot topic at the coffeehouses this year. Perhaps local folk legions simply prefer to assemble in companies rather than divisions, in the familiar intimacy of the nearest folk club. Or perhaps the word was not sufficiently spread that the festival was happening. Apart from the attendance, however, everything was first-rate and argued for taking another shot at establishing an annual Boston Folk Festival. The sound everywhere was magnificent, the stages attractive and well managed, the lineup exciting and diverse. As deadline loomed, cheerful contradance caller Sarah Smith, exuberantly backed by the Freight Hoppers, was teaching steps to eager novice dancers by Tower Records. Any event that can teach Newbury Street to do-si-do is worth a second look. This story ran on page B08 of the Boston Globe on 09/14/98. © Copyright 1998 Globe Newspaper Company. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - HELP! owner-believers@smoe.org Send mail to believers@smoe.org Susan's CD's are available on your desktop at songs.com ------------------------------ End of believers-digest V2 #140 ******************************* --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------- This has been a posting from the Susan Werner believers-digest To unsubscribe send mail to Majordomo@smoe.org with "unsubscribe believers-digest" in the body of the message