From: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org (shindell-list-digest) To: shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Subject: shindell-list-digest V7 #271 Reply-To: shindell-list@smoe.org Sender: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk shindell-list-digest Friday, November 11 2005 Volume 07 : Number 271 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [RS] Re: shindell-list-digest V7 #270 [Jennifer Coia ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 11 Nov 2005 12:49:39 -0500 From: Jennifer Coia Subject: [RS] Re: shindell-list-digest V7 #270 Hi. When did Richard play Carnegie Hall? Curious NYer wants to know.. thanks jennifer > ------------------------------ > > Date: Fri, 11 Nov 2005 11:14:16 -0500 > From: "Beth DeSombre" > Subject: [RS] concert attendance > > RG on Thursday, November 10, 2005 at 11:39 PM -0500 wrote: >> Ah, yes. Richard sells out Carnegie Hall, but played to 20 people >> here >> in a >> coffeehouse dive here in San Diego last night. I'm now more >> convinced >> than >> ever that the sun must do something to the brains of these SoCal >> folks. > > I don't know if you can blame it on the sun, necessarily. The > smallest RS > concert (heck, possibly the smallest concert by anyone) I've ever seen > was > at the coffeehouse at Colby College (in central Maine) where I used to > teach. I think there *might* have been three of us there, not counting > Richard. You'll notice I felt the need to move from central Maine . . > . > > But if it is the sun, Ron, you might want to get out before it has the > same impact on you. > > Beth > > ------------------------------ > > Date: Fri, 11 Nov 2005 10:22:10 -0600 (CST) > From: Adam Plunkett > Subject: Re: [RS] Re: shindell-list-digest V7 #269 > > I love Bruce Cockburn. I saw him solo, acoustic not too long ago and > it was a great concert - quite a great guitar player. Bruce has > written a lot of my favorite social commentary songs. > > His album "Charity of Night" is one of my favorite CD's. > > From: Randy Beckham > Date: Fri Nov 11 09:34:10 CST 2005 > To: shindell-list@smoe.org > Subject: [RS] Re: shindell-list-digest V7 #269 > > Also, the name Bruce Cockburn popped up the other day--anyone kept up > with him? I see him and Richard having things in common. > > ------------------------------ > > Date: Fri, 11 Nov 2005 17:01:22 GMT > From: "Randy Beckham" > Subject: [RS] Last Fare > > I love this song deep in my bones, so I'm glad Doug suggested talking > about it and grateful that John McD did. I do think lyric, melody and > performance reinforce each other powerfully, but I wouldn't keep being > moved if they weren't reinforcing what the song is "about," and the > words are the best clue to that. It occurred to me in thinking about > "performance" that the cabbie is an artful performer, transporting his > fares in sensitive awareness of their sorrow or joy. And the song's > about the cycle of sorrow and joy, reinforced metaphorically by the > cycle of the seasons (and "the weather"!). > > I would never have caught it, but I like the 9/11 idea, supported by > "I turned off the radio/She said, Thanks,/I could not bear another > word. The song then becomes especially life-affirming in the face of > forces that destroy (still true if the first woman has had a > miscarriage). I have assumed that it was the same couple, since they > aren't differentiated (the pronouns are "they," "he and she"), but I > no longer think it matters. > > Now, what about the title? > > The song's effect on me was so powerful that it took about 5 listens > to Vuelta before I could "hear" Gray Green, a lovely song in its own > right and a fitting finish to the album. > > ------------------------------ > > Date: Fri, 11 Nov 2005 12:41:10 -0500 > From: Chris Foxwell > Subject: Re: [RS] RE: Last Fare > > I'm actually very very happy with Last Fare's subtle references to > 9/11. I > like the fact that you have to puzzle it out, gradually assemble the > clues, > and that the song doesn't slap you across the face with it's 9/11-ness. > (Unlike certain other artists' 9/11 songs...). I don't think the > puzzling-out is all that difficult, though. The clues are there: > various > street names, St. Luke's, I-95, "the Park", etc., all point to New York > being the setting, and the reference to some awful news on the radio, > the > incessant rain during the first part of the song, and the drought in > the > spring are suggestive of that period in time. (I was nowhere near New > York > at the time, but of everyone I know who was, not one has failed to > dwell, > significantly, on that rain.) > Granted, these clues do not conclusively add up to New York on 9/11. > Not > even close, if you don't live near New York. But, in my opinion, there > are > enough pieces there for one to suspect what's going on, without having > it > confirmed. (My view here is bolstered by those of my friends to whom > I've > played the song without any context, some of whom are from Cali, and > *all* > of whom guessed that it was about 9/11.) I really like that it's not > thrown > right out there. > As for the rain being the focal point, I see that as contributing to > the > overall "liquid reference" of the song. Both the heavens overhead and > the > ground underfoot are described as being water: the "stream" into which > the > cab "pulls away"; the "flow" of the traffic; the wash on the bridge; > etc. By > returning to the rain between each verse, the song connects the > weather--capricious and uncontrollable--to the events going on, and to > the > stream that is the ground (and life). Life on earth reflects the mood > of the > heavens, and vice-versa. Ultimately we're all just floating along, > doing our > best to negotiate the flow and sway. Etc., etc. I don't think there's a > single overarching metaphor here; that, to me, would make the song too > "pat", given the complexities of the contextual event. Just, I feel > like > there's a portrayal being suggested, a likeness, which evokes the > liquidity > and intrinsic neutrality of everything (including liquidity itself! > i.e., > the drought), on both cosmic and local scales: the weather, traffic, > fate, > stoplights, life and death. > And I still want them to be the same couple, dammit. ;) > --Chris > - -- > "We were born in a dark age out of due time (for us). But there is this > comfort: otherwise we should not know, or so much love, what we do > love. I > imagine the fish out of water is the only fish to have an inkling of > water." > - -- J.R.R. Tolkien > > ------------------------------ > > End of shindell-list-digest V7 #270 > *********************************** ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 11 Nov 2005 13:49:30 EST From: JMoorehous@aol.com Subject: [RS] Smallest RS Concert The first time Richard headlined at the Ark in Ann Arbor, we were virtually alone. He'd previously played there as the opening act for Garnet Rogers, but apparently everyone else who'd seen that show was down the street watching Nancy Griffith at the Michigan on this particular night. My wife and I took along a couple friends of ours. There may have been one or two other people who paid to get in, and the Ark volunteers who normally man the door and the bar wandered in after a bit. We all sat in the front row. But Richard played as though it was a packed house, and was fabulous from front to back. As he left the stage he said, "Next time, bring your friends." Of course we didn't tell him we had. Joe Moorehouse In a message dated 11/11/05 12:48:47 PM Eastern Standard Time, owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org writes: I don't know if you can blame it on the sun, necessarily. The smallest RS concert (heck, possibly the smallest concert by anyone) I've ever seen was at the coffeehouse at Colby College (in central Maine) where I used to teach. I think there *might* have been three of us there, not counting Richard. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 11 Nov 2005 13:28:25 -0600 (CST) From: Adam Plunkett Subject: Re: [RS] Smallest RS Concert Wow, I am sure that was awhile back but I would love to see them together. Garnet Rogers is probably my favorite songwriter after Richard. In terms of "Last Fare of the Day", I am happy, as Chris mentioned, at the subtetly of meantioning of 9/11. Like "I Am", he has written two songs dealing with the culture during and after 9/11 but both songs can stand alone without tyhe knowledge or experience of the event. As for it being too pat, I have no peoblem with it knowing that they aren't the same couple. ;) I think that would be too Hallmark-like. I see the song about the healing of a city and in that way, it doesn't matter that it isn't the same couple. But I really don't see the song "about" 9/11 (unlike "I Am") but taking place in an era of a city trying to heal. I was raised in southern CT, which is about a 45 minute drive from ground zero. Wile not close to the city, many of the residents of that area work in NYC and I know from conversations that this song speaks to them on the level I just wrote about. That is what I get out of the song. Whatever the real meaning is, The Lats Fare of the Day is one of the more moving tracks that Richard has recorded, right up there with "Wisteria". From: JMoorehous@aol.com Date: Fri Nov 11 12:49:30 CST 2005 To: shindell-list@smoe.org Subject: [RS] Smallest RS Concert He'd previously played there as the opening act for Garnet Rogers, ------------------------------ End of shindell-list-digest V7 #271 ***********************************