From: owner-jangle-poets-digest@smoe.org (jangle-poets-digest) To: jangle-poets-digest@smoe.org Subject: jangle-poets-digest V9 #140 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 Thursday, March 20 2008 Volume 09 : Number 140 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [none] [owner-jangle-poets@smoe.org] RESEND of [JP] "Synergy" - Strangelings/Nields/Kennedys weekend [Nieldsfo] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2008 07:56:24 -0400 (EDT) From: owner-jangle-poets@smoe.org Subject: [none] by smoe.org (8.13.8/8.13.8) with ESMTP id m2J3l6w8006706 for ; Tue, 18 Mar 2008 23:47:57 -0400 (EDT) Received: from Nieldsforever@aol.com by imo-m14.mx.aol.com (mail_out_v38_r9.3.) id p.c72.2af1c96b (65099) for ; Tue, 18 Mar 2008 23:46:53 -0400 (EDT) From: Nieldsforever@aol.com Message-ID: Date: Tue, 18 Mar 2008 23:46:53 EDT Subject: [JP] "Synergy" - Strangelings/Nields/Kennedys weekend To: jangle-poets@smoe.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" X-Mailer: 9.0 SE for Windows sub 5043 X-Spam-Flag: YES X-Greylist: Sender IP whitelisted, not delayed by milter-greylist-2.0 (smoe.org [199.201.145.78]); Tue, 18 Mar 2008 23:48:07 -0400 (EDT) X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative by demime 0.97c-p1 X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain The last time TN and TK co-billed at Joyful Noise Coffeehouse in Lexington was 1/13/07, the day after the 1/12/07 debut of the Strangelings at PACE. This time the same foursome of N&K Nields with P&M Kennedy played Joyful Noise 3/15/08, the day after a 3/14/08 Strangelings appearance at Me & Thee Coffeehouse in Marblehead. So both times, a Kennieldys show came right after a Strangelings show. How strange! "Strange days indeed! Most peculiar, mama!" (John Lennon) Both the Kennieldys fab four and the Strangelings folk-rock band are combos to "die for," exuding a vibrancy and a "strange magic" chemistry, an alchemy that can best be described (I think) as *synergy*. The whole is so much greater than the sum of the parts. They can do things together that they can't do in quite that way, separately. I would never miss a Nields-Kennedys show if I could help it -- and I've tried very hard never to miss any of the Strangelings' moveable feasts of music-making magic. I was the only one to make all 7 of the 2002 FRFF "Summer in December" shows, with TN, TK, and Susan Werner -- at the Cutting Room in NYC (right after a blizzard), at Outta Sights and Sounds in Pennington NJ (near Trenton), at the Birchmere in Alexandria, at Ellsworth ME (on a weeknight when I worked the next day), at Joyful Noise in Lexington, and 2 shows at Club Helsinki in Great Barrington (where Maura called me "front-row Bruce" and acknowledged that I had made every show on the mini-tour). And AFAIK the only officially Strangelings-billed Strangelings appearances I didn't attend were the ones at NERFA and at Folk Alliance in Memphis. Barring Kennedys-Hungrytown collaborations, I haven't missed any of the others. When the Strangelings debut preceded the Nields-Kennedys Lexington show last year, the Strangelings were TK with Chris & Meredith Thompson, with Eric Lee helping Maura out on video in his capacity as volunteer for PACE. When the Strangelings preceded the TN-TK collaboration this time, the lineup included Eric Lee on fiddle, along with TK, Hungrytown (Rebecca Hall & Ken Anderson), Chris Thompson Lively, and Cheryl Prashker on drums. Cheryl adds so much punch to Strangelings shows. The rock band "rocks" a little more with her onboard. Because she lives in Philly, I haven't seen her playing at many Strangelings shows so far. Eric was his usual dapper self, this time wearing a cape (as P&M used to do at Strangelings shows), and showing off for the first time at these shows his (what I would call) Ozzy Osbourne look, with dark mascara circles around both eyes. I thought he looked great! In a band like the Strangelings, why not go for the "strange" as best you can. The eerieness of the "strange" is what helps make the Strangelings, the Strangelings! :-) This time, P&M even acknowledged to the crowd that the Strangelings offered them opportunity to explore much darker paths than they usually do in their alter-ego incarnation of the Kennedys. :-) Well, Eric with his caped rock star look would have been right at home with vampire Barnabas Collins in "Dark Shadows"! "They only come out at night!" :-) The Me & Thee emcee told the crowd before the show that Eric had recently done a fiddle workshop in Marblehead with teenagers -- stunning them, no doubt, with his admission to them that he liked to play fiddle along with Metallica records! :-) Let me tell you -- I always thought Papa John Creach was great with Jefferson Airplane! And Fairport Convention, I might add, was considered the Brits' answer to Jefferson Airplane -- female vocalist, rock band, and all -- with fiddler in tow! :-) (The Strangelings do Fairport's "Matty Groves.") At any rate, Fairport Convention or no, Jefferson Airplane or no, I thought it was a stroke of genius when the Strangelings added Eric Lee on fiddle. I hope he's on their next CD -- since he's not on their first one! :-) The day of the Strangelings show, the Synergy CD "Electronic Realizations For Rock Orchestra" arrived at my house in the mail. I'd been actively seeking this hard-to-find disc for a long, long time. I got my first copy of the Synergy debut recording in 1975 on Passport Records, but my turntable hasn't been feeling at all well for many's the day now. And now Synergy flew in at my door on the day of the Strangelings! I thought that this was a very good sign, a bit of synchronicity portending "better things." But then in my haste to carry the new Synergy CD to my car on a snowy day on my way to work, I dropped the CD -- the disc flying right out of the jewel case, landing music-side down right in the snow. Of course the CD wouldn't play, now. I was horrified in a stressed-out, superstitious sort of way. My elation at the synchronicity portending "better things" deserted me, throwing me into a dark chasm of fearful foreboding for the fortunes of the entire weekend. I was really expecting the worst. How blessed are those who are not superstitious! "Very Superstitious" (Stevie Wonder) I find it highly intriguing that each of the Strangelings is represented by a different tarot card on their album Season of the Witch! :-) But later, something strange and unexpected happened. "A Small Package of Value Will Come to You, Shortly." (Jefferson Airplane) At the Lexington show, on the merch table, right next to N&K's publicity for their forthcoming book _How To Be An Adult_, was a flyer for the First Baptist Church of Lexington's music series, called the *Synergy* Concert Series. JRR Tolkien in the essay "On Fairy Stories" coined the term "eucatastrophe," sort of the opposite of a catastrophe, issuing (usually) in the "happy ending" at the conclusion of a fairy tale. That was what happened to me. My worst fears vanished, my fairy story had a happy ending. At the Lexington show, one of TN gave me a small package of value which for me constituted "Sweet Holy Grail," the culmination of my entire Nields career so far, sort of the opposite of U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For." Whether it's the TK with Strangelings or TN with TK, there is a kind of synchronistic synergy going on that draws me like a flower to the sunlight, like a moth to the flame. In '94, I did a horn arrangement of Sarah McLachlan's "Into the Fire" from the album Solace -- "Into the fire I'm reunited, into the fire I am the spark, into the fire I yearn for comfort -- I will walk into the fire until its heat doesn't burn me and I will feed the fire -- " Strangelings 3/14/08 Marblehead Nuah Wayfaring Stranger Johnny Come Down to Hilo Hard Way to Learn Season of the Witch Didn't It Rain (incorporating reels in the middle) White Bird Sculptor's Song A-Soalin' Matty Groves Wake Up Children Scarborough Fair Harvest Moon Tanglewood Tree Man of Poor Fortune Wildest Sea (with Betty from the audience on percussion) Coo Coo Sirens Nuah reprise Wall of Death (encore, Rebecca lead vocal, as before) The Strangelings at Marblehead constituted a rare appearance of both Stephen and Peter with me at a show. Stephen was only visiting from college in Chicago for the week, on spring break. R&K had met him at Ken's birthday bash in Boston 1/4/08, and both Ken and Rebecca remarked that Stephen's and my appearing at those two shows sort of bookmarked their entire Southern tour, during which time they played Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, North Carolina, and VA, at least. There is a show in Pennington NJ next Saturday the 29th being billed as the Two-Hour Folk Festival, featuring IIRC TK, the Stringbusters, Chris Thompson Lively solo, Hungrytown, and then 5 of the 7 Strangelings. Oddly enough, it is not listed anywhere on the internet as a Strangelings show per se. But it doesn't sound like a show that I could possibly miss if I could help it! :-) TN & TK 3/15/08 Lexington TK Speed of Soul I Found a Road In My Dreams Breathe 9th Street Billy Sago Mine Give Me Back My Country Me Myself & I Matty Groves N&K Clean Heart This Train Best Black Dress Endless Day Underpants Who Are You Not to Shine Night Rider's Lament When I'm Here TK Life Is Large Midnight Ghost TK & TN Easy People (TK version) Jeremy Newborn Street Ain't That Good News Mr. Tambourine Man Last Thing on My Mind (Tom Paxton) Better Things (Ray Davies of the Kinks) Stand Orphan Girl (first encore) For What It's Worth (second encore) I reminded Pete after the show that "Stand" was first played by TK in that same room, during the Summer in December tour in 2002. I first heard it 2 days before that, when Maura was playing it at soundcheck in Ellsworth. The version of "Easy People" was done the same way they did it at Lexington last year -- Maura verse 1, NN verse 2, KN verse 3. N&K were joking about how they finally succeeded in luring TK up north, to move to MA. Maura without a moment's hesitation joked right back, "And damn is it cold up here!" :-) "Orphan Girl" was much as how they've done it in the past -- Maura verse 1, NN verse 2, Pete guitar solo, NN verse 3 (formerly KN verse 3), SSA unaccompanied verse 4. "For What It's Worth" was done a little differently than in the past. Maura verse 1 (formerly KN verse 1 -- Maura sang, "Dick Cheney has a gun over there" to much laughter), Pete verse 2 (formerly NN verse 2), N&K verse 3, NN verse 4 (as only she can do on "Paranoia strikes deep"). N&K had so many funny bits of between song banter during their set! For one, NN said she'd never gotten so many emails as when Client 9 registered at the Mayflower Hotel as "George Fox"! :-) For another, at a point when Katryna was having trouble speaking in coherent sentences, she said, "I'm having trouble with my syntax today. I tapped 2 maple trees in my yard today. Soon we will have sap to make maple syrup!" -- To which NN immediately quipped, "Maybe the maple trees sapped your syntax!" :-) I'd never heard "In My Dreams," "Sago Mine," "Give Me Back My Country," "The Last Thing on My Mind," or "Better Things" done before by either TN or TK. "The Last Thing on My Mind" was a great singalong, and I thought "Sago Mine" was particularly powerful and effective. After the show, I said to Pete, "Your shows with TN are so good, you should do them more than once a year!" :-) 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: Tue, 18 Mar 2008 23:46:53 EDT From: Nieldsforever@aol.com Subject: RESEND of [JP] "Synergy" - Strangelings/Nields/Kennedys weekend [Note from moderator: Let's see if I can get this through a little neater and easier to read.] The last time TN and TK co-billed at Joyful Noise Coffeehouse in Lexington was 1/13/07, the day after the 1/12/07 debut of the Strangelings at PACE. This time the same foursome of N&K Nields with P&M Kennedy played Joyful Noise 3/15/08, the day after a 3/14/08 Strangelings appearance at Me & Thee Coffeehouse in Marblehead. So both times, a Kennieldys show came right after a Strangelings show. How strange! "Strange days indeed! Most peculiar, mama!" (John Lennon) Both the Kennieldys fab four and the Strangelings folk-rock band are combos to "die for," exuding a vibrancy and a "strange magic" chemistry, an alchemy that can best be described (I think) as *synergy*. The whole is so much greater than the sum of the parts. They can do things together that they can't do in quite that way, separately. I would never miss a Nields-Kennedys show if I could help it -- and I've tried very hard never to miss any of the Strangelings' moveable feasts of music-making magic. I was the only one to make all 7 of the 2002 FRFF "Summer in December" shows, with TN, TK, and Susan Werner -- at the Cutting Room in NYC (right after a blizzard), at Outta Sights and Sounds in Pennington NJ (near Trenton), at the Birchmere in Alexandria, at Ellsworth ME (on a weeknight when I worked the next day), at Joyful Noise in Lexington, and 2 shows at Club Helsinki in Great Barrington (where Maura called me "front-row Bruce" and acknowledged that I had made every show on the mini-tour). And AFAIK the only officially Strangelings-billed Strangelings appearances I didn't attend were the ones at NERFA and at Folk Alliance in Memphis. Barring Kennedys-Hungrytown collaborations, I haven't missed any of the others. When the Strangelings debut preceded the Nields-Kennedys Lexington show last year, the Strangelings were TK with Chris & Meredith Thompson, with Eric Lee helping Maura out on video in his capacity as volunteer for PACE. When the Strangelings preceded the TN-TK collaboration this time, the lineup included Eric Lee on fiddle, along with TK, Hungrytown (Rebecca Hall & Ken Anderson), Chris Thompson Lively, and Cheryl Prashker on drums. Cheryl adds so much punch to Strangelings shows. The rock band "rocks" a little more with her onboard. Because she lives in Philly, I haven't seen her playing at many Strangelings shows so far. Eric was his usual dapper self, this time wearing a cape (as P&M used to do at Strangelings shows), and showing off for the first time at these shows his (what I would call) Ozzy Osbourne look, with dark mascara circles around both eyes. I thought he looked great! In a band like the Strangelings, why not go for the "strange" as best you can. The eerieness of the "strange" is what helps make the Strangelings, the Strangelings! :-) This time, P&M even acknowledged to the crowd that the Strangelings offered them opportunity to explore much darker paths than they usually do in their alter-ego incarnation of the Kennedys. :-) Well, Eric with his caped rock star look would have been right at home with vampire Barnabas Collins in "Dark Shadows"! "They only come out at night!" :-) The Me & Thee emcee told the crowd before the show that Eric had recently done a fiddle workshop in Marblehead with teenagers -- stunning them, no doubt, with his admission to them that he liked to play fiddle along with Metallica records! :-) Let me tell you -- I always thought Papa John Creach was great with Jefferson Airplane! And Fairport Convention, I might add, was considered the Brits' answer to Jefferson Airplane -- female vocalist, rock band, and all -- with fiddler in tow! :-) (The Strangelings do Fairport's "Matty Groves.") At any rate, Fairport Convention or no, Jefferson Airplane or no, I thought it was a stroke of genius when the Strangelings added Eric Lee on fiddle. I hope he's on their next CD -- since he's not on their first one! :-) The day of the Strangelings show, the Synergy CD "Electronic Realizations For Rock Orchestra" arrived at my house in the mail. I'd been actively seeking this hard-to-find disc for a long, long time. I got my first copy of the Synergy debut recording in 1975 on Passport Records, but my turntable hasn't been feeling at all well for many's the day now. And now Synergy flew in at my door on the day of the Strangelings! I thought that this was a very good sign, a bit of synchronicity portending "better things." But then in my haste to carry the new Synergy CD to my car on a snowy day on my way to work, I dropped the CD -- the disc flying right out of the jewel case, landing music-side down right in the snow. Of course the CD wouldn't play, now. I was horrified in a stressed-out, superstitious sort of way. My elation at the synchronicity portending "better things" deserted me, throwing me into a dark chasm of fearful foreboding for the fortunes of the entire weekend. I was really expecting the worst. How blessed are those who are not superstitious! "Very Superstitious" (Stevie Wonder) I find it highly intriguing that each of the Strangelings is represented by a different tarot card on their album Season of the Witch! :-) But later, something strange and unexpected happened. "A Small Package of Value Will Come to You, Shortly." (Jefferson Airplane) At the Lexington show, on the merch table, right next to N&K's publicity for their forthcoming book _How To Be An Adult_, was a flyer for the First Baptist Church of Lexington's music series, called the *Synergy* Concert Series. JRR Tolkien in the essay "On Fairy Stories" coined the term "eucatastrophe," sort of the opposite of a catastrophe, issuing (usually) in the "happy ending" at the conclusion of a fairy tale. That was what happened to me. My worst fears vanished, my fairy story had a happy ending. At the Lexington show, one of TN gave me a small package of value which for me constituted "Sweet Holy Grail," the culmination of my entire Nields career so far, sort of the opposite of U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For." Whether it's the TK with Strangelings or TN with TK, there is a kind of synchronistic synergy going on that draws me like a flower to the sunlight, like a moth to the flame. In '94, I did a horn arrangement of Sarah McLachlan's "Into the Fire" from the album Solace -- "Into the fire I'm reunited, into the fire I am the spark, into the fire I yearn for comfort -- I will walk into the fire until its heat doesn't burn me and I will feed the fire -- " Strangelings 3/14/08 Marblehead Nuah Wayfaring Stranger Johnny Come Down to Hilo Hard Way to Learn Season of the Witch Didn't It Rain (incorporating reels in the middle) White Bird Sculptor's Song A-Soalin' Matty Groves Wake Up Children Scarborough Fair Harvest Moon Tanglewood Tree Man of Poor Fortune Wildest Sea (with Betty from the audience on percussion) Coo Coo Sirens Nuah reprise Wall of Death (encore, Rebecca lead vocal, as before) The Strangelings at Marblehead constituted a rare appearance of both Stephen and Peter with me at a show. Stephen was only visiting from college in Chicago for the week, on spring break. R&K had met him at Ken's birthday bash in Boston 1/4/08, and both Ken and Rebecca remarked that Stephen's and my appearing at those two shows sort of bookmarked their entire Southern tour, during which time they played Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, North Carolina, and VA, at least. There is a show in Pennington NJ next Saturday the 29th being billed as the Two-Hour Folk Festival, featuring IIRC TK, the Stringbusters, Chris Thompson Lively solo, Hungrytown, and then 5 of the 7 Strangelings. Oddly enough, it is not listed anywhere on the internet as a Strangelings show per se. But it doesn't sound like a show that I could possibly miss if I could help it! :-) TN & TK 3/15/08 Lexington TK Speed of Soul I Found a Road In My Dreams Breathe 9th Street Billy Sago Mine Give Me Back My Country Me Myself & I Matty Groves N&K Clean Heart This Train Best Black Dress Endless Day Underpants Who Are You Not to Shine Night Rider's Lament When I'm Here TK Life Is Large Midnight Ghost TK & TN Easy People (TK version) Jeremy Newborn Street Ain't That Good News Mr. Tambourine Man Last Thing on My Mind (Tom Paxton) Better Things (Ray Davies of the Kinks) Stand Orphan Girl (first encore) For What It's Worth (second encore) I reminded Pete after the show that "Stand" was first played by TK in that same room, during the Summer in December tour in 2002. I first heard it 2 days before that, when Maura was playing it at soundcheck in Ellsworth. The version of "Easy People" was done the same way they did it at Lexington last year -- Maura verse 1, NN verse 2, KN verse 3. N&K were joking about how they finally succeeded in luring TK up north, to move to MA. Maura without a moment's hesitation joked right back, "And damn is it cold up here!" :-) "Orphan Girl" was much as how they've done it in the past -- Maura verse 1, NN verse 2, Pete guitar solo, NN verse 3 (formerly KN verse 3), SSA unaccompanied verse 4. "For What It's Worth" was done a little differently than in the past. Maura verse 1 (formerly KN verse 1 -- Maura sang, "Dick Cheney has a gun over there" to much laughter), Pete verse 2 (formerly NN verse 2), N&K verse 3, NN verse 4 (as only she can do on "Paranoia strikes deep"). N&K had so many funny bits of between song banter during their set! For one, NN said she'd never gotten so many emails as when Client 9 registered at the Mayflower Hotel as "George Fox"! :-) For another, at a point when Katryna was having trouble speaking in coherent sentences, she said, "I'm having trouble with my syntax today. I tapped 2 maple trees in my yard today. Soon we will have sap to make maple syrup!" -- To which NN immediately quipped, "Maybe the maple trees sapped your syntax!" :-) I'd never heard "In My Dreams," "Sago Mine," "Give Me Back My Country," "The Last Thing on My Mind," or "Better Things" done before by either TN or TK. "The Last Thing on My Mind" was a great singalong, and I thought "Sago Mine" was particularly powerful and effective. After the show, I said to Pete, "Your shows with TN are so good, you should do them more than once a year!" :-) 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 #140 **********************************