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Patterson Chapter News
Volume 19, Issue 3: January & February 1999
Newsletter segments:
Kingston chapter news, Patterson chapter news, Poughkeepsie chapter news, and other articles.November report by Mario Zecca
December report by Parker Gambino
November's was one of the best shows I've been lucky enough to attend. Everyone on that stage had something special to share with the audience. The HVFG of course encourages newcomers and first timers who certainly provide entertainment of a different kind an d add dimensionality to the proceedings. It is the group or team effort which makes it all the richer experience.
I would like to say something about the Folk Guild in general, and that is, where else can you go and enjoy a relaxed and friendly atmosphere, (I liken it to the communality I felt with the kids I used to hang out with when I was a teenager some 30 years ago), hear great live music and spend an evening away from the commercial and rat race workaday world. This is true bargain entertainment, stop paying $20 plus, to see performers just because they're famous. I truly believe that under different circumstances the majority of the performers in the guild could put on their own $20+ shows.
Our special thanks to the performers for putting on a wonderful show. Features were Denise Finley & Joe Murray and Ron Gluck (accompanied by Greg Neaga). Open micers were Carol, Greg and Peter, Blair Shepard, Roye Donald, Andy Ferraro, (accompanied by Joe Murray), Matt Finley, and Mario Zecca (accompanied by an exaggerated sense of purpose).
Thanks to Nick and Carolyn Moran for refreshments and MC duties. To Bruce Morrison for sound and Ed Schaffer for filling in for Uncle Frank while he is serving time for a minor indiscretion. I'm sure we all can't wait to hear the story. Thanks to Greg Neaga for constantly updating our WebPages. If you are interested in becoming more involved with the HVFG Patterson Chapter please contact me: Mario Zecca mz@bestweb.net.
December brought the usual blend of seasonal and seasonally- oblivious work from the players, especially after surprise guest MC Melissa Holland egged them on by requesting singer/songwriter originals. Two other interesting trends surfaced: more open tunings than usual, and Taylor axes making a strong showing to challenge Martin's supremacy. And there was also an unwritten competition for which song would have the lengthiest title (see entries below). On to the tunes.
Melissa opened with unaccompanied flute, playing "What Child Is This" and a version of "Jesu Bambino" that also wove in strains of "O Come All Ye Faithful." Pat Daley kept us festive with the big sound of the Taylor 12-string. He played a few tunes via John Fahey's stately arrangements, "Joy to the World" and "Auld Lang Syne". Parker Gambino played two originals, the instrumental, "Waiting for Words" and "Talkin' New York City Subway System Blues."
Stuart Kabak followed with "If Love is What You Choose"; Jesus was in this tune, alright, but was wandering through a modern urban landscape, and not necessarily a welcoming one ("Jesus and his lady had to run to save their lives"). Stuart instructed us on the three types of love songs, and then provided us with one of the type most rare and noble, where the object of affection never knows of the admirer's yearnings from a distance, "Only the Moon and Stars."
The feature, Helen Avakian, had her extensive resume read to us by Melissa, and then effortlessly lived up to the hype. Helen's work was new to this reviewer's ears, and what a delight! She opened with a number by husband Terry Champlin, "Bird Flying" that was full of guitar runs and harmonics, contrasting rooted trees and feathered ones on the wing. "Hand of a Man" that can do many different things has the songwriter questioning which type of hand will be offered (I vote conceal), although, too, "hand of a woman can steal." The instrumental blend of "Silent Night/ Page's Jig" showed off Helen's guitar wizardry once again. Then was a song about a Christmas tree, cataloguing the great variety of ornaments that mark dates and events, as the tree's "outstretched hands hold onto family history." "Gallery" was an upbeat snappy flamenco-flavored tune dedicated to Helen's artist sister, a musical whirling translation of vivid visual imagery, the chromatic assault of walking through an art gallery. "Mistletoe Blues" was a jazzy ode to that special holiday brand of heartbreak ("Why did I fall for you?...Why did I open my big mouth and sing the mistletoe blues?"). This gave way to the antsy agitation of "On the Verge" ( of who knows what?). This is a song for anyone who has been up, down, hopeless, and exhilarated all at once, squirming under a microscope, dissolving in the sky and ready to break out, but how or into what? Helen's encore was "All the Time", which focused on intensity of feeling, a mind just saturated with thoughts of that someone, nearly haunted, soaking in the depth of feelings. Helen has really integrated her guitar skills, voice, and songwriting to open up her depths of feelings, simultaneously simple and complex. Although she felt some struggle with her voice, anticipating a touch of laryngitis, it all sounded fine to me, and struck many sympathetic personal chords; I wish that she could have gone on longer.
First timer Vickie Russell's New Year's resolution will doubtless be to never use the house piano again. Her songs, and the way she put them over, managed to overcome the out-of-tune instrument, first with the inspirational torch song, "The Meaning of Life", then in a songwriting feedback cycle song about writing the song she was writing at the time, "Overwhelmed". She channeled her muse, the best way to work with it, letting it reward us with the song that arrived that way.
Next up was Boy's Night Out (Rob Brereton + Michael Hunt + Marc Clemens). They had drop-dead three part vocal harmonies that seemed stylistically to come at us from four different decades. Their first tune was an awesome take of Neil Young's outer-space-bound fantasy, "After the Gold Rush" (All in a dream, the loading had begun), done to Rob's sparse just-right other worldly-yet-clearly-of-times -past dulcimer. The more lighthearted "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B" knew which decade it was coming from; the vocal glides and swoops were tight and spot-on.
Then the Josh White chestnut "San Francisco Bay Blues" was roasted on Ron Gluck's open fire, in his inspirational rousing fashion. He also got seasonal with "Twas on a Night Like This" (with a few strains of "Deck the Halls" thrown in), putting Jesus in the forefront of the stroll down the path to brotherhood.
Michael Rosenthal spun the contemporary love song, "Jenny Dear", with a clear west-of-the-Mississippi vibe; then the east-of-the-pond traditional "Gypsy Rover" via the Clancys, featuring not a dog, but that minstrel who showed the cause and effect so dear to our hearts ("he whistled and he sang... and he won the heart of a lady").
Roye Donald took us back to holidays in the trenches of Vietnam with "Silent Night", and then the war-time brotherhood letter home to Mom that had to evolve into a song, "The Guys" (they're like a second pair of eyes).
Guitarist par excellence Greg Neaga was all alone tonight, and we could focus on his well-travelled appreciation with "New York State of Mind". Greg clearly misses one of the coolest voices, and wowed us with the original "I'd Rather Have Steffi Here Sing With Me", dedicated to a previous bandmate that he misses, but may stop missing soon; we will instead miss Greg.
Martin Aronchick picked another of his pensive fretboard original works, Le Grande. Brian Sullivan closed out the evening with B. Cockburn's "Cry of a Tiny Baby", an interesting take on the Christmas story as an historical psychodrama that nonetheless led to this world's enlightenment.
In January we present Singer/Songwriter Night. Susan MacLean is the featured performer. Please come and showcase your original songs. In February, Barbara Mahon, the Beacon Nightingale, is the feature.
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