[Magdalen] Joan Baez

[Scott Knitter]

What a great review, Grace! I enjoyed reading it. Scott

On Sat, Mar 12, 2016 at 10:25 AM, Grace Cangialosi <gracecan at gmail.com> wrote:
> My reaction to the concert was decidedly mixed, though I'm glad I went. It was a thrill to see her walk onstage alone at the beginning, guitar in hand. The audience immediately rose to its feet and gave her a standing ovation, after which she quipped, "Well, I can go home now!" Her opening song was "Me and Bobby McGee."
>
> That was the only time she was onstage by herself, and the staging and lighting effects from that point on seemed more suited to a rock concert, with smoke and shifting arrangements of spotlights that were sometimes trained on the audience. The stage went dark after every single number. In retrospect, I think I would have enjoyed it more if I had just closed my eyes and listened, because the music itself was excellent. The three young musicians with her were very talented, and each of them was given an opportunity to shine. There was a young woman whom Joan introduced as her "co-singer," a young man playing percussion, and a young man who played piano, guitar, mandolin and banjo and did some back-up singing.
>
> One distraction was that after every number a young woman came onstage and switched out Joan's guitars, moving the jack for the amp from one to the other. I'm sure it was done so Joan didn't have to spend time tuning and re-tuning during the concert, and it was done quickly, but I found it distracting and even annoying by the end.
>
> Some of the songs were new to me, and some were old favorites. A couple of the latter she introduced as "real folkies," and on a couple she had the audience join in on the chorus, notably "It's all over now, Baby Blue," and another with a "ly-ly-ly" refrain. Clearly the audience already know those and sang with gusto. The Woody Guthrie song "Deportees" was incredibly relevant today, and she gave the backstory of how it came to be written.
> She did sing "Diamonds and Rust," Renee, at one point substituting "50 years ago" for the original time frame, which brought a chuckle from the audience. She ended it with a half-half-spoken "I'll take diamonds!" Other standards were "The House of the Rising Sun," and the John Lennon song "Imagine," which was the third and closing encore, with the audience joining in on the refrain.
> In keeping with her activist roots, she sang a very effective song about global warming, with the spare accompaniment of a very light hand drum and her soft striking of the guitar strings with only her voice on the melody. She also made a soft pitch for Amnesty International and its work with our incarceration epidemic. There were AI volunteers in the lobby with petitions regarding the sentences of young offenders to life without parole.
>
> I'm glad I went--I feel as if I've bookended her career with that early concert in 1967 and now this one. From a lovely girl with long dark hair and a high, clear soprano to a beautiful woman with short, snow-white hair and a mellowed mezzo-soprano.
> What a ride it's been--for all of us of her generation!
>
> On March 12, 2016, at 5:04 AM, Christopher Hart <cervus51 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I did see Seeger in person and Arlo too, but I think I've only seen Joan
> Baez on TV. I'm a big fan though and envy you this concert.
>
> On Fri, Mar 11, 2016 at 5:27 PM, Grace Cangialosi <gracecan at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Great pictures, Charles--thanks! Judy Collins was here about five years
>> ago, and Arlo Guthrie was over at Shrinemont at the Shenandoah Summer Music
>> Festively several years ago. I never saw Seeger in person, but his brother
>> Mike was in my house once, jamming with some of my bluegrass music friends.
>> Quite an evening!
>>
>> > On Mar 11, 2016, at 5:09 PM, "Charles Wohlers" <
>> charles.wohlers at verizon.net> wrote:
>> >
>> > Fantastic! Glad she's still touring. I've only seen her once, a few
>> years ago at the 50th anniversary Newport Folk Festival, with Pete Seeger,
>> Judy Collins, Arlo Guthrie & others. For those of you who won't be with
>> Grace tonight, here are pictures:
>> > https://www.flickr.com/photos/cwohlers/sets/72157621928219406
>> >
>> > Chad Wohlers
>> > East Bridgewater, MA USA
>> > chadwohl at satucket.com
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > -----Original Message----- From: Grace Cangialosi
>> > Sent: Friday, March 11, 2016 3:40 PM
>> > To: Magdalen
>> > Subject: [Magdalen] Joan Baez
>> >
>> > I'm going to hear her tonight--will definitely be a trip down memory
>> lane! The first time I heard her was in the summer of 1967 at the Sylvan
>> Theater in DC. She was barred from performing at Constitution Hall because
>> of her anti-war views, so she held a free concert on the mall. Our son was
>> six weeks old and attended in his car bed...
>>
>
>
>
> --
>
> Christopher Hart
>
> List Mail Address: cervus51 at gmail.com
> Personal Mail: cervus at veritasliberat.net
> Twitter: @cervus51



-- 
Scott R. Knitter
Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois USA