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Patterson Chapter News
Volume 19, Issue 5: May & June 1999
Newsletter segments:
Kingston chapter news, Patterson chapter news, Poughkeepsie chapter news, and other articles.by Mario Zecca
April report by Martin Aronchick
March Patterson Coffeehouse, traditional music night. Martin Aronchick started us off, thank you Martin, with one of his own instrumentals. Uncle Frank in his typically understated style, covered Woody Gunthrie's "Pretty Boy Floyd" and broke ground by instituting multimedia into his act. I can hear Ron Gluck asking, "but is it folk music?" The always entertaining and charming Denise Finley sang "Johnny Be Fair" and "Ballad of Johnny Sands." Roye Donold gave one of the best performances I've seen him play with a comical "Donald Where's Your Trousers," and finished with a love song. I should mention there was a fair amount of simulated Irish brogue due to the proximity of St Patty's Day. Anyway, Ron Gluck played "Wishful Thinking" and "Golden Bird," then Bruce Morrison did "Billy Grey" and the Monroe Brothers' "The Golden Crossroads."
Steve Nash really made a nice showing with the traditional music he plays, and he was in fine form as he started out with an instrumental of "Shanendoah," later sang "Colleen Malone" and one of my current favorites "Shady Grove" to finish off the set.
Our Connecticut visitors and co-features Broke and Hungry which include Marty Brennan on lead guitar and vocals, Dave Austin on stand up bass, Timm Quinn on harmonica and Kent Aldrich on rhythm guitar fit the bill and theme of the evening with covers of compositions by Robert Johnson, Jellyroll Morton and Bessie Smith. Their tight sound displays the skill the band has and they were enjoyed by all. Marty Brennan is an old hand and I should have insisted that he play some dobro for us.
I want to thank Clark and Jo Darling for our professionally run refreshment counter. Frank Collin for MCing. Sound persons Steve Nash and Bruce Morrison (while Steve was playing) and Denise Finley (while Bruce joined Steve on stage).
The break of day on April 10 found Uncle Frank Collin hunched over his writing desk, searching through his dog-eared music files and extensive music memory banks for material for a Featured Performer set comprised entirely of non-Hobo songs. This was a tricky assignment for Uncle Frank, for it is well-known that Uncle Frank feels that all songs are really about Hoboes.
As is his custom, Mario Zecca had arisen before the break of day. As first light fell, Mario puzzled over his selection of harmonica orthodonture, selecting an appropriate piece of banded metal for the evening's performance.
Bruce Morrison awoke from his sick bed with a wracking cough, an advanced state of influenza and a steely determination to perform his duty as this evening's scheduled Master of Ceremonies. He peeled the mustard compress from his chest, tore the quarantine sign from his door and dressed in his usual HVFG apparel of tan chinos and torn sweater.
As he drove up to the regular venue of the Patterson coffeehouse, the Patterson Presbyterian Church Fellowship Hall, Ron Gluck marveled at the overflow audience spilling into the street. "A full house tonight for the Patterson Chapter," Ron thought, "and look, there are even busloads of Gospel music lovers come to hear us play." Slowly, it dawned on Ron that the buses of Gospel music lovers were in Patterson for the Gospel music festival in the church across the street from the Fellowship Hall. Well, I'm certain that the Gospel festival was great, but had the Gospel revelers dropped in at the Fellowship Hall, they would have been treated to a wonderful evening of music.
That evening began with our infirm but determined MC Morrison announcing two rules for the evening. Since brevity is the soul of wit and the hallmark of a disciplined mind, explained Bruce, and because of the severity of his illness, he would limit his remarks to the absolute minimum, thereby allowing the open mike performers three songs each. Second, we would be "unplugged" this evening because of the absence of our official Sound Guy and banjo player extraordinaire, Steve Nash, due to a family emergency. (Steve, we hope that all is well.)
The show began with three original bluegrass-style tunes by the first open mike performer, Mike Burns. Mike combined dexterous and melodic flat-picking with a strong, resonant voice in his songs, "Back in Our Hometown," "My Darling" and "She's Leaving, Not Grieving." (CDs of Mike's music are available by calling him at 914-276-2239.)
Next up was Loraine Klara, in her Patterson debut. Loraine was the only accordion player of the evening (and of the past several years) at Patterson, and did justice to that large instrument of Polka fame. Loraine played three standards, "Happy Wanderer," "Jambalaya" and "Oh! Them Golden Slippers," leading the audience in an enjoyable sing-along. Later, Loraine listened patiently to an accordion joke. [What do you call 50 accordions at the bottom of the ocean? Ans.: A good start.] Loraine then explained to this writer that it is well known to accordion players that accordion hecklers are actually people with accordion envy.
Martin Aronchick next clambered to the stage, fresh from a gig at Mrs. Meyers' second grade class at Brookside School, Ossining, that was critically acclaimed (by his daughter Jackie, who said, "Dad, you didn't make too many mistakes at all!") Aronchick, an Uncle Frank wannabe, brandished on his right index finger a new playing aid, a metal fingerpick, and the audience recoiled in horror, lest that device be launched from the strings of Aronchick's Taylor dreadnought as a blunt but lethal metal arrow. Aronchick played one song, an original instrumental named "Transmission," and, happily, his set ended without injury to innocent bystanders.
Barbara Mahon next appeared, wearing not her HVFG newsletter feature writer hat, nor her April 10 Refreshment Director hat, but her performer hat. Actually, she appeared hatless. Barbara began by announcing her abdication of her nom de guerre, The Beacon Nightingale, so MC Bruce obligingly introduced her as "the Ex-Beacon Nightingale." Barbara had contracted the flu bug ravaging the HVFG community, and limited herself to one song; she sang a gentle and moving version of "The Back Door."
Next, the audience was treated to three songs by Ron Gluck. Ron's first offering was a traditional folk song, "Miner's Lifeguard," that Ron said he hadn't played in years and barely remembered. Ron gave himself a challenge for this song, writing the verse on a yellow post-it note stuck to his guitar, in letters so small that it proved unreadable during the performance. But Ron is a consummate performer, can ad-lib with the best of them, and his energetic flat picking and pleasing voice carried the song well. Similarly, Ron's soft melodic twang and excellent musicianship made his final song, "You'll Never Know," a listening pleasure. But it was Ron's middle song that really wowed the crowd, a driving, relentless, audacious, knock-your-socks-off rendition of a well-known Franz Liszt piano instrumental. Ron offered to buy a cup of coffee for anyone who knew the title of this song (which in English means "Love Dream"). For those of you who weren't present, the answer is "Liebestraum." We look forward to Ron and others including similar promotional quizes and potential rewards in future performances.
Last and certainly not least before intermission was the Hayden- Morrison Trio. Brandy, Bill and Bruce seamlessly harmonized "Sueno," the Bill Staines classic, "Satan's Choir" and "River," giving absolutely no evidence of the fact that they had not rehearsed even once in the preceding four months. The Trio's intricately interwoven serenade was well complimented by Bruce's soft and deft touch on the guitar fingerboard.
Following half-time sustenance, the lights dimmed again, as Uncle Frank mounted the stage, his fingers a full Freddy Kruger panoply of sharpened metal and plastic fingerpicks, and a pleased expression on his face due to the unplugged nature of the evening, for it is well known that Uncle Frank does not believe in amplification, or even in electricity. Exercising artistic prerogative, Uncle Frank declared that train songs are outside of the evening's anti-Hobo song injunction, and in the absence of audible protest, proceeded with a spirited version of "Conductor Man." Uncle Frank continued with "Buddy Bolden" and "Boston Birolisa" in his strong and manly tenor voice, accompanied by his artful but spare fingerpicking. By now, our Uncle was in full stride, and he unleashed the full emotion of his Irish tenor cry in "Ace in the Hole" and "Old Paint."
So as to propel the audience higher into folk music heaven, the final three songs in Uncle Frank's set received an Ed Schaffer accompaniment on legal mandolin. The Frank-and-Ed set began with an inevitable Collin entry about a workingman's death while working, and one of this writer's personal favorites of the evening, a haunting and poignant "Work's All Done," with Ed's trilling mandolin providing harmonic counterpoint to the plaintive wail of Frank's voice and Frank's driving, rhythmic picking. Gaining vocal volume as his set progressed, Frank next belted out a lilting version of "Oh Daddy." Our Uncle concluded with a rousing, growling rendition of "Run Down the Line," which seemed to this writer to make implicit reference to Hoboes and thereby demonstrate Mr. Collin's intrinsically rebellious nature and adherence to the Hobo song genre. But never mind about that; Uncle Frank's sonorous vocals and Ed's mandolin handiwork made this concluding song a tour-de-force and a hard act to follow for our final performer, Mario Zecca.
Mr. Zecca was up to the task. Taking advantage of the now fully- warmed up state of Mr. Schaffer's legal brief writing and mandolin playing hands, Mario dragooned Ed as accompaniment for his first two pieces, an original tune, "Hallelujah Trail," and a Bill Monroe song, "Can't You Hear Me Calling?" Mario's steady, dark and melodic voice was well complimented by the ranging improvisation from Ed's mandolin. Mario concluded with two solo songs. The first, perhaps rushing St. Patrick's Day 2000 a bit, was P. W. Joyce's, "Arthur McBride." Mario positioned a portion of the verse of this song on his music stand just beyond the normal range of his vision, adding an animated aspect to his performance of this piece. Despite this self-imposed burden, Mario, his guitar and his harmonica did justice to this fine piece of traditional Irish music. Mario concluded with an original tune, "Temporary Heaven," which featured a catchy riff that was the envy of other guitar players in the audience and thoughtful lyrics that were the envy of other songwriters in the audience.
And as the resonating sound of Mario's jumbo Guild guitar drifted away to quiet, MC Bruce climbed the stage a final time to announce the conclusion of the evening's labours and bid all adieu, goodnight and godspeed, and a safe journey home to the warmth of their hearths or, as the case may be, the comfort of their sick beds.
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