From: owner-jangle-poets-digest@smoe.org (jangle-poets-digest) To: jangle-poets-digest@smoe.org Subject: jangle-poets-digest V9 #146 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 Tuesday, April 15 2008 Volume 09 : Number 146 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [JP] Strangelings - Phil Ochs Weekend [Nieldsforever@aol.com] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2008 22:10:21 EDT From: Nieldsforever@aol.com Subject: [JP] Strangelings - Phil Ochs Weekend This was originally intended to be a Strangelings - Nields weekend for me, but when Nerissa & Katryna Nields cancelled their show at the Iron Horse on Saturday (seeing as how I never miss the Nields' Iron Horse shows), it made it possible for me to see a rare Chris & Meredith Thompson appearance (since Meredith's maternity leave) at Phil Ochs Night at Joyful Noise Coffeehouse in Lexington. Strangelings - Phil Ochs weekend -- What a way of looking at the 60's from "Both Sides Now"! :-) I'd been to Outpost in the Burbs in Montclair NJ before, most notably when TN debuted their cover of Madonna's "Express Yourself" on 1/26/96 and when TK's tour drummer Zack danced around the stage wearing Maura's pink feather boa during TN's "Jack the Giant Killer" at the 5/12/00 Nields-Kennedys show (forever rendering that gig the "Zack the Giant Killer Show"). Those shows were at the Congregational Church on Fullerton, but Friday's Strangelings outing was at a different venue, the Unitarian Universalist Church on Church Street. Jason Spooner Trio opened. Strangelings 4/11/08 Montclair NJ Nuah Johnny Come Down to Hilo Harvest Moon Tanglewood Tree Hard Way to Learn Season of the Witch Wayfaring Stranger A-Soalin' Matty Groves Wake Up Children Didn't It Rain (w/ reels) Man of Poor Fortune White Bird Wildest Sea The Coo Coo Sculptor's Song Sirens Nuah reprise Wall of Death (encore) Hall of Fame moments -- "Wayfaring Stranger" -- Chris Thompson Lively continues to turn in one great vocal rendition after another of this song with the Strangelings, never quite the same from one show to the next. On a separate note, Maura has gotten with the program in consistently introducing her as "Chris Thompson Lively," whereas Pete continues to call her "Chris Thompson." The name "Lively" is most apt I think, a fact to which anyone who has seen her impassioned style of delivery and stage antics with the Strangelings will attest! "Sirens" -- Chris' almost hypnotic whirling dervish gyrations during this and other lively Strangelings songs are very effective I think, much as Katryna Nields' own style of strutting around the stage with the Full Band Nields was very effective. The Strangelings offer Chris a kind of freedom in this regard that she's never enjoyed with the C&M Thompson duo -- exactly the same kind of freedom the Full Band Nields offered Katryna, that she's never been able to enjoy with the N&K Nields duo. Full bands offer more of an expansiveness of opportunity, perhaps, to those who know how to exploit those opportunities, compared to folk duos of singing sisters! I can't resist citing the Josie Cotton song in this regard -- "You don't need a license to dance!" :-) "White Bird" -- The way the 3 female lead singers (Maura, Chris, Rebecca) sing an almost childlike and angelic-sounding unison on the melody at the beginning of the first and last verses, and then divide into a glorious 3-part harmony, makes for a sound that is just out of this world. If TK's new album bears the name "Better Dreams," then the Strangelings are a Dream Band, with the ethereal-sounding female voices standing in for the "better angels of our nature." Sort of like the sirens of the song "Sirens," only heavenly sirens, sirens from the 8th moon of Jupiter -- not the kind that lead unwary sailors to their destruction! "The Coo Coo" -- Pete Kennedy on electric sitar and Eric Lee on fiddle continue to turn in amazing collaborative improvisations on this and other songs, and like Chris' vocal renditions, they are different every time. If the Strangelings band is a dream come true, then the musical synergy and cross-fertilization of Pete and Eric's jamming together is a match made in heaven, a collaboration that looks to have been "meant to be" all along, "From the Beginning" (Emerson Lake & Palmer). Hall of Shame moment -- Rebecca & Ken were late for the processional up the center aisle of the church for the beginning song of the second set, "Wake Up Children" ! I thought the song-title was most apt in this regard! :-) Phil Ochs Night 4/12/08 Lexington MA The Power & the Glory (tutti ensemble) Changes (Dean Stevens) Old Man in His Garden (Dean Stevens w/ Frank Levar) Bracero (Chris & Meredith Thompson) Clearwater (Chris & Meredith Thompson) There But For Fortune (David Roth w/ Terry Leonino) Ahmed Al-Khatib (David Roth) Pleasures of the Harbor (John Flynn) Dover (John Flynn w/ Greg Greenway) Happy Birthday (tutti ensemble, in honor of Sonny Ochs' 71st b-day) How Long (Magpie - Terry Leonino & Greg Artzner) Is There Anybody Here (Magpie) The Fight (Phil Ochs story, read by Robin Ochs) Do What I Have to Do (Emma's Revolution - Pat Humphries & Sandy Opatow) Choir (Emma's Revolution) No More Songs (Greg Greenway w/ Emma's Revolution) Standing on the Side of Love (Greg Greenway w/ tutti ensemble) I Ain't Marching Anymore (John Flynn w/ tutti ensemble) When I'm Gone (tutti ensemble encore - v.1 Greg Greenway; v.2 David Roth; v.3 C&M Thompson; v.4 John Flynn; harmonica break, Terry Leonino; v.5 Emma's Revolution; v.6 Magpie; v.7 Greg Greenway & Emma's Revolution; v.8 tutti) There were many highlights, many outstanding performances. I'd never seen either Dean Stevens, David Roth, or Emma's Revolution before, all of whom were impressive. Greg Greenway, Magpie, and C&M Thompson were all acts that had impressed me years ago, in my earliest Falcon Ridge festivals, back in the mid-90's. And I'm pretty sure I've seen John Flynn before, years ago, maybe at Concerts Under the Stars at King of Prussia, PA. I had to shed a tear for my nephew Jacob, killed in Iraq in '05, when John Flynn sang his riveting "Dover," about the dead who come home from abroad in flag-draped coffins to Dover, DE. And Emma's Revolution sang hauntingly ethereal harmonies with Greg Greenway on "No More Songs," which I liken to the David Crosby - Graham Nash vocal harmonies on "To the Last Whale (Critical Mass - Wind on the Water)" -- laden with suspended 4ths and unresolved 2ds. Stunningly beautiful. Hall of Fame moment -- I thought C&M's "Clearwater" produced the best singalong of the entire evening! Hall of Shame moment -- C&M had a false start on "Bracero," Meredith nearly knocking over her djembe, and Chris forgetting the words after they'd only just started! But Meredith made everyone laugh, when she zapped us all with an imaginary remote control for "rewind," so we'd be back to where everyone was clapping when they took the stage and none of that had happened! :-) 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 #146 **********************************