On a personal note, I have been looking forward to this show for months now,
and was not in any way disappoined. Seems the festival goers from last year
DO know how to pick em. Our audience loved this show. The only negative
note was that each artist only got to play a few songs.
Of the four performers, Tom, Lisa, Walter Parks and Stephanie Winters, two
(or 3 depending on how you count) had appeared here before. Tom opened for
Vance Gilbert and The Nudes opened for Steve Forbert. Only Lisa was new to
our audience, and judging from the crowd reaction, she was a hit as well.
The artists decided to split the evening into 2 sets with each artist
playing in turn in the first set, and a kind of mix and match semi-song swap
in the last set. In between we were able to give away some free tickets to
the festival this summer. Thanks Anne!
One of the great things about Tom Prasada-Rao's live appearances is that ya
never know who will turn up to play (or sing) with him. During his set in
the first half he called his sister Patti, and Betsy Dake up to join him on
vocals as well as Walter Parks of The Nudes to play some guitar parts.
Don't know how he does it but Tom always manages to find some of the finest
singers around and Patti and Betsy were just amazing, adding soulful
harmonies to Falling Star, and Sleeping Beauty and Ella's Angel and a
wonderful new song that I don't remember hearing before. Wish I knew the
name. From the moment Tom starting singing he held everyone's attention.
There is someting truly charming and gentle about this man and his songs,
and universal in a way that is original and emotionally powerful without
ever dipping into excess. The audience immediatly connected with him. And
can this guy play a guitar? They don't call him "the groove-meister" for
nothin. During his set he noted that after a couple of sad songs he should
play one to lighten the mood. "But let's face it, I'm a folk singer". With
that he launched into "Falling Star", my own personal favorite, and one of
the best songs about one-way love I have ever heard. I was spellbound.
Tom's set was followed by Lisa McCormick's. Lisa is blessed with a rich,
powerful voice, a very confident and winning stage presence, and some songs
that really got to the heart of some comtemporary subjects like "Cars, Cars,
Relationships", and "Sex and Consequences". She easily moved from these
humorous and serious views to wonderfully personal songs such as "Gotta Go".
She introduced this one by expaining that she has a private cabin in the
woods of New Hamshire that is beautiful and solitary. The song deals with
her attempts while watching the rain outside her window to reach friends by
phone and being unable to connect with them, even when they answer. In
addition to having a great debut cd produced by Jonathan Edwards, she proved
that she can command the stage as well. I understand she is in demand these
days. Easy to see why.
At the end of the first set were the Nudes. Walter Parks (guitar), and
Stephanie Winters (Cello) are unquestionably one of the most unusual and
totally entertaining acts out there these days. They are usually referred
to as a guitar-cello duo, but there is a third instrument that really
deserves some comment here. It's Walter's voice. It swoops and sails
through the guitar and cello notes a like great bird riding a termal
current. Hat's off to Walter. He did a great muted trumpet with his voice
during "Early in The Morning" that would have made Susan Werner blush!
Walter and Steph have a new cd out and this show was one of the first
chances for their fans to buy a copy. It's such great fun to watch these two
as they move sensuously through songs containing some wonderfully personal
themes and musical ideas. Their vocal harmonies are inovative and textured.
Together they use rhythm as a fabric that their songs are woven from. We had
many different ages at our show, and the Nudes seem to appeal to several
different generations. Not an easy thing to do these days. They are a great
marriage of rhythm, and emotion. Stephanie tells me she is ready to start
work on a solo album. Can't wait to hear it. She has played a number of live
dates with Dar Williams and her cello can be heard on cds from Don
Conosenti, David Wilcox, Chris Rosser amoung others. She is one busy
celloist these days. Together they have certainly earned the title "the
tallest artists in acoustic music".
During the second set they all joined together in various configurations on
songs by Tom and the Beatles. "Norwegian Wood" brought everyone's
instruments and voices together in a rousing finale. During their second
encore they re-emerged wearing matching white tail-jackets, that were
hilariously ill-fitting and sang the great motown favorite "My Girl". There
were even a few improvised soul moves. If there were any doubt that these
great performers had won the audience over, they were erased with that one.
The crowd loved it.
They all have unique styles and ideas, but the thing that makes this show so
much fun is the strong element of rhyhm that makes their talents work so
well together. Fans of folk and jazz will both find something wonderful here.
My advise: See this show.
The tour still has 7 more dates to play. If you live in the North East there
is probably one near you. Go to:
http://www.falconridgefolk.com/overview.html
for a list of dates and cities. And if you miss em you can catch this
really fine combination this July at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival. Go to:
http://www.falconridgefolk.com
for details.
Hope to see all of you at the FRFF this summer!
Jeff Nuttle
Avalon Home Page http://www.stardem.com/avalon/
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Jeff Nuttle (New Email) jeffn@shore.intercom.net
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Operations Manager
Historic Avalon Theater
40 East Dover Street
Easton, Md. 21601
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Acoustic Music On The Eastern Shore Of The Chesapeake Bay