From: owner-believers-digest@smoe.org (believers-digest) To: believers-digest@smoe.org Subject: believers-digest V3 #188 Reply-To: believers@smoe.org Sender: owner-believers-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-believers-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk believers-digest Monday, September 6 1999 Volume 03 : Number 188 In Today's believer's digest: ----------------- wow.. [Ockod@aol.com] Concert Under the Stars [dkaskela ] Re: Concert Under the Stars ["Tim Dunleavy" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 5 Sep 1999 23:02:27 EDT From: Ockod@aol.com Subject: wow.. Impressive show in upper merion... don't have a set list..but opened with what apprears to be a new song...don't have a title....but it was about a owning a new house and finding love around the corner.. very nice... willing to put my $15-17 towards a new album right now.... Dan... 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, 06 Sep 1999 00:17:10 -0400 From: dkaskela Subject: Concert Under the Stars Hi All- Went to the Susan Werner "Concert Under the Stars" show tonight. It wasn't!-under the stars, that is. As Susan quipped "Is it just me?" as for the second time Susan was rained out. The good news was that for those lucky enough to get in before she sold out the auditorium the sound was great as she showcased new material as well as satisfying renditions of old favorites! As Dan indicated she started with a new song,one of several, called (I'm guessing) Love Down the Street Tappan Zee Last of the Good Straight Girls Gotta See the Body Year of the Bad President Gypsy Lips, Vagabond Eyes Time Between Trains Sorry About Jesus Jesus Christ, Ain't I Lonely Tonight then the new Dow Song Like Bonsai then "the piano portion of the show" with another new song co-written with Shirley Eichard (sp?) Why Do You Bother At All Maybe If I Sang Cole Porter Much At All (with a postscript of the Everly Bros. song Walk Right Back) Movie of My Life then back to the guitar for Standing In My Own Way Born to Late as an encore she came back for two songs Turn, Turn, Turn (the Byrds song) Help and yes, she did know all the words, and no, we didn't laugh at her. Susan seemed relaxed, even though she had driven from a show "someplace, I can't remember the name" in Virginia the previous night and really interacted with the audiance since she was near home and said she could just "let go". It was nice to see Charlie, with an entourage, to meet Tim, and see other friends and believers. Sorry we didn't meet Amy but hope the show was everything you expected! And Laura, she got the note, said thank you very much, and that it was the least she could. Also she's really excited about the New Years Eve show with Jill Sobule at the Tin Angel. Steve, Keith and Sherlyn- look for mail! Dave 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, 6 Sep 1999 01:25:21 -0400 From: "Tim Dunleavy" Subject: Re: Concert Under the Stars Dave, thanks for posting the setlist. If there was ever a set that needed documentation, it was this one. Not only was this a great show, it was one of the most *quotable* Susan shows I've ever seen. Susan played a hilarious show that was, as she said at one point, like playing on her home stadium. The crowd hung on her every word... and they even added a few words of their own! The show started with a mediocre opening set by Jen Cauvin. Not much interest from me in someone who writes a song called "Love Letter" and rhymes "heart" with "from the start", "love" with "heavens above"... you get the idea. Susan started with a charming song called "Love Down The Street" which she described as a "new this week" song. The title is self-explanatory. She apologized for letting down everyone who was expecting a depressing love song! Later, her first song at the piano was a new song-- first time performed in this area, she said-- called "Why Do You Bother At All?" Sarcastic, bitter, and funny. She said it was one of several songs she wrote this summer with Shirley Eikhard, "who wrote a song a few years back called 'Something to Talk About.' Shirley has a very big house." This marked my first time hearing the Dow song and "Vagabond Mouth," and they were each a pleasure. "Much At All" ended with a new instrumental coda: the Everly Brothers/Sonny Curtis song "Walk Right Back" played on the highest notes of the keyboard. I expected her to return to her original melody, but she didn't-- and that made it all the more poignant. After all, "Walk Right Back" says directly what "Much At All" only hints at. And by playing it as an instrumental, she *still* managed to avoid saying it directly. Brilliant touch. (One quibble: I don't think "Much At All" is a song that benefits from Susan's habitual jazzing up of the melody and meter. It worked tonight on "Tappan Zee" and "Standing In My Own Way," but in "Much At All" the original melody is so heartbreakingly beautiful that I prefer to hear it "clean." But I'm sure that would bore her, so I'll just have to grit my teeth, then come home and play the CD.) After the first song she mentioned that she didn't have a setlist written down; sure enough, after the second song a woman in the third row yelled out "Bonsai!" Susan said "Oh, it's not going to be one of those shows, is it? That's not the next song in my head..." But the woman persisted, saying she had brought her mother to the show just to hear that song-- "and she hates folk music!" Well, you can imagine how it snowballed from there. It was the kind of night where people would just call things out, but nothing stopped the show-- Susan fed on the energy of the audience and every comment would lead her down a different road. There was her commandeering of the gavel from the township commissioners' table behind her. Then there was the moment when she announced she was going to play piano, and got applause-- which prompted her to say "You mean you've just been waiting the whole show for that?" "You're too sensitive!" called out a woman. "OK," said Susan, "this side of the room has an attitude problem... Are there many insensitive songwriters?" There was her discussion of hearing a performer (Greg Brown?) at the Rocky Grass festival say that he loved that festival because it was the best setting for a folk festival-- "you can go straight from the stage to fly fishing." Susan said that her ideal setting for a folk festival would be "one where you can go straight from the stage to the Marriott. The Hyatt Schwenksville...." There was her extended discourse on Wawa stores, where she went into how much she loves them and even asked if there were any employees in the audience (there was one). A woman spoke up and said "They have the Rendell hoagie" (a reference to Ed Rendell, mayor of Philadelphia). "Really? I was not aware of this-- how many people have heard of the Rendell Hoagie?" About ten percent of the audience raised their hands. "What's on the Rendell hoagie?" "A lot of baloney," replied the woman-- to groans and applause-- while Susan gave her best Oliver Hardy deadpan reaction. "Do you have five more minutes of material? Did you have that joke prepared?" (Hey, I didn't see it coming either....) There really was a great vibe to the show. After the show, thanks to Charlie, I finally got formally introduced to Susan. Hey, after six years and 23 shows, I figured it was about time! Susan and Jane both brought their boyfriends to the show; Susan's guy pretty much watched the whole autograph-signing line with a big grin (can you blame him?). Susan said the only downside to the show was that there was so much unexpected laughter, it took her a long time to get to the more serious material. Still, it didn't prevent her from giving an inspired musical performance. Although the audience consisted of devoted fans who've seen her at this venue for years, most of them had never heard her newer material. It was great to hear their reaction to it. The last time I saw her at the Concerts Under the Stars series was 5 or 6 years ago when she opened for Christine Lavin. Can't wait for the next time. - -Tim - -----Original Message----- From: dkaskela >Hi All- > Went to the Susan Werner "Concert Under the Stars" show tonight. It >wasn't!-under the stars, that is. As Susan quipped "Is it just me?" as for >the second time Susan was rained out. The good news was that for those >lucky enough to get in before she sold out the auditorium the sound was >great as she showcased new material as well as satisfying renditions of old >favorites! > As Dan indicated she started with a new song,one of several, called (I'm >guessing) > > Love Down the Street > Tappan Zee > Last of the Good Straight Girls > Gotta See the Body > Year of the Bad President > Gypsy Lips, Vagabond Eyes > Time Between Trains > Sorry About Jesus > Jesus Christ, Ain't I Lonely Tonight >then the new Dow Song > Like Bonsai > >then "the piano portion of the show" with another new song co-written with >Shirley Eichard (sp?) > > Why Do You Bother At All > Maybe If I Sang Cole Porter > Much At All (with a postscript of the Everly Bros. song Walk Right Back) > Movie of My Life > >then back to the guitar for > > Standing In My Own Way > Born to Late > >as an encore she came back for two songs > > Turn, Turn, Turn (the Byrds song) > Help > >and yes, she did know all the words, and no, we didn't laugh at her. > Susan seemed relaxed, even though she had driven from a show "someplace, I >can't remember the name" in Virginia the previous night and really >interacted with the audiance since she was near home and said she could >just "let go". > It was nice to see Charlie, with an entourage, to meet Tim, and see other >friends and believers. Sorry we didn't meet Amy but hope the show was >everything you expected! And Laura, she got the note, said thank you very >much, and that it was the least she could. Also she's really excited about >the New Years Eve show with Jill Sobule at the Tin Angel. > Steve, Keith and Sherlyn- look for mail! >Dave 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 V3 #188 ******************************* --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------- 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