From: owner-believers-digest@smoe.org (believers-digest) To: believers-digest@smoe.org Subject: believers-digest V4 #146 Reply-To: believers@smoe.org Sender: owner-believers-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-believers-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk believers-digest Sunday, August 20 2000 Volume 04 : Number 146 In Today's believer's digest: ----------------- Rosalie Sorrels at McCabes (Tons of Content and a bit Long) ["Ron Rosen" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 19 Aug 2000 08:33:21 -0700 From: "Ron Rosen" Subject: Rosalie Sorrels at McCabes (Tons of Content and a bit Long) I went to see Rosalie Sorrels at McCabes last night. Rosalie Sorrels, for those of you who are not paying attention, wrote The Baby Tree which Paul Kantner does. That is the reason that I decided to go. The audience was much older than any McCabe's audience I have ever seen. Real folkies from the '50s and early '60s. Rosalie Sorrels is 67 and still singing. More power to her. She is a real straight ahead folk singer with a nice voice. Sings and writes simple songs with a lot of musical and emotional power. Rosalie just did a tribute album to Malvina Reynolds, the 100th anniversary of whose birth occurs next week. Malvina didn't start writing until she was around 50. Malvina wrote Little Boxes which was a hit for Pete Seeger. She also wrote What Have they Done to the Rain which Joan Baez recorded. She also wrote The Magic Penny which every kid knows, "Love is something if you give it away, give it away, give it away, You get back even more." She mentioned several people who appear on the Malvina tribute album including a bass player who plays with Santana and "Will Scarlett, a harmonica player who has played with Hot Tuna." Rosalie did several Malvina songs, a few of her own, one by Kate Wolf, and a few by her friend Bruce (U. Utah) Phillips. The encore was Rock, Salt and Nails by Phillips, a particularly bitter song whose lyrics I've included below. Dylan recorded it on the Basement Tapes. Rosalie said she first heard it from Utah at a party and was the first one to learn it and play it. Rosalie loves to tell stories and mention names. She's hung out with everybody who was anybody in folk music. Having been in and around Berkeley during the magical years, she had a lot of mentions for Country Joe MacDonald. She used this reference to tell a story about how Malvina once used the F-word in a song during a live radio interview with a DJ who was giving her too much attitude. I felt her stories went on too long and went off on too many tangents taking the place of more songs she could have done. She told one story about a beaver who was building a dam near her house, which is in the woods. The dam was threatening to wash out the road and the beaver was chopping down a lot of aspen trees. She called Fish and Game and one man said to her "Ma'am, I hear you're having a problem with your beaver." She then told another story about how a bunny and a beaver decided they had had enough of their names being used in a degrading fashion to refer to women. So they decided to dress up in a bear suit and go into the bar where fox and coyote drink. As they were entering the bar, their costume got caught on the swinging doors, revealing who was inside the bear suit. The fox turned to the coyote and said, "Look at the beaver on that bunny!" She was accompanied by a guitarist named Nina Gerber. Gerber was ok, but sometimes detracted from Rosalie's singing. Gerber is there because Sorrels isn't a complete guitar player like Jorma Kaukonen or Susan Werner. But I could have done without some of the lead guitar lines stepping on the vocals making it hard to hear the lyrics. They will be in Berkeley next week for Malvina Reynold's 100th birthday celebration. Rock, Salt and Nails Bruce (U. Utah) Phillips On the banks of the river, Where the willow hangs down On the wild washing waters, With that low mourning sound. Down in the hollow Where the water runs cold, It was there I first listened To the lies that you told. Now I lie on my bed, And I see your sweet face. The past I remember; Time can't erase. The letter you wrote me Was written in shame. And I know that your conscience Still echoes my name. Now the nights are so alone And my sorrow runs deep. And nothing is worth for you and me, One more night without sleep. I woke up alone; I take a look at my sky. Too empty to sing, Too lonely to cry. If you ladies were blackbirds And you ladies were thrushes, I'd lie there for hours In them cold chilly marshes. But if ladies were squirrels, With them high bushy tails; I'd fill up my shotgun With rock, salt and nails. 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 V4 #146 ******************************* --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------- 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