From: owner-jangle-poets-digest@smoe.org (jangle-poets-digest) To: jangle-poets-digest@smoe.org Subject: jangle-poets-digest V3 #84 Reply-To: jangle-poets@smoe.org Sender: owner-jangle-poets-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-jangle-poets-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk jangle-poets-digest Monday, May 21 2001 Volume 03 : Number 084 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [jangle-poets] Town Crier 5/18 - really really long and pretty sappy [ber] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 20 May 2001 11:32:09 -0400 From: bern Subject: [jangle-poets] Town Crier 5/18 - really really long and pretty sappy I know others are still having their Kennedys/Nerissa experience or happily trying not to come down from it, so here's mine. I left Philly at 2, took the train to Trenton, another train to NYC, the subway to Times Square, the subway shuttle to Grand Central, and a Metro-North train to Brewster-North, where my brother Chuck picked me up. We drove to my brother Bernard's house and ate a pizza and watched Wild At Heart until I started clearing my throat loudly with impatience. We got to the Town Crier 9 minutes later at 8:50. It's only 17 miles from my brother's house. Driving to Pawling from Lake Carmel was like reliving huge chunks of my life because my brother bought one of our old rental homes there from my dad years ago. I'd spent countless summers and winters there as a kid, changing sewer lines, cutting down trees, swimming and fishing, and weedwacking crazy Town Of Kent bluegrass. It was truly a homecoming to me in many ways to make this show. I walked in and was greeted by Cadence Caroll, Sheila, Bruce, and his son Steven. My brother bought our tickets and we sat down. The waitress came to take our order and then said, "Hold on while I get my tablet." My brother asked her, "What are you? Sumerian or something?" She laughed uncomprehendingly and brought us coffee but no spoons. Later she brought us food but no forks. Jenna and Rachel were giggling and smiling to each other behind piles of merchandise, bewitchingly fetching and forbidding as always. Cone was resplendent in his aloofity. Harry was busily trouncing around, Tigger-like. Jim Coffin decided to show up even later than I did. Nerissa and Maura came out. :-) Nerissa got on stage and I have to say that I was really impressed by how far along she's come in her singing. The PDW was all over her set. Although Jim wished she'd done a new song instead of an old song, it was phenomenal to hear her do I Need A Doctor by herself. She changed the ay-e-e-yeah part to a lower pitch better suited to her voice and it sounded great, almost raunchy. Another highlight was Tailspin, which she intro'd by telling us about the Annie Dillard story about stunt pilots. She'd changed a few words since I heard it last...I can't remember which ones, but I did notice three words that were different. Introducing Emma's song, she told us about her dog Emma and how great she was and then told us about Cassie, her "newer" dog,also a Lab mix, who is the exact opposite of Emma, and how she had a really hard time liking Cassie. Then she remarked that she's told Dar that "she learns from her pets" and Dar said, "Wow, that's really profound." and that since then she's learned to love Cassie. Anyway, Cassie is now dying too. Nerissa told us that morning, Cassie couldn't even get up and she would only live a few more days.Then she sang Emma's Song for Emma and Cassie. It was so heart-wrenching. Despite what anyone else thinks, I love this song and really really hope to see it recorded. Nerissa also did Last Kisses, talk about PDW! Wow. Snowman, of course. Bruce at one point loudly complimented Nerissa on her vocals (she thanked him) and my brother said, "Hey, your Nook friend is making the moves on that lady!" and I said, "Shhhh!" Throughout her set, Nerissa kept alluding to Katryna's baby, who was still keeping everyone waiting. She said she'd developed a theory that the baby would be born the night of the show because Katryna said she thought that she couldn't have the baby until she finished the artwork for the new live album, which, by the way, will be released at Falcon Ridge! (Woo-HOO!) and that very night, Katryna had finished it, celebrated by eating Indian food, getting indigestion and falling asleep, so therefore the baby would emerge soon. She also mentioned that David was chosen by his students to be Class Speaker at their graduation, which is a really big deal and meant a lot to him. She said she'd contemplated canceling the gig to be with David and Katryna, but decided to be independent and do her own thing, and because of that everything was working out. She rocks and is such an inspiration. Nerissa dedicated Easy People to Pete + Maura and did a wonderful version that was really beautiful. She's really polished her vocals since I saw her last. She closed out the set with This Town Is Wrong and was met with great applause. She also mentioned how lucky she is to have been able to live her dream of being a singer-songwriter and thanked us all for being part of it. :-) I returned to my table (had to flee the snide silly comments of my uninitiated younger brother) to find my sister in law Trish at the table too. She and Bernard were the people who turned me on to the Nields in 1995, so I've been trying to get them to shows recently. As soon as I sat down they all expressed a great desire to leave. I stalled them by promising the kennedys would sing a bob dylan tune (I hoped they wouldn't mind my lying to them) and prayed that I'd get to hear Pearl's Eye View before I had to go. The Kennedys came out with Life Is Large and then invited Cadence Caroll on the stage to play with them! YAY!! After singing Pick You up and Jessie, which they dedicated to Cadence, with Maura singing "Cady" instead of "Jessie" during the song, my family members started to grumble at how late it was. Wall Of Death and Rappahannock kept us in our seats but by now everyone was glaring at me, even while tapping their feet. I cross my fingers under the table as Pete says, "Hey there's a new song we're gonna do, which you just wrote, right, Maura?" and Maura launched into the intro of one of my favorite songs of all time, Pearl's Eye View, the story of Dickey Chapelle. My brothers looked at me as I bounced in my chair and then, incredibly, right afterward, Pete and Maura started talking about Bob Dylan and sang a rare tune of his. What was that song called? It was, as they warned us, creepy. I always enjoy watching Pete and Maura play, they RULE! and I was particularly saddened that I would miss the ha! promised for later.So my family mutinied on me and I was whisked out the door, but not before purchasing an advance recording of Cadence Caroll's upcoming CD, and not before I collected a rare biography of Dickey Chapelle from a certain goddess. So how annoyed was I, who'd just taken 5 trains to see a show and only saw half of it, to find that once we got home, everyone had no problem staying up for an hour watching the Chris Rock show? TV culture: Marshall McLuhan was right. So to end this story, there is of course even more serendipity involved. On the 6:09 AM Metro-North train to Grand Central Station, I read that Dickey took the same train line to Pawling, NY,of all places, where I'd just been the night before, to visit her stepson regularly, while he was attending university there. Wow! And just after I got off the train and headed to the 42nd street exit to grab a smoke, still reading, I learned that, while working for TWA early in her career, Dickey had been ensconced in a cubicle in the Lincoln Building, which is right across the street from where I was standing when I read it, and used to occupy herself watching the travellers come and go from Grand Central Station. Double Wow. I was an hour late for work and out $44, ten trains later, but it was well worth it. YAY!!! b-dette, who has realized recently that she uses the word "home" to refer to quite a variety of locales. NetZero Platinum No Banner Ads and Unlimited Access Sign Up Today - Only $9.95 per month! http://www.netzero.net Check out the Kennedys' Official Home Page: http://www.KennedysMusic.com/ Fab photos, the Official tour diary, dashboard Buddha haiku, groovy merchandise...what more could you ask for? ------------------------------ End of jangle-poets-digest V3 #84 *********************************