From: owner-good-noise-digest@smoe.org (good-noise-digest) To: good-noise-digest@smoe.org Subject: good-noise-digest V4 #145 Reply-To: good-noise@smoe.org Sender: owner-good-noise-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-good-noise-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk good-noise-digest Tuesday, August 21 2001 Volume 04 : Number 145 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Favorites thread -- long ["jvotel" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2001 09:59:29 -0500 From: "jvotel" Subject: Favorites thread -- long Hey good-noisers: I'm glad to see this thread has caught on because I've always considered this to be the primary purpose of discussion groups - -- to discuss the music. Anyone interested in reflections of pilgrimages to Godfrey Daniels and Bethlehem, Pa., can visit the fan page and look at my reviews going back a few years. Bethlehem is a great town that has connections for two of my favorite artists, JG and Richard Shindell (who I will be seeing in concert Wednesday.) I got to stay once in the old Hotel Bethlehem which, I understand, has since closed. It's a shame because it harkened back to simpler times and I'm sure it was a grand place in its day. I was there after it had passed its prime, but it was still a cool, old hotel. Old timers here probably know my story, but for the benefit of those who don't, I was introduced to JG in 1988 by a member of the staff of the small daily newspaper I edited on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. She copied a tape of her vinyl version of "I Know" and it truly changed my life. She handed me the tape saying, "I know you're gonna like this." Little did she know. I was taken completely by the quality of the music and the clever lyrics of every song on that record and I've been a fan ever since. Going to Gorka concerts also reintroduced me to the whole folk world -- new artists, new venues, new music. I'd "discover" an artist who'd open for him, start following that artist and hear other openers, and so on. I've gone more places for music in the past 12 years than I had ever dreamed. I have made friends through music from all over the country and a mutual interest in folk music served as an introduction to me and my wife and best friend, Nancy, who has broadened my musical horizons even more. We both volunteer for a folk organization in Washington where we live and contribute to house concerts, song circles and small venues in our area. We attend several festivals each year and plan our lives months in advance around concerts. We even planned a leg of our honeymoon around a Lucy Kaplansky concert in Massachusetts. Did I mention that we like folk music? As to favorite JG songs, there are so many. This weekend, for instance, I put on "Jack's Crows" because I hadn't listened to it in a while and I was struck by how many truly great songs are on this disc -- songs that JG performs almost every time he plays, like "I'm From New Jersey." It's impossible for me to think of JG without thinking of that song. He has played it every time I have seen him. But JC also has "Night is a Woman" and "Silence," among other great tunes. This record is one of the finest he has ever made. But I like songs that he NEVER plays in concert (unfortunately). The entire crime and punishment repertoire, comprising probably a third of his first four recordings, is practically never performed. My daughter Jackie loves "Stranger in My Driver's Seat" and despite having seen JG in concert probably a dozen times or more since age 10, she has never heard him play that song live. I've seen even more shows than she has and he's never done it (although JG said earlier this spring that he had played it at least once in March.) My own favorites, aside from C&P songs, include "Silvertown" from After Yesterday and "Always Going Home" from Out of the Valley. "O Abraham" from TCYK has grown on me, too, lately. Although I have heard "O Abraham" live with backing vocals ranging from Alice Peacock to Lucy Kaplansky, I can't recall hearing JG perform either of the other two. Thanks to whoever started this thread. It has been great reading. - -- Jay Votel "Injustice is relatively easy to bear; what stings is justice." - --H.L. Mencken (1880-1956) ------------------------------ End of good-noise-digest V4 #145 ********************************