From: owner-believers-digest@smoe.org (believers-digest) To: believers-digest@smoe.org Subject: believers-digest V9 #8 Reply-To: believers@smoe.org Sender: owner-believers-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-believers-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk believers-digest Tuesday, February 1 2005 Volume 09 : Number 008 In Today's believer's digest: ----------------- Susan at the A2FF ["Suzanne Thiel" ] Re: Susan at the A2FF [PBacoustic@aol.com] A2FF P.S. ["Suzanne Thiel" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2005 09:27:55 -0500 From: "Suzanne Thiel" Subject: Susan at the A2FF Susan was the emcee of the 28th Annual Ann Arbor Folk Festival, held at the beautiful Hill Auditorium on the campus of UofMI Friday and Saturday nights. The line up: Friday 1/28 Steppin' in It Jeremy Kittel Martyn Jospeph Vienna Teng Glengarry Bhoys The Blind Boys of Alabama Indigo Girls Saturday 1/29 Whit Hill and the Postcards George Bedard and the Kingpins Lynn Miles Richard Shindell David Jones The Kruger Brothers King Wilki Richard Thompson Keb' Mo' We were in the 3rd row - unfortunately, we were on the extreme left, and Susan's piano as well as her microphone/podium for her emcee duties, were on the extreme right. Whaddya gonna do? No control over where your tickets are, when you order 'em, and the third row is nothing to complain about!!! Anyway. Overall, Suze seemed to be quite unsure of herself, and VERY hesitant, and awkward, and there was LOTS of dead air, as she fumbled with papers and notes etc. in between acts. She spent a tremendous amount of time peering across the stage awaiting the 'thumbs-up' from the powers-that-be indicating that they were ready for the next act to begin. I wish she woulda just taken a little more control and been a little more confident about just sitting down and thrilling us with another song to fill the space. When she was singing, she had all 4000 people in the palm of her hand. Not so when she was shuffling thru papers and thanking sponsors and trying to fill the gaps verbally. I gotta ask - do they sell Jiffy mixes (cake, muffins, cornbread etc) all over the country? Or is it just a Michigan thing? Cuz they're in Chelsea, MI, near Ann Arbor, and have always been a big sponsor of the FF (along with Ford Motor Co and Pfizer) and Susan had never heard of them. That said, there WERE many great moments, of course. Oh, and she started Friday night out in black slacks, black top, and a bright aqua scarf, and her hair up. After Friday's intermission the hair came down. Saturday, the scarf was history and the hair was down the entire time. Friday: She introduced herself as one who 'performs at the intersection of Doris Day and Tom Waits', and opened with 'Give Me Chicago'. I gotta say that she got their attention RIGHT away - usually the beginning of the festival is sort of confused and crazy and noisy, as people are still being seated or talking or socializing - and it seemed to me that the audience as a whole sort of stopped and paid attention right then and there - and rightly so!! I also gotta say that Susan's voice in the acoustical perfection of Hill Auditorium was divine. I didn't even care so much I couldn't see her all that well, cuz the sound of her voice was so sublime. She didn't sing all that much; most of the time between acts was spent thanking sponsors, taking care of business, and introducing each act. She did manage to fit a few numbers in. She did 'Stay on Your Side of Town'. Later, when they were setting up for the Blind Boys of Alabama, and thus, needed more time, she was able to do two consecutive numbers. So prior to that, she began saying 'our next act has performed at Carnegie Hall with Michael Feinstein, and will be appearing on Marian McPartland's jazz program in April...please welcome to the stage......me'. And then she sat down at the piano and said 'thank you very much'. It was brilliant, as you could just tell that everyone was perhaps surreptitiously looking at their programs trying to figure out what they'd missed. After telling that she was from Iowa (an Indian word meaning 'land of weak coffee'), and that she'd gone into the art of the American songbook because all the competition was dead, she did "I Can't Be New"...and then, speaking of new, did one (probably) called "When I'm Away From You" that was very nice indeed. The finale, which is all the acts coming out for one big number, was led by the Blind Boys of Alabama, and Susan on piano, doing a song whose actual title eludes me, so somebody will have to fill me in, but, it's either 'Down by the Riverside', 'Lay My Body Down', or 'Ain't Gonna Study War No More'. Anyway - Susan did a quite respectable rockin' solo turn on the piano, and it was a great finish to a great evening. Two words on Vienna Teng - Oh My. I know Woj and Meth are huge fans/followers/friends, and others have seen/heard/recommended her - I'd never had the pleasure, and, well, like I said - Oh My. I'm sold. Martyn Joseph, who apparently has also been called the Welsh Bruce Springsteen, was pretty darn cool. As were the Blind Boys of AL. Oh, heck, they were all great. Saturday Tonight, Susan said she performed 'at the intersection of Judy Garland and Randy Newman'. She did 'Let's Regret This In Advance' (on guitar). She then attempted to fill a very long pause with chatter, introducing her favorite palindrome (lonely tylenol) and her favorite used Indian clothing store (Whose Sari Now?). Later in the program, she said that she had a new song, and figured there was no better time to try it out than in front of 4000 people, and did one (on piano) probably called 'My Strange Nation', with a decided political bent but with a very positive, hopeful ending, with 'My Country 'Tis of Thee' tagged on to the end. It was VERY well received, thunderous applause from the liberal A2 audience. Anybody heard this one yet? Then later, she repeated the trick from Friday....our next artist has performed at Carnegie, will appear with Marian McP, etc, is 'kind to her parents and is a registered Democrat, please welcome Susan Werner'. She then did "Movie of My Life", which was brilliant as always - adding the line 'as of yet un-Oprah-worthy....life'. Later, 'No One Needs to Know', on guitar. When introducing Richard Thompson, she revealed that he cheats at Scrabble. Her last number was on piano, 'Wouldn't it Be Loverly'. Saturday's finale was Keb Mo leading the entire cast on John Lennon's 'Imagine', during which Susan again provided an amazing piano interlude. I sure was hoping that Susan would have followed Vance Gilbert's lead (emcee last year) and stepped to the edge of the stage and belted out something sans sound system. If anybody coulda done it as well or better than he had, it would have been her. Hill Aud. is that acoustically perfect. Anyway - it was a great couple of nights of music, and Susan will be back in town at the end of March. That's one of the very cool things about the A2FF (the Ark's main fundraiser, as it's a non-profit org) - they bring almost all the folk festival acts back to the Ark for a solo show in the 2-3 months following the festival, so you can come get a full dose of somebody whose 4-song set moved you. Onward Suzie Tee 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: Mon, 31 Jan 2005 14:15:12 EST From: PBacoustic@aol.com Subject: Re: Susan at the A2FF Very cool, Suze... sorry your earlier suggestion of "La Vie" didn't get honored... But it sounds like it was an excellent musical weekend anyway! Anyone else on the list in attendance??? PB *************** "If you don't send this to at least 8 people.... who cares?" - -- George Carlin *************8 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: Mon, 31 Jan 2005 14:45:20 -0500 From: "Suzanne Thiel" Subject: A2FF P.S. Forgot to mention, SW's songbook was on sale this past weekend. It's very cool!! Also, Susan intro'd the Kruger Brothers in flawless German (they're from Switzerland). st 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 V9 #8 ***************************** ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------- -------------------------- 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