From: owner-jinglejangle-digest@smoe.org (jinglejangle-digest) To: jinglejangle-digest@smoe.org Subject: jinglejangle-digest V4 #96 Reply-To: jinglejangle@smoe.org Sender: owner-jinglejangle-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-jinglejangle-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk jinglejangle-digest Friday, August 10 2001 Volume 04 : Number 096 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [MLL] Newport, Rachael, & Donna DeLory - 50% OT, 50% ? (was: RE: [MLL] HEY YOU GUYS) ["Journey Bear" Subject: [MLL] Newport, Rachael, & Donna DeLory - 50% OT, 50% ? (was: RE: [MLL] HEY YOU GUYS) >From: "Chris Carpenter" > >I went last night. Mary Lou definitely knows what she's talking about. >Rachael sings the blues as well as folk in a beautiful and complex voice. >She's full of nuance and delicacy but capable of some real pyrotechnics, >which dazzled (and sometimes stunned) the crowd. The only down-side was >that >Mary Lou herself only did a few songs. I should have made the trip to >Newport. > And wouldn't you know I was in Harvard Square Monday night, and walked right by a busker outside the Coop. She was about 5'6", mid to late 20's (but I'm terrible at this), playing acoustic guitar through an amp. We lingered for just a little while, but had to move on, as we were on our way to House Of Blues for Donna DeLory. This was about 9:00 ... was this Rachael? Whoever it was, she sounded good. Didn't see Mary Lou, but she could have been hidden in the crowd. [I'll try to make this brief. The reason I was there in Cambridge on a Monday night in the first place was to see Donna DeLory. This was the only date that even came close to coinciding with our schedules, and to do this I'd stayed over in Newport, taken a day off from work, and driven up that afternoon. I figure, she's come 3000 miles, I can go the other 135. Donna is one of my favorite performers, and if you ever get the chance to experience her in person I urge you to do so. You'll understand why I kept moving. She is from LA and gets out this way just 2-3 times a year. And rarely plays CT (I'm from New Haven). Donna's music is both earthy and airy, ethereal and sensual, trancelike and danceable. She writes, sings, and plays harmonium and some keyboards, her duo partner Cameron Stone plays cello, acoustically and through effects, and can really rock out when he wants. With Quinn playing a light drum kit a la Jay Bellerose* (ie, no bass drum, djembe instead of snare) delineating the beat more than pounding it out, and Mark Gorman's low pulsing bass linking with the droning harmonium, the sound is hypnotic, like belly dance music. It ebbs and flows, and from time to time veers into dance tempos. Donna's sometime dayjob is as one of the two featured dancer/singers behind Madonna, and it shows in her dancing. There are times when she gets so lost in the music she might as well be on the dance floor. Most of her songs are romantic and passionate, and I imagine her Spanish heritage is part of that. * Paula Cole's drummer. The connection is deeper: he and Quinn grew up close by in Maine, and developed their drum styles separately and together. He is also her main squeeze, and sometimes drums when their schedules coincide.] But yes, you probably would have enjoyed Newport - although Mary Lou had to share the side stage with three other female singers - Sara Hickman, Rory Block, and Kate McDonnell - and all four are very accomplished and different from one another. ML seemed a little intimidated, and I thought she suffered a bit from having to follow Sara - IMO, an amazing talent, and very likely the most expressive and intoxicating vocalist around until Sarah M comes back. Really hard for anyone to follow. She also had arrived late, having taken a wrong turn somewhere, and might have had not enough time to really settle in. She shouldn't worry so, she's got a lot going for her. Still, once she got going, the crowd went with her. You know how irresistible her charm is. At one point, she said something like, "I'm not in the subway anymore!" which got a lot of laughs. This was the Newport debut for all of them (hard to believe Rory has never played there, she's been well-known on the blues scene for more than two decades), so there were plenty of nerves all around at first. But there was an enormous, enthusiastic crowd here, full of expectant and curious people. Mary Lou mentioned she had been here before, some five years ago, as a limo driver(!), and recalled thinking at the time, "I can do this! Well, scratch that one off the list. This was one of the high points of the entire weekend - - and that includes Emmylou Harris, Patty Larkin, Gillian Welch & David Rawlings, a Flatlanders reunion, Jonatha Brooke, and Nanci Griffith. Sadly, Joan Osborne's mainstage set started about halfway through, and a lot of people drifted back over there. Even so, I think a lot of people got turned on to some great musicians. It's just this kind of cross-referencing that helps word of mouth to expand. All that said, seeing someone do a set by herself is almost always better. She can string together a series of songs that transports listeners, and develop a real rapport and give-and-take with the audience. Plus Newport was $48 a day, for goodness' sake. So don't beat yourself up TOO much for not going. After all, each got to do only three songs. Here's the set list: Kate: Give It Back Rory: Preaching Blues Sara: Look At It This Way Mary Lou: Western Union Desperate Kate: You're Wrong Rory: Ain't No Grave Gonna Hold My Body Down Sara: Last Man In The Water Mary Lou: I Want To Get Over You (she said this was #1 in her rotation, though it was new to me) Kate: Sticky Buns Rory: If I Had Possession Over Judgement Day/ Terraplane Blues Sara: 500X (The Train Song) Mary Lou: His Lamest Flame Well, I said I'd TRY to make it brief. Thanks for reading this far. We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming ;-) Happy trails, JourneyBear _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp ------------------------------ End of jinglejangle-digest V4 #96 *********************************