From: owner-jangle-poets-digest@smoe.org (jangle-poets-digest) To: jangle-poets-digest@smoe.org Subject: jangle-poets-digest V9 #76 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 Friday, August 3 2007 Volume 09 : Number 076 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [JP] Greatest ever (was: Strangeheads) [Nieldsforever@aol.com] [JP] FRFF Friday Beatles Forever Workshop [Nieldsforever@aol.com] [JP] Gandalf Murphy FRFF Friday Dance Stage [Nieldsforever@aol.com] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 2 Aug 2007 13:08:37 EDT From: Nieldsforever@aol.com Subject: [JP] Greatest ever (was: Strangeheads) In a message dated 7/30/2007 1:19:08 PM Eastern Daylight Time, noreply@googlegroups.com writes: > >I saw the Strangelings performance at FRFF. It was simply the greatest > concert > >ever. My friend and I decided to leave our job and family and follow the > >Strangelings on tour. > Don't I wish! Missed opportunities vanish forever (so far as I know) and do not return. You've got to strike while the iron is hot, and this year's buns in the oven are the Strangelings. Gandalf Murphy lyrics sum up the phenomenon, "Pack up your bags for the circus of dreams." I'm already regretting the missed opportunities of not seeing the Strangelings 11/10-11/11 at NERFA; 2/20-2/24 at Folk Alliance in Memphis; and most poignantly missing Rebecca & Ken, The Strangelings, and TK in a triple-header 3/2/08 in Asheville, NC, a triple ouch for me: "Ouch, ouch, ouch!" I started following TN in '95, but Cone Head is the only one I know who packed up his bags for the circus of dreams, following TN virtually throughout an entire tour: SC, NC, TN, KY, IN, IL, WI, IA, the whole nine yards. I don't know anyone else who's ever done that. As for greatest ever concert? Man is that tough! Sometimes extra-musical, extra-curriculars have contributed to memorable, unforgettable, one-of-a-kind shows for me. Since I've moved east from Chicago, here are few "red letter dates" engraved in my memory that have meant the most to me personally. And I'm sure I'm forgetting a whole bunch! 3/24/94 - My first Sarah McLachlan show at University of Hartford, the springboard for my entire folk music career since then, the day I completely "flipped out" 8/6/94 - My first Nields show at Newport Folk Festival that also featured Sarah McLachlan, Richard Thompson, and Fairport Convention 11/16/94 - My first Loreena McKennitt show at Smith College, the inspiration for my 5th oratorio "Farewell to Middle-Earth" 4/22/95 - My conversion experience to TN at Audubon Nature Center in Glastonbury, my Glastonbury thorn, "The Boy With the Thorn in His Side" (Smiths), the second time I completely "flipped out" 5/9/96 - My first Kennedys show, full-band TK with TN at the Bottom Line, "Life Is Large" 12/7/96 - TN's unbelievable, indescribable, totally trippindicular Blizzard Show at the Iron Horse, the second show that night, sans sound system and by candlelight when a blizzard knocked the power out 6/13/98 - TN's other legendary show, the one and only Jam For the Van in Hatfield, with Nields fans from literally all over the country, sort of TN's one and only version of Frucon ever, with TN playing their longest show ever (34 songs) with guests Ben Demerath, Pete Nelson, Andrea & Amanda, and Jim Infantino From 1999 to the present there have been many other great shows that defy description that I've seen by Gandalf Murphy, the Maggies, the Nields, the Kennedys, Chris & Meredith Thompson, and others. The week before the Strangelings' 4/7/07 show at Acoustic Cafe, the excitement was just killing me. It felt like my most important show since Jam For the Van in '98, though I didn't know why. I talked to Anne Saunders before that show and during the break between the Strangelings' 2 sets, so it now appears to me that that show was the crystalline solution out of which the crystalline dream of the Strangelings at FRFF materialized, right when so many others besides myself were intensely lobbying Anne behind the scenes to find a way to get TK back to the festival. Every Strangelings show has been amazing! Rebecca informs me R&K have served as TK's band at some point, prior to FRFF, so although that wasn't billed as the Strangelings, I feel really bad I missed that, and will continue to miss that every time it happens and I can't make it, especially 3/2/08 in Asheville! I don't see how my streak of consecutive Nields shows at the Iron Horse can continue much longer, from 2/95 to the present day in an unbroken line, spanning 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, and so far this year, including the time I missed Cadence Carroll's CD Release Show in Rowayton because of the direct conflict with the Iron Horse. So TN at the Iron Horse are a "greatest ever" for me too. And 6/25/05 at Lancaster, when C&M did "A Bend in the River" opening for TK, the Birth of the Strangelings! Bruce 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? ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 2 Aug 2007 21:18:00 EDT From: Nieldsforever@aol.com Subject: [JP] FRFF Friday Beatles Forever Workshop "For the benefit of Mr. Kite" -- or whomever -- here is the best of my recollection of the Friday FRFF Beatles Forever Workshop. But first, a word from our sponsor. The Beatles Forever Workshop (Friday 5:00-6:30) was one of four workshops hosted either by the Strangelings or by Pete & Maura Kennedy. The other three were "Like a Rolling Stone: Songs of Bob Dylan" (Saturday 12:15-2:00); "Just Gimme Some Truth" (Saturday 5:00-6:30); and "Six String Summit" (Sunday 3:30-4:30). Which, most of the time, meant Pete Kennedy was either introducing the next artist, or sharing something relevant to either the song or the workshop theme at hand. I thought Pete was absolutely outstanding in this role, showing great insight and respect for the artists and for the songs. One way to get TK into FRFF every year -- hypothetical and subjunctive mode here -- might be to encourage Anne Saunders to have Pete head up both the wildly popular Beatles workshop and the wildly popular Dylan workshop every year. Other folks can and have fulfilled this same M.C. function, of course, in these workshops, but I thought Pete was friggin' excellent, and I'm always looking for some way to get TK into FRFF every year, since this has proved to be challenging to say the least on a year-to-year basis. Sure, people might say, TK always find a way to get in! But "Nothing Is Easy." People have also said, aw, Cone Head always finds a way to get in too -- but this year, that was not the case. It just wasn't the same without Cone Head -- and it just wouldn't be the same for me without TK, either. Boy, that was a pretty long digression -- almost longer than the Beatles Forever Workshop itself! Eight Days a Week -- Strangelings I Should Have Known Better -- Rowan Bros. w/ Maura, Chris, Rebecca I'm Looking Through You -- Lucy Kaplansky w/ Pete, Chris, Rebecca Helter Skelter (western swing style) -- Dust Poets (She Loves You ending) Bye Bye (She's Leaving Home homage) by Richard Shindell Blackbird -- Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers Two of Us -- Tracy Grammer & Jim Henry Come Together -- Annie Wenz w/ Maura, Chris, House Band Lovely Rita -- Nerissa & Katryna Nields w/ Pete & Maura I Saw Her Standing There -- tutti, Pete lead vocal Dr. Robert -- Rowan Bros. Let It Be -- Lucy Kaplansky piano and lead vocal, w/ jam LSD Polka (i.e. Dali-esque Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds) -- Dust Poets With a Little Help From My Friends -- Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers I've Just Seen a Face -- Jim lead vocal & Tracy This Girl (Ringo's Theme) -- N&K w/ P&M Hard Day's Night -- tutti, Pete lead vocal I Want to Hold Your Hand -- tutti, Pete lead vocal She Loves You -- tutti, Maura lead vocal Twist & Shout -- tutti, Pete lead vocal Some have expressed their opinion that Richard's original song didn't fit in. For all of that however, I loved the contributions of the Strangelings, the Rowan Bros., Lucy, the Dust Poets, Stephen Kellogg, Tracy & Jim, Annie Wenz, N&K, and the House Band, in what may have been the best Beatles workshop ever at FRFF. Bruce 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? ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 2 Aug 2007 22:21:07 EDT From: Nieldsforever@aol.com Subject: [JP] Gandalf Murphy FRFF Friday Dance Stage Yes, that's right -- Gandalf Murphy & the Slambovian Circus of Dreams played the Dance Stage at Falcon Ridge! The floor was packed with SRO Circus Friends, and there was some dancing going on about the perimeter of the fringes as well. Sound surreal? Surreal Americana has hardly ever been so much fun! Glide Moondog House I Wish (incorporating Pinball Wizard, I Walk the Line, Yodel Song) Just Like Me (incorporating Wipe Out, Pipeline, White Wedding, Land of 1000 Dances) Fisherman's Blues (Waterboys) Cities In Her Own World Light A Way Alice in Space "Just Like Me" and "Cities," which were originally done by the forerunner band The Ancestors, are both on the "Ancient Murphy, Volume I" CD which was available in the merch tent. Two Bootleg Series CDs were also available in the merch tent, Falcon Ridge Folk Festival 7/21/06 and Roots on the River 6/9/07. Gandalf Murphy, like TK and the 5-piece Nields rock band, thrive when they are live, so I highly recommend any of the various live GM&TSCOD CDs you are able to wrap your ears around. Of course, the visual experience is so intense, you might want the Flapjacks From the Sky Live at the Depot Theater DVD as well! It's the best thing I've ever seen, as merchandise goes. Though when it comes to the Circus Big Top, "Being There" really tops all! Is it any wonder that the Slambovians are playing FRFF every year now? Since they made their debut at FR in '02, going on just before the Dave Carter Tribute, the band has become something of a sensation, a festival phenomenon. I wouldn't be surprised if Gandalf Murphy sold more CD's at the festival this year than anyone else. Drummer Tony Zuzulo told me that Joziah & Tink were signing CD's in the merch tent Sunday for 4 straight hours! Bruce 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 V9 #76 *********************************