From: owner-curiouser@smoe.org (curiouser) To: curiouser-digest@smoe.org Subject: curiouser V1 #16 Reply-To: curiouser@smoe.org Sender: owner-curiouser@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-curiouser@smoe.org Precedence: bulk X-List-Info: http://www.io.com/~mcurry/curiouser.html curiouser Wednesday, September 15 1999 Volume 01 : Number 016 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Susan McKeown at Ectofest [Michael Curry ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 14 Sep 1999 19:37:34 -0400 From: Michael Curry Subject: Susan McKeown at Ectofest Hi all, Well, those of you who are on ecto probably either were at ectofest or have heard lots about it over on ecto, but I've realized that nothing at all has been said about it here despite the fact that Susan performed! I'll start off by shamelessly quoting from comments posted to ecto by a friend of mine named Don Keller. He has a way with words when it comes to writing about music, so he related all this far better than I could... >But the high point of the set (perhaps the festival) was the >last number, when she called up the following performer Susan >McKeown to duet on Richard Thompson's old Fairport number "Meet >on the Ledge." It was fine enough when they were trading verses; >but when they joined in the chorus, McKeown's wailing Celtic >roulades over Wainwright's rich foundation, it was absolutely >exquisite. > >Susan McKeown is another artist it's taken me some time to warm >to; I think maybe I expected her to be more of a trad artist (her >being from Dublin and all), and her more contemporary major-key >songwriting just didn't click with me. For whatever reason I enjoyed >this set a lot better. She played acoustic guitar (and fine bodhran >on one song) accompanied by another acoustic guitar, and the quasi-folky >drony quality in most of the songs sat OK with me. Her setting of >Emily Dickinson's "kindly Death" poem is very fine (though straying >major-keywards a bit), her train song (Wainwright had one too) pretty >good, and her cover (back to the Fairport songbook) of Sandy Denny's >"Who Knows Where the Time Goes" (which I'd heard once before) was >splendid. She also persuaded the crowd to sing Happy Birthday to >Meredith before she took her leave. For my part I'll add that it was a fairly normal set list for Susan, though since I didn't grab a copy of it I can't relate it exactly (especially now that over a week has passed). She did do "Wheels of the World," which I still can't hear without also hearing Lindsay's whistle playing in my head, "Fuck You," and of course "Snakes." The biggest news may be that Susan won't have any new CDs coming out this fall! *gasp* For those of you who have been fans of Susan's for a while I'm sure this comes as a bit of a shock, as we've sort of gotten used to be deluged with new releases in the fall. The good news is that she does hope to have three albums out next year, so that should offer a good start to the new millenium. I've put a few pictures I took at ectofest on a web page, and since most of them seem to involve Susan I figured some of you might be interested. They're at: http://www.io.com/~mcurry/ectofest Mike ------------------------------ End of curiouser V1 #16 ***********************