From: owner-jangle-poets-digest@smoe.org (jangle-poets-digest) To: jangle-poets-digest@smoe.org Subject: jangle-poets-digest V9 #220 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, September 29 2008 Volume 09 : Number 220 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [JP] "Shadows With the Lonely" - The Kennedys 9/27/08 Fall River MA [Merc] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 29 Sep 2008 00:28:33 EDT From: MercyHouse1@aol.com Subject: [JP] "Shadows With the Lonely" - The Kennedys 9/27/08 Fall River MA Most summers have three months -- June, July, and August -- but summer never officially ends until well into September, and Bruce's summer did indeed have four months this year, on account of a summer-extending growth-spurt "Sunshine Effect" brought on by the Kennedys -- starting with Maura Kennedy singing "Chains" at sound check at Club Helsinki in Great Barrington 6/6/08, and ending last night, 9/27/08 with The Kennedys and the Lonesome Brothers at the Narrows Center for the Arts in Fall River. So my summer was bracketed by the Kennedys, and now, "Summer's Gone" -- ! During that four-month summer span, which included the Sustainable Living Festival in RI, Clearwater Revival Folk Festival, New Bedford Summerfest, Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, Bethlehem Musikfest, a Dave Carter Tribute at Johnny D's, a Falcon Ridge Benefit at Club Passim, and a Maggies Reunion at Sierra Grille, I saw the Kennedys 23 times, Women in Docs 16 times (in two months alone), Chris Thompson Lively 14 times, the Nields (in some form or other) 11 times, Rebecca Hall & Ken Anderson 8 times, the Strangelings 6 times, and Gandalf Murphy & the Slambovian Circus of Dreams 5 times -- those being the 7 groups I currently follow. That's a whole lot of shaking going on! :-) Last night in Fall River, the shaking going on was the Kennedys with the Lonesome Brothers opening for them. The Lonesome Brothers are Ray Mason and Jim Armenti, both of whom write and sing their own songs, as well as play covers. Ray has become a regular for me, since he plays whenever he can with both the Kennedys and the Stringbusters. And I learned last night that Ray and Jim have also played as the backing band for Rocky Roberts. So I was really psyched to be seeing them for the first time! Maura introduced Ray at one point as the best bass player in these here parts, and I discovered through listening to Jim that he is a wicked-ace crack guitarist. Their style could be called alt-country, and their set reminded me of 5 Chinese Brothers when they opened for the Nields at the Globe Theater in Norwalk in 1995. Lonesome Brothers set -- Fins on a Cadillac My Baby Never Saw Me Drunk Took Me For a Ride Early in the Spring Call Hannah All Jacked Up Down By the Water Warm Vinyl "Down By the Water" was covered by Cry Cry Cry on their 1998 CD. The Kennedys were next -- Midnight Ghost Half a Million Miles Speed of Soul I Found a Road 9th Street Billy Pete solo -- You Can't Catch Me Alabama Rain Guitarslinger medley, including: Orange Blossom Special, Pipeline, House of the Rising Sun, Day Tripper, Pinball Wizard, Bouree, Jesu Kennedys again -- Didn't It Rain Angels Cry At this point, Maura introduced me to the audience as the one who'd come to all of their New York shows in the month of September -- as a ploy, I think, to confuse the audience, creating an interval whereby two slow ballads could be done in a row -- namely, the rarely done "Angels Cry," and the first song of Maura's set, "Sun Burns Gold." :-) Maura solo -- Sun Burns Gold Shadows With the Lonely (w/ Pete on acoustic guitar) Chains (w/ Pete guitar & Ray bass) I missed the Natick show in early August while I was off galavanting about Bethlehem PA seeing Women in Docs, when Ray played "Chains" with Pete & Maura, and when Rocky Roberts sat in on "Shadows With the Lonely." So this was a first impression for me. And I'm pretty sure Pete has not performed with Maura on "Shadows With the Lonely" before. I have to break the continuity to stress this. "Chains" really and truly felt like the Maura Kennedy Band with Pete and Ray in supporting roles. It was very exciting for me to experience this. I'll get back to "Shadows With the Lonely" in a bit. The Kennedys ended the show -- Cynical Girl (w/ Ray & Jim) Not Fade Away (w/ Ray & Jim) It was an awesome jam with the 4 musicians on "Not Fade Away." More incredible jamming followed with the first encore -- 8 Days a Week A Day in the Life Then just the Kennedys did a second encore -- Stand There is a fantastic vibe between Ray and the Kennedys, and Jim added even more. Ray mentioned that he will be opening for the Kennedys October 11 in Greenfield, which pains me to have to miss it. I'm very close to a once-in-a-lifetime milestone of 500 times seeing the Nields, within reach this year, and Nerissa and Katryna are playing Trinity College on October 11. Now to "Shadows With the Lonely." I just can't express how cool this song is to me! The Kennedys are well-known for tapping into deep authentic roots of Americana already, but I don't think even Maura realizes what a winner she's come up with, with this Patsy Cline-like torch song. Maura announced that "Shadows With the Lonely" would be her online entry for October, following all of the other songs she's been writing and then putting online for the past 9 months. She also explained that this song would not be on the upcoming Maura Kennedy solo album (compiling all of these new songs), since the style of "Shadows With the Lonely" is so different than all of the others. It will be available for download only. This adds a certain mystique to "Shadows With the Lonely," setting it apart from the other new songs, in more ways than one. When the full album comes out, it'll be sort of the "lost song," the one that got away. But "Shadows With the Lonely" already has a compelling uniqueness about it, a mystique of being a lost soul on the highway of life, drowning in the sea of love, of "going under," lost and forlorn, for "the one that got away." Yet in singing about the lost love in this way, somehow, paradoxically, the pain and the heartbreak are celebrated and so, in a way, transcended. There must be something within myself that identifies deeply with this, and with the images the song evokes of shadows and loneliness. I can relate! It attracts me powerfully like a lonely moth to the flame, hiding the heartache in shadows of night. First "Chains" -- then "Patience," "Freefall," and "Just the Rain" -- and now "Shadows With the Lonely" ! It's going to be getting harder and harder from now on, I think, for Maura Kennedy to remain one of best kept secrets in the music world -- with her coming out with one great new song after another like this! Now do you see why I didn't want to be missing any of the Maura Kennedy solo shows? It's been like being present at something new and exciting coming into the world. It gives me ground for hope in the future, which at bottom is what the Kennedys are all about. When something is first coming into the world, putting down roots, poking its head through the soil like a kind of birth, growing, flourishing, and beginning to blossom, you never know what kind of strange fruit it will bear -- nor yet what a beautiful tree it could yet become -- nor what birds could flock there to make their nests -- or what sweet songs they could sing! 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 #220 **********************************