Sorry #2 went out twice, I'll try and do better with this one! Lauren Flanigan - Song To A Seagull/Nathan LaFraneer/Hejira/Furry Sings The Blues/I Had A King: Imagine if you will the above songs done in medley style, sung by a coloratura soprano and accompanied by an organ-grinder accordian, an under-miked sitar, two percussionists who played everything from congas to the didgereedoo. Sound like a mess? Well it was. Lauren gets BIG points for ambition, but this performance was simply awful. There was never any focus, the musicians never seemed to be in synch with each other, or the rhythm or lyrical intent of the song, there was no one driving the melody, Lauren's voice was either sharp or flat...like I told Debra, she aimed VERY high and missed my a mile. The worst part was that SHE laid claim to 2 Hejira songs, so this was the only treatment that they rec'd. Very disappointing.
Gail Ann Dorsey - Passion Play, The Wolf That Lives In Lindsay: Gail Ann put things immediately back on track. As has been mentioned, she's Bowie's bassist, but these two songs outshone anything in his repertoire. Passion Play is already in our covers collection, so I knew it would be great. She played electric guitar, which made all the chimes and haunting chords in 'Lindsay' that much more striking. And her voice is crystal clear, and being a bassist her sense of rhythm was immaculate. This was awesome! Ivy Austin - Little Green: A very straightforward reading of the song with piano accompaniment by Lanny Meyers. Christine Lavin - Urge For Going, Marcie: I like Christine, but she came off as a bit unprofessional and under-rehearsed. She was a bit too casual about it all. She honored Dave van Ronk with her performance of 'Urge', even imitating his rough growl with "The warriors of winter, gave a cold, triumphant shout", and she played it in his chordal arrangement. Marcie was a little rough in spots, she had some difficulties negotiating some of the chord changes. Like Garland Jeffreys, she knows how to sell it, but I expected a higher degree of competence from her. Suzzy & Maggie Roche - A Case Of You, For The Roses: I've always loved The Roches sound, those skin-tight harmonies. Suzzy played guitar & sang, Maggie played piano & sang, and they harmonized every word of every song. Pretty amazing considering Joni's tricky harmonic devices. Unlike Lavin, they were consummate professionals and were very well-rehearsed. And as if they weren't enough, they then introduced Jennifer Glass as a younger singer, and spoke of Joni's influence on the generations after theirs. Jennifer sang "Cactus Tree" in what Patrick described as "American Idol style" and this was a good observation, and took nothing away from the performance. Her voice was stunning, as was she from head to toe. I held my notes to the side at this point so as not to drool on them. Bob Holman - Jonicento: This was a poetry-slam kinda thing. I'm not very knowledgeable about this genre, and I could appreciate it, but it seemed a bit long and a bit pretentious to me. A "cento" is a work made up of snippets from other work (like Willy The Shake's post 9-11 composition for those who remember that). So Bob and poets Jackie Sheeler & Vicki Hudspith traded Joni lines with a teen-punk band from NJ called Minasian playing "The Jungle Line". Now I was into the music, especially the drummer playing the Burundi rhythms with his padded sticks. But the 3 poets looked like an SNL sketch. OK, trying to send these in digestible bite-size pieces, so here it goes. Much more to come! Bob NP: Joni, "Let The Wind Carry Me", Troubadour 11/17/72
