From: owner-jangle-poets-digest@smoe.org (jangle-poets-digest) To: jangle-poets-digest@smoe.org Subject: jangle-poets-digest V9 #142 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, March 31 2008 Volume 09 : Number 142 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [JP] I Found a Road - 120-Minute Folk Fest, Titusville NJ - 2 [Nieldsfore] [JP] I Found a Road - 120-Minute Folk Fest, Titusville NJ - 1 [Nieldsfore] [JP] I Found a Road - 120-Minute Folk Fest, Titusville NJ - 3 [Nieldsfore] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 30 Mar 2008 21:37:30 EDT From: Nieldsforever@aol.com Subject: [JP] I Found a Road - 120-Minute Folk Fest, Titusville NJ - 2 "I Found a Road" - Part Two There was some reluctance to bill the Titusville show as a Strangelings show, due to the perception that doing so might constitute a conflict of interest with the upcoming Montclair NJ Strangelings show. For me anyway, the Titusville 120-Minute Folk Festival was a tantalyzing teaser of the amazing full Strangelings show that lies in wait, just around the corner, coming up down the pike -- Friday April 11 at Outpost in the Burbs, with the full complement of musicians, including Cheryl Prashker on drums and phenomenon in the making Eric Lee on fiddle. "It was steady as a drum beat, babe Strong as the irons in those chains that led me astray And it was true, like the northern star Straight as the arrow that shot right through my heart." I started walking to the drumbeat of Cadence Carroll's Different Drummers pals Pete & Maura Kennedy a long time ago. It's been a long road. It started for me when P&M with backing band of bass, keyboards, and drums, co-billing with the Nields at the Bottom Line, blew me away with their fresh new songs for the album Life Is Large, on a Thursday night of the saddest week of my life, 5/9/96. Seeing the Kennedys like that for the first time in all their glory, my first impression of them being seeing them in an augmented full-band, rock band configuration, turned my road around, came to my emotional rescue, rocked my world, and turned my musical picture of the world upside down. I wanted to start following TK then, after that 1996 Bottom Line show; but for one reason or another I put off doing that for another 5 years, until 2001. It took me a long time to come around to TK, and it took me a long time to come around to Chris & Meredith Thompson. But it's all been worth it for me, and as they sing in the Closing Song at FRFF each and every year -- "I am Never Turning Back." The indelible impression TK made on me was when P&M did Kate Wolf's "Across the Great Divide" at the Sounding Board 4/14/01, on the Saturday before Easter of that year. That was it. True as the northern star and straight as the arrow that shot through my heart, TK "really got me" (Kinks) right through that tiny crack between Good Friday and Easter, as if through a tiny chink in the armor of the "fortress around my heart." (Sting) Love was the drug, the Kennedys had dialed up my Rx, and I've been hooked ever since. The indelible impression the Thompson twins made on me was when C&M did "A Bend in the River" opening for TK at the Lancaster Fireworks Show 6/26/05. That was it. I could see the look on P&M's faces. I knew what I had just seen. It was the "Look of Love" -- the kind of love that brings people together - -- Nerissa's "whirling dervish Galilean love" of the N&K song "The Endless Day" -- the love that Dante in the last line of the "Divine Comedy" describes as the force that "moves the sun and the other stars." 1/12/07 at PACE, TK ("Happytown," "When I Go") and C&M ("Tanglewood Tree," "The Mountain"), united in the bonds of common love of the songs of Dave Carter, love of music, and love of life, formed the first lineup of the folk supergroup that has revolved/evolved over time into the 7-piece Strangelings. "As we revolve, we will evolve to a place of love." (Cadence Carroll, "Evolve") Cadence's almost prophetic vision is coming true in the Strangelings. The Strangelings were born at that Lancaster Fireworks Show 6/26/05, in the song "A Bend in the River," the germ seed of the whole tree, in which many birds have come to make their nests. The song "I Found a Road" was first played at that same Lancaster Fireworks Show too. And what a painful road it can be when the shuffle of the deck does not yield the turn of a friendly card! Turn the cards as you will, they do not always come out in your favor. But "I Found a Road" is about overcoming adversity through the dawning realization of the road you're already on. And oh! the playing of the "brave new game" when like Christopher Columbus you're about the business of discovery in uncharted waters -- "Now when I feel I'm at the end I only need to turn around again I found a road that leads to you! Hey! Hey! Hey!" To Be Continued. 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: Sun, 30 Mar 2008 21:31:10 EDT From: Nieldsforever@aol.com Subject: [JP] I Found a Road - 120-Minute Folk Fest, Titusville NJ - 1 "I Found a Road" - Part One "I was lost on a moonless night Stumbling beneath the starlight And the last fires of the day were burning low I thought I'd never find my way back home." - -- the Kennedys, from Better Dreams "The road goes ever on and on," as Bilbo sang in Tolkien's _The Lord of the Rings_ The part of the road that constitutes my "brave new game" began for me 8/6/94, when I first saw the 5-piece Nields band (Nerissa, Katryna, David Nields, Dave Chalfant, Kevin Bell on drums). TN played the song "Christopher Columbus" that day, which has reverberated so uncannily and hauntingly for me ever since -- "Driving down that same old road I'm finding nothing new Every road I take Seems to bring me back to you." A new road had begun. And that road has led me through many labyrinthine passageways, through twists and turns, over many's the highway and byway to last night's 120-Minute Folk Festival in Titusville NJ 3/29/08, with sets by members of the Strangelings, Chris Thompson Lively, Hungrytown, Maura Kennedy, Pete Kennedy, the Stringbusters, and the Kennedys in their usual configuration as a duo. "I found a road that leads to you! Hey! Hey! Hey!" One of the stops on this "Golden Road to Unlimited Devotion" (long long ago) just happened to be this same Unitarian Universalist Church in Titusville, 12/1/01, when Chris & Meredith Thompson delivered a stunning opening set for another duo of singing sisters, Nerissa & Katryna Nields, on the cusp of my 250th Nields show (at the Iron Horse the following week). I wanted to start following C&M Thompson then, after that 2001 Titusville Concerts at the Crossing show; but for one reason or another I put off doing that for another 4 years, until 2005. Last night, the 120-Minute Folk Festival started unexpectedly with first Chris, then Pete & Maura, then Rebecca & Ken walking up the center aisle of the church, doing an a cappella version of "Wake Up Children," singing while they progressed from the back of the sanctuary to the front, in processional style. They'd never done it that way before! What an exciting beginning. Chris led the way in the processional, and then Chris played the first set. Hallelujah Lines of Longitude Old Man of the Mountain Clearwater The singalong on "Clearwater" was amazing, with all kinds of harmony voices drifting in from somewhere behind where I was sitting in the front row, on the choruses -- "And the wind and the tide will be our guide, and the wind and the tide will be." It's a songwriter's dream, having great singalongs like that on one's songs. In the new Kennedys album Better Dreams, P&M explore many different facets of the songwriter's dream -- dreams of a better tomorrow, and dreams that have impacted the writing of exciting new songs. "Just when I thought I would despair I turned around and saw it there I found a road that leads to you!" The 120-Minute Folk Festival was a dream come true for me personally, as well. All of the performers were artists I love whose work I admire, and whom I've followed closely at one point or another -- either for a long period of time, like Chris and TK, or just in the past year or so, like Hungrytown, the Stringbusters, and the Strangelings. Hungrytown's set came right after Chris'. Rose or the Briar Hungrytown Road Going North Lucille Lucille I first saw Rebecca & Ken at the Guthrie Center 5/25/07, in their debut with the Strangelings. It was love at first sight for me, what with Rebecca's great songs, her great singing, and Ken's wit, charm, and expert musicianship. I knew that the road had become a whole lot nicer place for me to be, a place I wanted to be if they were involved, once I found out about them! "I found a road that leads to you! Hey! Hey! Hey!" To Be Continued. 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: Sun, 30 Mar 2008 21:43:43 EDT From: Nieldsforever@aol.com Subject: [JP] I Found a Road - 120-Minute Folk Fest, Titusville NJ - 3 "I Found a Road" - Part Three "It's a long, long journey So stay by my side When I walk through the storm You'll be my guide." - -- "I'll Never Find Another You," the Seekers Maura's song "I Found a Road" has inside of it all of the joy and the wonder of the Kennedys, wrapped up in just a few verses, "heaven and earth in little space," just bursting out, like a seed busting out a sprout from the tomblike womb of being buried deep in the earth. In "Breathe," Maura evokes the vision of the strange mutual embrace of life and death, of birth and new birth through dying. "I Found a Road" embodies this same overcoming of duality from a slightly different perspective, in my mind's eye. "Just when I thought I would despair" (dying) "I turned around and saw it there" (new birth out of the jaws of spiritual death) "Now when I feel I'm at the end" (dying) "I only need to turn around again" (new birth out of the jaws of spiritual death) And what an amazing refrain! The refrain of "I Found a Road" makes me want to jump for joy, both literally and spiritually, Joni Mitchell's "dizzy dancing way you feel" of her classic "Both Sides Now." TK have uncorked another winner with "I Found a Road," cut from much the same cloth as the infectious "Namaste," the anthemic "Life Is Large" and that other title cut that stands head and shoulders above all the rest, "Stand." Despair - to joy. Death - to new life. "I Found a Road" *is* "Both Sides Now," in the style of the Kennedys -- less philosophical, more joyful -- less jaded, but coming from looking at the very same darkness. Kennedys music, contrary to misinformed opinion, is very far from all "sweetness and light." The Kennedys cover a whole range of songwriting subjects in an ever-expanding palette of musical sounds, as they continue to grow and mature as musicians. After Hungrytown's set at the 120-Minute Folk Festival in Titusville, Maura overcame her stage fright at playing by herself by turning in a great rendition of "Make It Last" -- just Maura on voice and guitar, playing all by her lonesome. I'm reminded of Nerissa's solo gig at Fire & Water 2/17/98 -- arguably the most important Nields show ever -- the germ-seed of the future of the so-called Probe that with the release of Love & China in 2002 became Nerissa & Katryna Nields. At that 1998 Fire & Water appearance (with Dave Chalfant and Ben Demerath in supporting roles), Nerissa gained the confidence to play Nields music without the full band, in a word overcoming something of the same kind of stage fright that until very recently may have been holding Maura back. And Pete followed Maura's one-song setlet with a solo song rendition of his own -- Billy Ed Wheeler's "Coal Tattoo." (Pete also dusted off "Same Old Way" at soundcheck.) I would've loved to have been able to see any of Pete's recent solo gigs, when Maura was AWOL for a family emergency. I thought Pete was fantastic on "Coal Tattoo," singing and playing up a storm on guitar! One Maura solo song, one Pete solo song. Then P&M donned their Stringbusters personas for the next 3 songs -- covering Billie Holiday on "Me Myself & I," Django Reinhardt on "Minor Swing," and George Gershwin on Pete's uke solo version of "Rhapsody in Blue." Hungrytown and Chris joined the Kennedys for the closer of the first half of the 120-Minute Folk Festival -- yet another thrilling, soul-stirring, singalong rendition of the classic "Stand." After the break, TK took the stage as themselves -- Speed of Soul I Found a Road In My Dreams Breathe Gypsy Rose Midnight Ghost Then 5 members of the Strangelings weaved their magic -- Nuah Wayfaring Stranger (best ever!) Season of the Witch Man of Poor Fortune (amazing a cappella SSA ending) Tanglewood Tree Johnny Come Down to Hilo A-Soalin' Matty Groves (killer!) White Bird (encore, sandwiched between two very enthusiastic standing ovations) What an amazing, amazing 120-Minute Folk Festival it was. We came, we saw, TK and friends kicked ass! Think I can trot it all out again, when the Strangelings make the scene in Montclair NJ? Think the Strangelings have it in them to turn in yet another stellar appearance, barely 2 weeks from today? Dang right I can, and dang right they will! Wild horses couldn't keep me away. "I'll make my own way I won't be home by morning light But maybe in another life I found a road that leads to you! Hey! Hey! Hey! I found a road that leads to you! Hey! Hey! Hey! I found a road that leads to you! Hey! Hey! Hey! I found a road that leads to you! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!" 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 #142 **********************************