From: owner-jangle-poets-digest@smoe.org (jangle-poets-digest) To: jangle-poets-digest@smoe.org Subject: jangle-poets-digest V9 #130 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, January 25 2008 Volume 09 : Number 130 Today's Subjects: ----------------- TK @ SFFF (Re: [JP] Better Dreams day) ["Rebecca Derry" Subject: TK @ SFFF (Re: [JP] Better Dreams day) It's been a while since I have done a proper review, so I thought that I might expand on John's post a bit. I no longer take notes during concerts like I did when I kept Concert Musings, for I found that I began filtering concerts through the lens of "how could I report back on this?" -- contriving nostalgia while the show was still happening. As a result, I don't have precise setlists -- just impressions and recollections. The Kennedys played two sets at South Florida Folk Fest: a "60s Music" set at the workshop stage and a mainstage set. The workshop "stage" was a pavilion with no electricity, surrounded by water and signs warning us not to feed or harass the alligators. The seating was picnic benches set in a circle; this gave the sets an informal, inclusive, and more genuinely workshop-ish feel. This setting worked admirably for 60s music workshop, where the emphasis was (or at least started out as) playing Kennedysesque takes on classics that everyone could sing along to. The Kennedys started out with Dylan ("Mr. Tambourine Man," "Like a Rolling Stone," something else), Beatles ("Eight Days a Week," some others), The Band ("The Weight"), The Temptations ("My Girl"), a few more that I forget. They also invited Rebecca Hall (vocals) and Ken Anderson (picnic table percussion, since there was no place to plug in a bass) from the band Hungrytown to play on "Season of the Witch" and "Matty Groves" for a lovely unmic'ed pseudo-Strangelings moment. (Is "Matty Groves" a 60s song? It's a Child ballad, if I recall correctly, so it's technically much older, but I suppose that it was popularized by the Fairport Convention and Joan Baez versions, which were both were released in the 60s, so fine. Besides, with Ken and Rebecca at the festival, how could they have not done it?) Someone requested "Dharma Cafe," and they decided that it was practically a 60s song in spirit, so they granted the request. This led into "Not Fade Away." As such, it started and ended as a "greatest hits" singalong, with a few more specifically Kennedys songs and covers in between. All of it went over well with the audience, who seemed equally happy singing along and listening to The Kennedys do their thing. The Kennedys returned the favor to Hungrytown by singing harmony and playing guitar on a couple of songs during their mainstage set: "Hard Way to Learn" (also recorded by The Strangelings) and "Hungrytown Road." Check out their new self-titled album "Hungrytown," endorsed on-stage by The Kennedys. It's really pretty and unexpectedly jangly (in a less Beatlesesque and more trad or "retro" style). Unlike most of the music festivals I have attended in the northeast, The Kennedys were playing to an audience for whom they were comparatively unknown. Hence, as I think Susan pointed out, their mainstage set had to give a flavor of the different things they can do. They dedicated the set to John Stewart, who had just passed away, and they did their cover of his song "Jasmine" (one of my favorite songs on "Songs of the Open Road"). Not shockingly, they opened with "Life is Large" and closed with "Stand"; the audience stood with some prompting from Pete. In between, they played "Breathe," "Midnight Ghost," "9th Street Billy," "Eight Miles High," "Matty Groves" (with Ken and Rebecca again) a jam that segued into "Rhapsody in Blue" on uke, and some other songs, probably not in that order at all -- again, showcasing a lot of styles and moods. During "Stand," a performer standing behind me asked the guy next to him it was an original or a cover. It struck me that for a song like "Stand" that aims to be universal and ageless, this is a high compliment. Though it is such a Kennedys song that it is hard for me to imagine at this point that it could be anyone else's. Let's see; what else was notable? Um, Bruce missed a pseudo-Strangelings appearance? ;-] In sum: I like hearing The Kennedys play. I like folk festivals. Florida in the winter beats Ohio or Maryland, even though the storm forced us to evacuate our tent at 4 AM (a true Falcon-Ridge-ish experience: blazingly hot, followed by torrential downpour, followed by chilly and cloudy with occasional spitting from the sky), and even though it still feels really wrong to be wearing sandals in January. I like seeing familiar faces in different contexts and meeting new folk aficionados. I am looking forward on hearing "Better Dreams" on a sound system that is not tinny car speakers in a location that is not I-95N in the Carolinas. ~'becca 'Modern Folk Underground' on WOBC: http://wobc.org/guide-show.php?edition_id=1931 Oberlin Folk Fest: http://www.oberlin.edu/folkfest/ 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 #130 **********************************