From: owner-jangle-poets-digest@smoe.org (jangle-poets-digest) To: jangle-poets-digest@smoe.org Subject: jangle-poets-digest V9 #159 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 Wednesday, April 30 2008 Volume 09 : Number 159 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [JP] West Hartford set list [Nieldsforever@aol.com] [JP] West Hartford details - Part 1 [Nieldsforever@aol.com] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2008 10:15:13 EDT From: Nieldsforever@aol.com Subject: [JP] West Hartford set list Kennedys 4/25/08 University of Hartford Life Is Large I Found a Road (Cruise Story) Speed of Soul In My Dreams 9th Street Billy Half a Million Miles Midnight Ghost Breathe Matty Groves Wall of Death Fortune Teller Road Me Myself & I Minor Swing Namaste Give Me Back My Country American Wish Make It Last (Maura solo) The Devil's Boat (Pete solo) Bouree - Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring 8 Miles High Rhapsody in Blue Stand **What a Difference a Day Makes (encore after standing ovation) 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, 29 Apr 2008 11:02:50 EDT From: Nieldsforever@aol.com Subject: [JP] West Hartford details - Part 1 > >Half a Million Miles > The usual song intro about the Kennedys mileage hitting 500,000 was told, as inspiration for this song. 500,000 miles in 10 years came out to about 50,000 miles a year, averaging roughly 1,000 miles a week, they said. In 2000, I averaged 400 miles a day for my job as a car courier, roughly 2,000 miles a week. But I could only keep that up for one year before I quit, whereas TK have been able to maintain so much driving for 10 years straight and more! Having driven that much myself for only one year, TK's figures for over 10 years are just staggering to me, astonishing. One reason I quit that job is I had to pay for all of my own gas, non-reimbursed -- I was paid by the mile, like many truckers. And this job was before gas prices went ballistic through the roof! I well remember paying only $0.99 a gallon for petrol in NJ, just a few years ago. So although paying for all of my own gas was very painful, it wasn't quite prohibitive at the time. TK (and truckers) OTOH, are still out there on the road, at the mercy of the Oil Gods, the robber barons, or whomever. So the road takes its toll -- and skyrocketing energy prices definitely take a big bite out of the budgets of even successful folk artists like TK. Factor in that audiences might be less willing to fill up their own gas tanks to drive to see a folk act like TK, and the spiralling energy crisis bites folk music (as well as the entire economy) in the butt on both buttocks, at both ends. "Let's see, priorities -- put food on the table -- pay the bills -- mortgage - -- folk music. Decisions, decisions." > >Midnight Ghost > >Breathe > >Matty Groves > It's also astonishing to me how Maura is able to shift gears from the Strangelings version of "Matty Groves" (where Chris and Rebecca cover about half the verses) to the Kennedys version (where Maura does all of the verses herself). I've long marveled at Maura's elocutionary excellence in singing -- she is one of the best-prepared and most professional lead singers I've ever seen, if not *the* most. And this, coupled with not "playing it safe," but really pushing the envelope with constantly changing repertoires and different material -- most highly exemplified for me by the really brave rendition of "What a Difference a Day Makes" for their encore at West Hartford, with both Pete and Maura basically flying by the seat of their pants. It's almost mind-blowing to me, that P&M with *no rehearsal* on "What a Difference a Day Makes" were more musical and professional-sounding than most mortals could even aspire to, with considerable practice and preparation on that same song. And that one-off must be just the tip of the iceberg, considering P&M's ever-varied work over the years with Nanci Griffith, with Tom Paxton just the other night (completely unreported to J-P), on the Bob Dylan material for the Bob Dylan Festival they do every year, the Strangelings, the Stringbusters, and their own growing repertoire separately and together as TK, yada yada yada. 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 #159 **********************************