From: owner-lucy-list-digest@smoe.org (lucy-list-digest) To: lucy-list-digest@smoe.org Subject: lucy-list-digest V3 #222 Reply-To: lucy-list@smoe.org Sender: owner-lucy-list-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-lucy-list-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk lucy-list-digest Sunday, October 14 2001 Volume 03 : Number 222 In this issue: [lucy-list] Berkeley, CA 10-12-01 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2001 00:36:58 -0700 From: Robert Phelps Subject: [lucy-list] Berkeley, CA 10-12-01 A (literally) standing room only crowd at Berkeley's venerable Freight & Salvage coffee house greeted Lucy Friday night. It was a warm October evening, and Lucy and her special guest Nina Gerber treated the packed house to an amazing show. Alice Peacock opened with a brief, but entertaining set. I can't say I was familiar with any of her songs, and Alice jokingly realized that most of us in the audience were in that boat. Introducing a song from her upcoming second CD, she said, "This is a new song.....but, hey, they're all new to you, right?" She is charming, shows great humor and stage presence and strong voice. At the end of the evening, she joined Lucy and Nina Gerber onstage for "Guinevere," the night's final song. Lucy hit the stage at about 9:00 p.m., wearing a black top and brown leather pants. Her voice was strong, and she seemed genuinely thrilled by the raucous response she received from the crowd. The set list was basically the same as we've seen posted recently, with one or two changes. My wife and I always seem to end up sitting right behind Lucy's Mom and Dad at these shows, and tonight was no different. Lucy's Dad joined her at the piano on stage (as he always does at the Freight) and the two did "The Alphabet Song" and the "Pi" song. And, as usual, the elder Dr. K. pretty much stole the show. Their good natured bickering onstage led Lucy two describe the two of them as "the Oedipal Sonny and Cher." I've been amazed by Nina Gerber's guitar playing since I first saw her backing Nanci Griffith at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco in about 1985. Nina is nothing short of phenomenal, and her playing last night (both electric and acoustic) was subtle, tasteful, and at times downright amazing. She added tremendous color and depth to Lucy's songs. In the past, I've sometimes thought that some of Lucy's performances lose a little bit in the pure solo acoustic context. Nina's playing really helped bring the songs to life. Two highlights for me were her dazzling acoustic turn on "Peace, Love and Understanding" and her electric background in the encore of "Mary Magdalene," a song she initial declined to play, claiming she "didn't know it" and had "never heard it before." Simply amazing, and Lucy obviously thought so as well, judging by the huge smiles on her face. (Lucy actually lost track of the lyrics at one point in "Mary Magdalene" and had to be prompted by the audience, exclaiming--quite credibly--that she got distracted by Nina's amazing accompaniment). The California legislature should pass a law requiring Lucy and Nina to play together every time Lucy sets foot in California. East-coast fans may see Lucy more often, but the chemistry between the duo tonight more than made up for the infrequency of Lucy's Northern California appearances! Wow. ------------------------------ End of lucy-list-digest V3 #222 ******************************* This has been a posting from the Lucy Kaplansky mail list digest To unsubscribe send mail to Majordomo@smoe.org with "unsubscribe lucy-list-digest" in the body of the message