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11/17/2003: "3 shows, 3 days, One Week"
music: Maori - Girlymanmood: Happily Sated.
I have been blessed with great music and great company this past week. Three shows to be precise.
I have been blessed with great music and great company this past week. Three shows to be precise.
This story begins this past Monday on November 10, with the New York City CD Release Show of Girlyman at Fez Under Time Café. If you haven’t seen or heard of Girlyman before, they’re a great folky trio made up of two girls and a guy with amazing harmonies. Self-described as Delicious Acoustic Harmony-Driven Gender Pop, Girlyman’s debut CD, remember who i am, is beautiful. I met up with Benay, Reinhard, Gene, and Melissa (representing the Dar-List and Fruheads:My folk worlds are colliding!!). Elaine was supposed to join us, but she was feeling sick and decided to go home and rest up. We ended up getting a booth with an excellent view of the stage.
The show itself was a barrel of fun, rockin’ good time, or whatever random cliché you want to insert for an happy time. They performed a number of songs from their album, a few covers, and some new songs with Doris’ new banjo. Some highlights: Nate sang a rousing rendition of "Rock Me Amadeus" in German. While in Wisconsin the band had a fit of drunken inspiration involving the Holland Tunnel’s "Lane in Stay" signs, leading them to sing "Thing Wild" complete with cue cards for audience participation (Thing Wild! Sing Heart My Make You!). We got background stories for some of the songs, such as Say Goodbye, which was written by Doris in memory of a chain smoking older woman that she worked with in a bookstore. There was also some very humorous banter (Tammy noted that without Doris, Girlyman would just be called "Man"; Doris noted that she was Jewish, by association) and Doris just going off in tangents (reminiscent of Bernie from DVN, but a bit more subdued). The local crowd was huge and very supportive and the band came out looking like superstars.
The Girlyman show was also the first night on the town for Frulad Dave the Lion King of the Jungle of Spain. Pictures of him with fruheads and the band can be found here.
I went back to the Fez the following Friday (11/10) and saw Nerissa and Katryna Nields and We’re About 9. Melissa and Gene came back for this show and we were joined by Isabel (Gene’s wife) and Rebekah (another Dar-Lister). We settled in yet another booth with a decent side view of the stage. I also got to see merch goddess, Sheila, and a few other people that I have gotten to know over the years. I’m slowly becoming more entrenched in the folk music universe, as I keep on seeing the same people over and over again (well, I guess that is how I ended up getting in touch with a bunch of Fruheads at an Eddie from Ohio show, so it can’t be all a bad thing).
WA9 is another folk trio consisting of two guys and a girl (note the slight difference between them and Girlyman). They played a short but sweet 4 song set, including one of my favorite song of theirs, "Born Again." I really like these guys, as they two have spectacular harmonies and smart songwriting.
The Nields came on and played some well known classics and a bunch of new songs from their upcoming album called "This Town is Wrong" which is a companion album to a book that Nerissa is writing. They also performed a lovely cover of Dar William’s "Mercy of the Fallen." Sadly, there were no Songs for Amelia to be found. Overall, it was another happy night of music.
Finally, we have the Sunday night road trip for a Peter Mulvey Show. I picked up Melissa at her apartment in Manhattan and then we headed up I-95 to Bridgeport, CT. After following what were very crappy Mapquest directions and getting lost in Connecticut, we finally made our way to the Acoustic Café where we were almost immediately greeted by the zooming car of Andrea and Paul. I was super excited to see Andrea and Paul, as I haven’t seen them since I first met the two at Falcon Ridge this past July. We exchanged hugs and brownies in the parking lot. After settling into our seats, understanding finally the mystery of the nerts pile, and munching on some yummy nachos and wraps, we were ready for the show.
Opening for Peter was Christina Abbott. I had never seen her before and was pleasantly surprised by her voice and songwriting. I got a pretty good sense of her music, and I think she’s worth checking out some more. Next up came, Peter, who was playing with David Goodrich (aka Goody) on electric guitar and electric mandolin. I had only seen Peter once before at The Mercury Lounge with just him and his guitar and he just blew me away. He and Goody played some great songs together (there were a lot of those tonight) and just seemed to feed off of each other very well. However, there were a couple of instances that I found the electric guitar to be distracting and I preferred completely acoustic Peter. Still, it was a very nice to see the two interact and hearing this different sound. Peter was so delicious tonight, despite being somewhat off with tuning issues. His voice and guitar are just so melty. He played a nice mix of new stuff, covers, and older songs. What I would really love to hear him play is Dar’s The Ocean, which he covered on Ten Thousand Mornings. Sigh, maybe next time.
So after the show there were more pictures with Dave and our little group, but none with Peter, as he was talking with other fans and the venue was nudging us out, as they had another show that evening. Oh well; still it was a great week of music with great people which equals a fun time. And there’s more music to come this weekend. There’s Chris & Meredith Thompson, Cadence Carroll and Meg Hutchinson at The Postcrypt Coffeehouse at Columbia University with Gordon and
