From: owner-jangle-poets-digest@smoe.org (jangle-poets-digest) To: jangle-poets-digest@smoe.org Subject: jangle-poets-digest V9 #188 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, July 9 2008 Volume 09 : Number 188 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [JP] A Hot Time in the Old Town - TK Custom House Stage 11:00 Saturday [M] [JP] Songs of Life's Journeys - TK Acushnet Ave. Stage 1:00 Saturday [Mer] [JP] TK Kruger Water St. Stage 3:00 Saturday [MercyHouse1@aol.com] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 7 Jul 2008 22:47:05 EDT From: MercyHouse1@aol.com Subject: [JP] A Hot Time in the Old Town - TK Custom House Stage 11:00 Saturday "A Hot Time in the Old Town" was the name of the first New Bedford festival appearance by TK. It really lived up to its billing! TK shared the big stage with Gareth Turner from England, a sensationally good melodeon player (a kind of button accordion), who has appeared with the Albion Dance Band, Little Johnny England, and as a guest artist with Fairport Convention at Cropredy. Longtime Fairport player Dave Pegg was also at the festival, but sadly never shared the same stage as Pete & Maura. But the jaw-dropping surprise for me at the Custom House Stage was a delightful trio of Australians calling themselves Women in Docs -- Roz Pappalardo (guitar, vocals), Chanel Lucas (bass, vocals), and Savannah Jo Lack (fiddle). TK, Gareth Turner, and Women in Docs (henceforth WID) set the Custom House Stage on fire -- "A Hot Time in the Old Town" -- jamming together, completely without rehearsal, on every song, so that TK had a Strangelings-like big band ensemble of Pete & Maura on guitar & vocals, Gareth Turner on melodeon, and Women in Docs on fiddle, guitar, and bass. Here's what was played -- Didn't It Rain (TK with Gareth and WID) Wanderer (WID with Gareth and TK) The Coo Coo (TK with Gareth and WID) - (including Paperback Writer; instrumental break with just Gareth on melodeon and Savannah on fiddle; Folsom Prison Blues - 2 verses, Pete guitar solo, 3rd verse; back to Coo Coo to finish) Tin Roof (WID with Gareth and TK) A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall (TK with Gareth and WID) Wagon Wheel (WID with Gareth and TK) Matty Groves (TK with Gareth and WID) Morris Dance (Gareth with TK and WID) Sail Away (WID with Gareth and TK) Chains (Maura with Pete, Gareth, and WID) Crown Street (WID with Gareth and TK) A Day in the Life (TK with Gareth and WID) Fever (WID with Gareth and TK) Not Fade Away (TK with Gareth and WID) - (segue to Who Do You Love; back to Not Fade Away) I believe this to have been the best workshop-style stage performance I've ever seen. "Didn't It Rain," "The Coo Coo," and "Matty Groves" were all outstanding, with Savannah and Gareth just lighting up the place on fiddle and melodeon, respectively. This was an amazing performance of "Chains" too -- I wrote "best ever!" -- the first big-band ensemble performance of "Chains" -- and the first performance of "Chains" that I've seen with any other musicians besides just Maura. Maura got a huge ovation from the crowd after her guitar solo in the middle of the song, and I believe that big ovation for the guitar solo to have been a first as well. Pete turned in killer guitar solos on both "Wagon Wheel" and "Fever." This is a side of TK that mainly only comes out at festivals. It seems patently clear to me that Pete has to tone it down a bit and modulate his performances to the texture of TK when he is only playing with Maura in smaller venues -- whereas he definitely has another gear or two available for big festival stages with larger bands, when he can and does turn it up a notch. This is an exciting thing to behold and hard to describe! -- because he doesn't ordinarily do this within the parameters of most Kennedys duo shows. "A Day in the Life" was so impressive, I thought I had been transformed and made to travel to another place altogether, while it was being played. A better place that I didn't ever want to leave! This is probably my favorite Beatles song. And I was also tripped out by the Women in Docs songs "Sail Away" (Chanel lead vocal) and "Crown Street" (Roz lead vocal) -- Chanel, beautiful and melodious, Roz, spunky and sassy -- ably adorned by the presence of the dreamy Savannah on fiddle. Tripping I was! I spent the rest of the festival checking them out. This was just 1 of 5 Kennedys appearances I was able to catch at New Bedford! More to come -- 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, 8 Jul 2008 14:05:11 EDT From: MercyHouse1@aol.com Subject: [JP] Songs of Life's Journeys - TK Acushnet Ave. Stage 1:00 Saturday The full title of the workshop was "Carousel of Time: Songs of Life's Journeys," and featured TK, David Jacobs-Strain, Guy Mendilow, and Pete Morton, who hosted. Guy Mendilow's 5-piece band included 3 percussionists, who were very adept at jamming on almost everyone else's songs. I'm able to identify the following -- Pete Morton sang "The Shepherd's Song" and "Six Billion Eccentrics." He also does a song called "Lion & the Lamb," which prompted Pete Kennedy during a different song intro to say, "I'm reminded of a quote from Woody Allen -- "The lion and the lamb will lie down together, and the lamb won't get much sleep." Art and commerce are like that, with art not getting much sleep." Maura sang harmony when David Jacobs-Strain sang "Soul of a Man." TK played "Half a Million Miles," "Breathe," and led the whole stageful of musicians on "The Coo Coo," which included a fiddle player from Guy Mendilow's 5-piece band. The Acushnet Avenue Stage was a much smaller affair compared to the huge Custom House Stage, where I'd just seen TK. Whereas the big stage was raised up from the street level a full 4 feet, the smaller stage was just an oblong platform only a few inches high. All of the stages seemed to have been enclosed in tents, so it was possible to stay dry if it rained. It did start to rain during "The Coo Coo," and I beat the retreat to the even smaller Garden Street Showcase Stage, where there was actually no stage at all, and where I was able to sit literally at the feet of Women in Docs where they did a full set. Thus far, 2 of the 5 Kennedys appearances I was able to catch at New Bedford. More to come -- 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, 8 Jul 2008 18:45:57 EDT From: MercyHouse1@aol.com Subject: [JP] TK Kruger Water St. Stage 3:00 Saturday There were a number of different stages where artists presented what could be considered their mainstage set, or what would be considered their mainstage set if it were on the mainstage at Falcon Ridge -- where it was just them and they didn't have to take turns with others in round robin fashion. Some of these "mainstage sets" were at the large Custom House Stage -- i.e. Malinky from Scotland, the new supergroup Daisy Cutter, and Chris Smither -- some were indoors at the Whaling Museum Theater -- i.e. Brooks Williams and Ramblin' Jack Elliott -- some were on the tiny Garden Stage -- i.e. Mike & Ruthy, Pete Morton, and Women in Docs -- while some were on the somewhat-less-small Acushnet Ave. Stage -- i.e. French Canadian sensation Benoit Bourque and Brit folk duo PJ Wright & Dave Pegg. For whatever reason, TK's main set was scheduled on the slightly larger but still not huge Kruger Water Street Stage. This is what I heard after arriving a little late -- Speed of Soul I Found a Road 9th Street Billy Namaste Breathe Dharma Cafe American Wish segue to Chimes of Freedom Chains Alabama Rain It was raining from the beginning of TK's set through the song "Dharma Cafe," when the sun finally came out a little bit. I was very fortunate, since I was coming late from elsewhere, to be able to squiggle in to a chair in the front row just inside the awning, to barely avoid getting soaked. I've been seeing a lot of Kennedys shows in the rain the past few weeks! I was bitterly sorry to leave early, but a front row berth with my name on it awaited me back at the Acushnet Ave. Stage where there was a workshop with just 2 women's folk trios -- Women in Docs with Red Molly. There was no way I was going to miss that! But staying at the festival that extra hour definitely imperilled my last-minute dash down Rte. 95 to see N&K Nields at 8PM at the Levitt Pavilion in Westport CT. That Nields review will appear shortly on the Nields Nook. Thus far 3 of the 5 Kennedys appearances I was able to catch at New Bedford. More to come -- 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 #188 **********************************