From: owner-jangle-poets-digest@smoe.org (jangle-poets-digest) To: jangle-poets-digest@smoe.org Subject: jangle-poets-digest V9 #102 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, October 22 2007 Volume 09 : Number 102 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [JP] TREASURE - C&M 10/20/07 Sounding Board W. Htfd CT (some Strangelings) [Nieldsforever@aol.] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 21 Oct 2007 17:43:34 EDT From: Nieldsforever@aol.com Subject: [JP] TREASURE - C&M 10/20/07 Sounding Board W. Htfd CT (some Strangelings) Treasure. This show was a real treasure for me, where I was the flabbergasted recipient at the receiving end of a new song by the Artist f/k/a Chris Thompson. Princely treasure at that! :-) It was already a treasure show in another way, for with Meredith still on maternity leave, 'twas a rare outing indeed for the ever-diminishing profile of the already diminutive duo of Chris & Meredith Thompson. These days Chris has been keeping fairly busy in her sister's absence, plugging away with her new sister-in-law Kathryn Lively as the Livelys, and joining in on the occasional show with the Kennedys and the duo of Rebecca Hall and Ken Anderson in the moveable feast calling itself the Strangelings. And getting married of course, which can be quite the business for many's the lot of us! :-) Meredith seemed quite happy to be getting a few licks in this time out, and getting a few pokes in as well, joking at one point about all of the changes that the two of them have been going through. "We're called Chris & Meredith Thompson, but neither of us is named Thompson any more. Christina has changed her name to Chris Lively since getting married this last summer, and performs now under the name the Livelys. And when I got married a few years ago, I changed my name too, to Meredith Knight. So maybe we should be performing tonight under the name the Lively Knights!" This sort of witticism is completely typical of Meredith by the way, whenever she opens her mouth to introduce a song at one of their shows. And boy is she ever missed! That's one reason, at any rate. It was hinted strongly during one of these song intros that this rare Meredith appearance would probably be the last one for quite some time, since she is concentrating these days more on her growing family, with little Carter and baby Zachary. And Chris did more than hint strongly how crushed she had been, when it first became clear to her, sometime last year, how this development of the Incredible Shrinking Duo would be the case, after so many years of having had her twin sister Meredith along for the ride of the (until then) nonstop musical merry-go-round of the Thompsons. Stop the world I want to get off! -- Poof! -- And then there was one. Certainly carrying on with the Livelys has helped buoy Chris' dashed spirits. And Pete & Maura Kennedy serendipitously summoning up the spirits of the Strangelings hasn't hurt in this regard either! Truth to tell, the Strangelings, co-founded by both Chris & Meredith at PACE this past January along with TK, has wound up giving Chris a wonderful spotlight, along with a chance to do things she has never been able to do with the duo of C&M. Like move around on the stage a lot more -- space permitting -- and emote, menacingly, like a wild thing on the song "Matty Groves"! "Wild Thing -- you make my heart sing!" (Troggs) "Makes Katryna look like a slacker," as John Rozett so slyly observed last month, at the Strangelings show at Caffe Lena. But there is one aspect of her art that Chris can still do far more of in her non-Strangelings persona, and that is write songs and get them performed. There were two brand new songs played by C&M at the Sounding Board last night, both written by Chris. (Most C&M songs have been co-written by the duo in the past.) In addition, one nearly new song was given its C&M debut last night too, having been previously played before only by Chris with the Livelys. Hallelujah Lift Up Your Voice & Sing Wayfaring Stranger Lines of Longitude Old Man of the Mountain Autumn Leaves (Meredith on flute) ***NEW SONG (for C&M's parents) Hand on the Plow First Step Light a Candle Clearwater Wildest Sea Neruda Harvest Moon Tanglewood Tree ***Prove It to You (NEW) (for Bruce!) Ain't No Grave Ring of Fire (Johnny Cash) (for Sounding Board founding family) Home (rarely done) Children Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained (C&M debut) And You Amazing Grace Edelweiss (encore) The rarely played song "Home," from the album Shadyside, was a big surprise. It's played about as often (or as seldom) as the Nields play "Heading Home," or as Pete Kennedy dashes off and caresses Debussy's "The Girl With the Golden Hair." And then there were the new songs. Speaking of surprises! The first new song that C&M played last night (right after "Autumn Leaves") hadn't even got a title yet, its having been written only a bit earlier that same day. How exciting! Meredith played along as best she could on flute, basically learning on the job. This as-yet unnamed song was a beautiful tribute from Chris to her mom and dad, who've been so supportive of her in everything for so many years. Both of their parents were at last night's show. But even more exciting and way more surprising (to me) was the other new song, "Prove It to You," which Chris & Meredith had already worked up into some sort of arrangement. Was this yet another tribute from Chris to someone? I'd hate to think, with Meredith's going off into some kind of quasi-semi-retirement for the foreseeable future, that this other new Chris song never gets done again. Say it ain't so! The almost heart-stoppingly unexpected song intro by Chris was all about me, about my covering folk music groups like the Nields, the Kennedys, and them, C&M, for as long as I have, and as intensely as I have, with such passion and commitment. "So many voices and so many words" the song starts out, "Sometimes you shout just be heard." If ever I could write a tribute to Chris like she is able to do for others - -- she in her own way -- it would be to try to express, in my own way, how the multi-faceted and ever-surprising shining lights of these "Lively Knights," and one Diamond in the Rough in particular, have shone so brightly for me on lively nights such as this one, on nights of gold and silver when the stars came out to play. Treasure. "All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost." For me anyway, it's all for the love of it, all the treasure your heart can hold. There is a saying that bears repeating in this context -- "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." So for Chris Thompson, or whoever, I say -- Diamond in the Rough, shine on - -- and for all of the Lively Knights -- "Shine on you Crazy Diamond!" 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 #102 **********************************