From: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org (shindell-list-digest) To: shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Subject: shindell-list-digest V10 #136 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 Tuesday, July 7 2009 Volume 10 : Number 136 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [RS] Greater New Bedford Summerfest reportback [Vanessa Wills Subject: [RS] Greater New Bedford Summerfest reportback Hello all, Well, with the assistance of the lovely Jean Rossner, I did make it to the New Bedford Summerfest and boy, am I glad!! Thank you, Jean! The festival's website is no reflection at all on the orderliness and friendliness of the festival and its volunteers. Upon arriving, I received a festival program with a very clear map of the different stages, and a well-formatted schedule of the performances. As a result, I felt very well prepared to get as much out of the festival as possible! Walkways were also wide enough so that I was able to get from Point A to Point B very quickly and easily, without battling crowds at all. There were some awesome craft vendors there. I have to take a train back to Philly in a week and already have plenty to take back, so I very responsibly steered mostly clear of the vendors, although I did walk around just to see them all and admire the workmanship. I got there about an hour before Richard's first workshop, which gave me plenty of time to look up the locales of the performances I wanted to see, do a walk-around of the festival grounds so I was sure I knew how to get to the different stages, and to get a bite of something healthy and filling to eat at a nearby sandwich shop. Then I made my way over to the stage where the "Remember Me to One Who Lives There: music of past times and distant places" workshop was taking place. There was Richard, Tim Eriksen, Livio Guardi, and The Thonon Brothers. Richard performed "Reunion Hill," "Get Up, Clara," and "Bye, Bye." He sounded great! I really love "Get Up, Clara," I have to say. It's so delightfully weird. Tim Eriksen told a disturbing story about a woman, many years ago, who was buried before she was, well, before she was entirely, strictly speaking, deceased. Graverobbers came to steal her wedding ring and couldn't get it off her finger, so they cut the finger off--at which point, she awoke. The song was a kind of love song about her returning to her home. The (very literal) chorus of this song included the line, "I can't find the ring, or the finger that went through it." Livio Guardi was great--his first song was a rousing rendition of Bella Ciao. He also performed an instrumental piece that was beautiful. I thought the Thonon Brothers were ok, although I think it rubbed me the wrong way that they had been charged with hosting the workshop, and didn't seem to have taken this responsibility very seriously at all. (Joking, for instance, about the fact that although they were hosting, they hadn't bothered to learn the names of the people they were sharing the stage with.) Oh, well. Afterwards, I caught the second half of another workshop, "Lest We Forget: great songs I rarely perform." This workshop featured Bob Franke, Cliff Eberhardt, and Roy Book Binder. Roy Book Binder was, of course, fantastic. I caught the first half of his solo set after the workshop, as well, and then had to cut out early to catch Richard's solo set at 6:30. I happened to sit near two other listers when I got to his set! What's that they say about birds of a feather? ;-) Richard's solo set was wonderful--he was in GREAT voice! He performed the new song "Abby," about a family pet that didn't work out, and had to be sent to live in the country. (Really--"in the country" is, happily, not a euphemism for some darker fate here!) Richard had some great on-stage banter and was just a joy to watch. When he finished his set, he received a standing ovation and the crowd demanded an encore. He came back onstage and performed "A Change is Gonna Come." What a treat. Jeff's already posted the whole set list for folks to see. I thought it was a good mix of old and new. We left after Richard's set and the traffic was not too bad. All in all, a very wonderful day! I can't stress enough how much fun I had! Thanks to everyone who chimed in with their endorsements of the Summerfest--I would definitely go again!! Cheers, Vanessa - -- "True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring." - --Martin Luther King ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 6 Jul 2009 15:17:41 -0400 From: Vanessa Wills Subject: [RS] Re: Greater New Bedford Summerfest reportback I almost forgot!! When Richard performed "Balloon Man" last night, he added an extra line to the end of the song, so it ended: "Thought you might like to know that Balloon Man lives in it, too/* 'Cause it helps me to know that Balloon Man lives in it, too*." Personally, I liked this a lot. I'd always thought the song was missing something, namely, I wondered why the narrator thinks the listener might want to know that Balloon Man exists. This last line helps, IMHO. - --V On Mon, Jul 6, 2009 at 2:18 PM, Vanessa Wills wrote: > Hello all, > > Well, with the assistance of the lovely Jean Rossner, I did make it to the > New Bedford Summerfest and boy, am I glad!! Thank you, Jean! > - -- "True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring." - --Martin Luther King ------------------------------ End of shindell-list-digest V10 #136 ************************************