From: owner-believers-digest@smoe.org (believers-digest) To: believers-digest@smoe.org Subject: believers-digest V8 #50 Reply-To: believers@smoe.org Sender: owner-believers-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-believers-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk believers-digest Monday, March 22 2004 Volume 08 : Number 050 In Today's believer's digest: ----------------- no nojo [Sdgold60@aol.com] I Can't Be New ["Ron Rosen" ] Re: New [PBacoustic@aol.com] Re: I Can't Be New [Steve Murphy ] Re: New ["Ron Rosen" ] Re: New [fingerpuppets ] My two shillings' worth... ["Chuck Ellingson" ] Re: shillingsworth... [PBacoustic@aol.com] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 21 Mar 2004 11:06:17 -0500 From: Sdgold60@aol.com Subject: no nojo I am not getting into the Norah jones fray... But i am going to give credit where I think credit is due.. In the 80s when MTV was all about madonna, flock of seagulls, dire straits, wham.. Linda Rondstadt who has a voice like very few..collaborated with Nelson Riddle, known for his arrangements with Sinatra and she recorded three albums from the american songbook... Linda did more for bringing this music back and opened the door for Tony Bennett and KDLang to do the magnificent job that they did with the same style of music There are many cabaret artists that are still working.. Micheal Feinstein who worked for years with IRA Gerswhin on Gershwin music.. His NYC club is filled nightly.. Blossom Dearie who a favorite of SW performs frequently.. There are singers and stylists of songs..that are current... and there are performers who keep on singing these songs.... because they are GOOD songs that survive. sharon with her 2cents "up above me wayward angels a blur of wings and grace... One for courage One for safety One for just in case" mary chapin carpenter between here and gone HELP! owner-believers@smoe.org Send mail to believers@smoe.org Susan's CD's are available on your desktop at World Cafe CDs http://worldcafecds.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Mar 2004 08:24:26 -0800 From: "Ron Rosen" Subject: I Can't Be New Yesterday I played a couple of Susan's live shows against the new CD, and I have to say, the new recordings are really quite good. While the new recordings were not exactly what we might have expected (why would they be?), I find they are growing on me, and are better renditions of these songs, to my ears, than any of the live show versions. For the complete song cycle experience for driving around in the car, I'm thinking of burning a CDR with the new CD + Cole Porter from Midwestern Saturday Night and Snow White from Tin Angel. HELP! owner-believers@smoe.org Send mail to believers@smoe.org Susan's CD's are available on your desktop at World Cafe CDs http://worldcafecds.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Mar 2004 13:10:11 EST From: PBacoustic@aol.com Subject: Re: New Man, I love Snow White... wish she'd resurrect it..... PB HELP! owner-believers@smoe.org Send mail to believers@smoe.org Susan's CD's are available on your desktop at World Cafe CDs http://worldcafecds.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Mar 2004 13:32:52 -0500 From: Steve Murphy Subject: Re: I Can't Be New But Ron - you can get yourself in trouble - driving around LA - playing romantic music. Be careful!! Ron Rosen wrote: >For the complete song cycle experience for driving around in the car, I'm >thinking of burning a CDR with the new CD + Cole Porter from Midwestern >Saturday Night and Snow White from Tin Angel. HELP! owner-believers@smoe.org Send mail to believers@smoe.org Susan's CD's are available on your desktop at World Cafe CDs http://worldcafecds.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Mar 2004 11:12:21 -0800 From: "Ron Rosen" Subject: Re: New > Man, I love Snow White... wish she'd resurrect it..... Email the road manager!! Yes, I wish Susan would resurrect a lot of her older stuff. It's interesting how certain songs have become staples, like Time Between Trains, Much At All, and Cole Porter, while other songs have fallen by the wayside. And there are a few songs, that although they are on recordings, I've never heard her play live and don't know if she ever has, like Mongomery Street and Through the Glass. HELP! owner-believers@smoe.org Send mail to believers@smoe.org Susan's CD's are available on your desktop at World Cafe CDs http://worldcafecds.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Mar 2004 16:59:02 -0500 From: fingerpuppets Subject: Re: New one time at band camp, Ron Rosen (ronsopas@earthlink.net) said: >Yes, I wish Susan would resurrect a lot of her older stuff. It's >interesting how certain songs have become staples, like Time Between Trains, >Much At All, and Cole Porter, while other songs have fallen by the wayside. i think that's true of most artists though. as their live performance evolves and changes, certain songs coalesce into the core of the show while others drift in and out of the set. i think performers usually find a a group of tunes which help to define their sound and also provide a comfort zone in which they can operate without working too hard. >And there are a few songs, that although they are on recordings, I've never >heard her play live and don't know if she ever has, like Mongomery Street >and Through the Glass. oh yeah, i still need to post the setlist for the turning point show (last sunday night, after the joe's pub gigs) but she dusted off "montgomery street" for it. i don't think i've ever heard her play it live before. very nice! woj HELP! owner-believers@smoe.org Send mail to believers@smoe.org Susan's CD's are available on your desktop at World Cafe CDs http://worldcafecds.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Mar 2004 18:13:03 -0600 From: "Chuck Ellingson" Subject: My two shillings' worth... Warning: You might find some extra letters or numbers or somesuch bothersome (at least to me) notations at the beginning and/or end of this missive and a missing apostrophes or quotation mark, etc. in this posting (per past experience), due to my imacs recent inability to do anything that resembles the term user friendly. Can you say, "AAAAARGH!!!" ? I knew you could! ;-) OK, Im no Simon Cowell, but ... is it just me or does Susan sound a little "pitchy" on the new recording of "Much at All" ? I'm listening to "I Can't Be New" while reading recent believers' messages, not wanting to duplicate anything that may have been stated previously by a Madison, Chicago or Rockford concertgoer in my discussion of the Rockford gig ... which follows. That said, let the shilling begin! Coming onstage without being introduced, Susan interrupted Ms. Elizabeth of Rockford, IL' s performing arts organization "Charlotte's Web," for it seems that Elizabeth was to be given an award for her many years of service to the organization, and who better to do the honors than our dear Susan? It was not my first glimpse of Susan that evening. Whether due to Susan's inability to stay still long before a performance (or ever?) or to a certain alignment of the cosmos, I usually see Susan shortly before her gigs. (We greet one another and I wish her the theatrically typical broken leg.) As my stepdad and I pulled into the parking lot of Rockford's Mendelssohn Club, Susan exited the building and she and I held our usual preshow mini-meeting of the minds. ;-P After Elizabeth's award and her thanks were given, Susan picked up a guitar and opened with "Tall Drink of Water." (I'm still listening to "I Can't Be New" so don't be surprised to find these CD-referencing comments "in the margins." I feel the need to comment that Susan's background vocals on "I'm Not Sure" and "Philanthropy" are stunning!) Although I seem to recall Beth citing a statement by Susan saying that her 'do would be upswept on Friday night, Susan wore her hair au naturelle, cascading to the shoulders of her white button-down blouse atop a pair of basic black slacks and a conservatively stunning pair of patent leather black heels. Not wearing nearly as much makeup as on the cover of her new CD (Can I get a "Thank you, Jesus!" ?), Susan performed her second number of the evening, "Seeing You Again," with self-accompaniment on one of the Mendelssohn Club's nine Steinway & Sons grand pianos. (Only one was onstage.) (At this point, Im really pissed because the following three paragraphs I had written were conveniently eaten by my imac! Thus I recompose...) As Beth had correctly cited Susan as saying, there was a string bassist onstage with her (Susan, not Beth) in Rockford on Friday: Mark Hogan from Chicago. Mark's musicianship added much, I feel, to the concert. For her third song of the evening, Susan sprung into "Late for the Dance," after which she introduced Mr. Hogan to the audience. Then Susan again picked up one of the two guitars she had onstage with her Friday evening, and sang the song which fulfilled the (per SW) "required song with exotic Latin beat" (and which asks and answers the musical question, "Is this love?" ): "Im Not Sure." Mark Hogan provided bass soli for the following two numbers, "Lets Regret This in Advance" (plucking the strings) and (bowing) "No One Needs to Know" before Susan ended the first set of the evening with a pseudo-prepared piano intro on "Philanthropy." During the intermission, I had the chance to converse with the gentleman sitting next to me who informed me that he was wearing Kenneth Cole Black. I recommend you all rush out to your nearest department store (preferably Kohls, my partners employer) and buy a big bottle of Kenneth Cole Black for that special man in your life, especially if you yourself are that special man! ;-) (Now back to our previously scheduled program...) "Dont I Know You" opened the second set on the Steinway, after which Susan sang a song that was totally new to me which contained the lyrics, "sweet baby" and "never, ever fly in small planes." Following this number, Susan got chatty with the crowd, stating "You can call me cruel," regarding something about small planes and Patsy Cline when she "fell to pieces." She also thanked her audience members who had ventured from as far away as Chicago, Madison, WI and Hiawatha, MI. A male Hiawathan asked Susan to elaborate on an earlier comment she had made, prompting her to "Tell us more about Dubuque." Divining the mans intent, she replied, "I'll play it in four songs." As Beth had stated the Cafe Montmartre crowd had done, the Mendelssohn Club attendees applauded after the first few strains of "Much at All," the song preceding "Stay on Your Side of Town." Noting that the previous song was written about NYC, Susan then compared the east coast metropolis to her new home town, prompting her to break into "Give Me Chicago (Any Day)." True to her word, Susan then picked up a guitar and performed "Boy from East Dubuque," after explaining how, as a lounge singer in a previous life, she was 'ALWAYS asked to sing "Girl from Ipanema."' Our chanteussie then asked for requests, prompting me to ask for "Three-Quarter Moon," but she chose to go another way, performing the always beautiful "Like Bonsai" (another of my faves). Ms. Werner than noted how she had been "excommunicated from the folk community for wearing hosiery." (pause for laughter) Moving back to the Steinway as Mark Hogan again joined her onstage, Susan broke into another song which I dont recall having heard her perform before ... one by "the acclaimed cabaret composer, Bob Marley," which contained the phrase "I dont wanna wait in vain for love." The next song was another showstopper! "You Come Through" pitted Susan and Mark against one another in a no holds barred competiton of bass vs. piano riffs. The song got a laugh from the crowd as Susan threw the local "Rock River" into the lyrics. Previous to the final number of the concert (per se), Susan had commented on how quiet, respectful and "Lutheran" the crowd was. This caused one audience member to note how the crowd might be interpreted by some as more Unitarian than Lutheran ... leading Susan to ask the difference between the two. The response culled from both performer and audience: lutefisk and guilt. (Sounds like an idea for a song, no?) The title track of Ms. Werners Koch release, "I Cant Be New," preceded her temporary departure from the stage. Due to the shortness of time (she later informed me), Susan skipped her intended first encore "I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face" and encored solely with "Wouldnt It Be Loverly." Inviting finger snaps from the audience, Susan did a great job with this number, (IMHO) performing the "My Fair Lady" tune a la James Taylor. It was a delightful surprise! As I was accompanied to the concert by my stepdad, Susan and I didnt spend a lot of time catching up, but she graciously signed the new CD for me on three different pages as we chatted about the Mendelssohn Clubs nine Steinways and the caricature on the last page of the ICBN liner notes. Drawn by an illustrator on a pier somewhere (I think she said New Jersey, but my memory is like a sieve), Susan said she may harken back to the songsters of old and have the caricature printed on matchbook covers. (The buttons may not have achieved their intended purpose, yet as I write this, I envision believers eyeing other concertgoers, perusing each pocket, etc., trying to detect a non-desultory matchbook cover.) New topic: Anyone else planning to see Kellie Lin Knott in Green Bay, WI on April 2nd (the evening before my 39th birthday)? Peace, Chuck Ellingson "We must come to see that peace is not merely a distant goal we seek, but it is a means by which we arrive at that goal... We must pursue peaceful ends through peaceful means." Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. _________________________________________________________________ All the action. All the drama. Get NCAA hoops coverage at MSN Sports by ESPN. http://msn.espn.go.com/index.html?partnersite=espn HELP! owner-believers@smoe.org Send mail to believers@smoe.org Susan's CD's are available on your desktop at World Cafe CDs http://worldcafecds.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 Mar 2004 20:30:42 EST From: PBacoustic@aol.com Subject: Re: shillingsworth... Thanks, Chuck -- excellently penned (sic) review -- reminds me of catching the Rockford show two years ago.... Paul HELP! owner-believers@smoe.org Send mail to believers@smoe.org Susan's CD's are available on your desktop at World Cafe CDs http://worldcafecds.com ------------------------------ End of believers-digest V8 #50 ****************************** ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------- -------------------------- 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