From: owner-small-repairs-digest@smoe.org (small-repairs-digest) To: small-repairs-digest@smoe.org Subject: small-repairs-digest V6 #59 Reply-To: small-repairs@smoe.org Sender: owner-small-repairs-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-small-repairs-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk small-repairs-digest Friday, July 26 2002 Volume 06 : Number 059 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: [s-r] Shawn No Show ["Mike Sampson" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 26 Jul 2002 00:02:46 -0400 From: "Mike Sampson" Subject: Re: [s-r] Shawn No Show No Colvin no problem as Cockburn wows the crowd By DAVE TIANEN of the Journal Sentinel staff Last Updated: July 25, 2002 At 5 p.m. Wednesday, 2 1/2 hours before showtime, promoter Peter Jest got a call that one-half of his double bill at the Pabst Theater wasn't going to show. Shawn Colvin was stuck in Dallas following two canceled flights. Generously, co-headliner Bruce Cockburn consented to play two sets, and Jest decided to give the audience the choice of a refund or opting to see just Cockburn. Since Shawn Colvin had a Top 10 hit in '97 with "Sunny Came Home," she is far better known in the States than the Canadian folk rocker. You might reasonably have expected most of the crowd to pull out. Interestingly, only about 100 of 700 ticket buyers chose to get their money back. The majority chose wisely. One of the eternal mysteries of music in the past 30 years is why Bruce Cockburn has never become more than a cult figure in the United States. As he demonstrated again Wednesday, he is a superb and multifaceted artist. A gifted composer with a passionate heart and an articulate mind, he turns a phrase as well as any singer/songwriter out there. Consider just a couple examples from Wednesday. There's that second verse from "World of Wonders": "Somewhere a saxophone slides through changes; Like a wet pipe dripping down my neck; Gives me a chill - sounds like danger; But I can't stop moving 'til I cross this sector." Or that line from "Lovers in a Dangerous Time" - "Got to kick at the darkness 'til it bleeds daylight." Wednesday's gig was a solo show, and there's no place to hide in that format. But great songs, deft guitar skills, expressive singing and a relaxed and witty stage presence brought Cockburn through with ease. It is surely not the least of Cockburn's talents that he can write tender love songs like "Anything Anytime Anywhere" and be just as convincing on songs of righteous anger like "If I Had a Rocket Launcher." Wednesday's set featured a new song called "Trickle Down," certainly one of the few songs written on tax theory. Cockburn is one '60s survivor whose political convictions have grown sharper with age. That sometimes makes him doctrinaire, but it also makes him interesting and gives him a shared bond of common faith with his audience. There is one reservation. Songs like "If I Had a Rocket Launcher" and "Call It Democracy" fairly seethe with outrage, but they're also laden with an irony that goes unacknowledged by the artist and seemingly unnoticed by the audience. When Cockburn rages about the "tyranny of so-called developed nations," he does so to an applauding and affluent all-white audience that surely ranks among the wealthiest 5% on the planet. Surely an irony that ponderous is worthy of some confrontation of its own. Appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on July 25, 2002. _________________________________________________________________ Join the worlds largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. http://www.hotmail.com - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ To unsubscribe from the list send mail to majordomo@smoe.org with 'unsub scribe small-repairs' in the message body. FAQ & other info: http://www. tisd.net/~casey/shawn/small_repairs.html *REMEMBER* all posts not directly related to Shawn must have the tag 'NSC:' is their subject line - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------ End of small-repairs-digest V6 #59 ********************************** ------------------------------------------------------------------------ To unsubscribe from the list send mail to majordomo@smoe.org with 'unsub scribe small-repairs-digest' in the message body. FAQ & other info: http ://www.tisd.net/~casey/shawn/small_repairs.html *REMEMBER* all posts not directly related to Shawn must have the tag 'NSC:' is their subject line ------------------------------------------------------------------------