From: owner-jangle-poets-digest@smoe.org (jangle-poets-digest) To: jangle-poets-digest@smoe.org Subject: jangle-poets-digest V9 #214 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 Friday, September 5 2008 Volume 09 : Number 214 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [JP] Maura Kennedy, Pete Kennedy solo 9/3/08 Living Room NYC [MercyHouse1] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 4 Sep 2008 15:09:31 EDT From: MercyHouse1@aol.com Subject: [JP] Maura Kennedy, Pete Kennedy solo 9/3/08 Living Room NYC An evening of firsts -- - -- Maura's first Maura-billed solo appearance ever - -- First performance of Maura's new song "New Way to Live" - -- First of four P&M solo Wed. sets in residency at the Living Room in Sept. Also the first time I'd heard Pete perform "19 in Vietnam" and "Eldorado." First thing when I walked in the venue at 5:45, I was wowed by the beautiful voice of Amy Speace leading her band through soundcheck. "Damn!" I thought. I would've stuck around to see her play too, at 9:00, if I could've, and it was made more painful for me when Amy specifically asked me to stay and hear her. I've had a sweet spot for Amy ever since I first heard her singing at Falcon Ridge. Then at 6:15, in walks Maura dressed to the nines in her NYC best with a gentleman on her arm and furbished off the rack in equally dazzling fashion. "Damn!" I thought again. "That couldn't be Pete Kennedy!" I really barely recognized him, decked out as he was in his Best Black Suit alongside Maura in her Best Black Dress. You know, like the Nields' "Wanting," "Aren't we the nazz?" :-) Having come to totally expect the Magician of Casual Comfort with his consort the High Priestess of Cool, I suppose the Lord and Lady of Big City Elegance shouldn't have come as such a big surprise, dressed for the special occasion! The soundcheck included "New Way to Live," "Sun Burns Gold," and "The Devil's Boat." And then Pete & Maura played separate sets before a hardcore contingent of fans at 7PM -- Pete -- You Can't Catch Me Alabama Rain 19 in Vietnam Eldorado Maura -- Chains Patience Just the Rain Sun Burns Gold Make it Last New Way to Live Another act was scheduled to play at 8, and let me tell you 8:00 came all too soon! Pete's solo CD Guitarslinger is so aptly named, because in many of these solo songs, Pete just rips through ripping guitar riffs that blow the cover off the guitar case, not at all like the more impressionistic ripples that sometimes pour down like silver when Pete works his magician's craft on Kennedys material like "River of Fallen Stars." In songs like "The Devil's Boat" and others where we see another side altogether, Pete plays like the devil himself as if to beat the devil at his own game, you know, like "The Devil Went Down to Georgia." It's like the difference between ripples and rip tide. Batten down the hatches mate, Pete rocks the boat! And as for Maura, Pete himself once made the analogy between himself singing like the devil and her singing with the voice like an angel. But last night, it was a Dark Angel who revealed herself exploring some of the darker places of the mind in darker songs like "Chains" and "Sun Burns Gold," the latter one inspired as she said by a winter's bout with darkness-induced depression. Many of Maura's songs are like flowers reaching out for the sunlight, growing like dandelions through cracks in the sidewalk. You know, like "Suzanne," "They are leaning out for love and they will lean that way forever, while Suzanne holds the mirror." Maura is sort of like Leonard Cohen's Suzanne, in that she holds the mirror. In that mirror which she holds, which are her songs, we can see the world in a wonderful new way, at glance angles catching truth in strange and sometimes unexpected places. And if we're really lucky, we might even find ourselves reflected there too, seen in a strange new way, from a different angle, shining out from the reflection of Maura's own songcraft, echoing vistas of the soul that remain unknown, caught in glimpses only, and leaving us yearning to see and hear more. The enchantment comes, I think, from connecting that Other World of soul which is by and large timeless and which remains largely unexplored, with our own world of appearances in time and space, through the medium of art, in this case, through songs like Maura's. That's all like castles in the air it seems. But over and above this enchanter's art of making deep soul connections, there is another side to Maura too, who -- like Pete, but in her own way -- just totally rocks, her feet squared rock-steady on solid ground on songs like "Chains," "Just the Rain," "Make It Last," and the brand-new "New Way to Live," almost jumping for joy while she plays, and making some of us want to jump for joy too, the joy is so infectious. Stepping back from that for a second, "Patience" is just hauntingly beautiful, achingly sweet, and incidentally, my new theme song. On the day of the show, I woke up with the song "Patience" haunting my early morning reverie spilling over from my last dreams. You know, like Ian & Sylvia, "Well I woke up this morning, you were on my mind." Only it was a song that greeted me in the dawn's first light, not the thought of a person, place, or thing. And I figured, what with 14 years of seeing the Nields (since August of '94 at Newport) and nearly 13 years of seeing the Kennedys (since May of '96 at the Bottom Line with a full band), and me still unflagging in following them, "Patience" seemed like as good a watchword for me as any! And now Maura has given me a new theme song! :-) I'm so excited by this latest chapter in the many-storied world of the Kennedys, Pete & Maura solo, and now I can't wait to turn the page and see what happens next! 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 #214 **********************************