FOLKFAN
Saturday, October 18, 2003
Naked Blue and Danzig and Woolley at Panzer House Concert - September 28, 2003
Tonight the Panzer House Concerts present two very talented couples.
Naked Blue are Jennifer and Scott Smith and in this pair Jen sings the lead vocal and her partner Scott backs her up. Sherry and Steve met Naked Blue at the North East Folk Alliance (NERFA) in about 1999 and have been trying to get them here since then. Their sets include (and I am not sure of the titles always so I use phrases or first lines):
It's Just the Way that you Love Me
Tonight we will love like never before
Shame shame on me
He was the king of understanding - this song is dedicated to divorced men in the audience
Never Come Back - this is not autobiographical, it is a song inspired by Forest Gump
I'll Always be Just Another Ordinary Girl - this song was in a bunch of TV shows (they wish Faith Hill would cover it, and my husband, a country music fan, agrees it would be great for her.) - but on TV repeats you might catch it on the Young and the Restless or the Smokers on cable.
Welcome Home Where ever You've Been
I can't find you anymore, but I'll meet you at Christmas - a song about a sister, about wanting to have a heart connection with a relative you see, but where are they really? Can anyone with a sibling relate to this song? Really!
For You - you make me feel extraordinary
Innocense Is Precious
Be careful what you wish for - you might just get it - amen amen allelluia are part of the audience sing along
Pink Hat - This Naked Blue hit sounding song includes the words - "I can Fly" - about hope, life and career. Is a free MP3 download from the Washington Post MP3 site.
Danzig and Woolley - are a duo we saw and loved at the May Susquehanna Folk Festival (near Havre de Grace Md ) - Kevin Danzig and Cat Woolley are another married couple who tour quite a bit, possibly based in North Carolina but mostly everywhere. In this duo Kevin Danzig is the lead vocalist. There are some quirky musicians on the singer-songwriter circuits but this couple self-describes their act as "dysfunctional folk", and make a career out of celebrating the quirky in themselves (and in all of us). They will be at Annapolis's First Night this year. (oh already a conflict for New Year's Eve since We're About Nine, Lea and DaVinci's Notebook etc, will be at the Alexandria First Night) - there is lots of fun percussion on these songs:
Crazy in Love - a dysfunctional love song. Cat is playing the mandolin.
I Remember the Roar of the Aging Troubadour - a rock singer trapped in a folk society body… (I smile as I hear this song about a folk singer trapped in his past - aren't we all?)
My imaginary friend and I - it looks like Cat is playing a xylophone but she tells me afterward it is called the Two Octave Bells
Heydee what's knocking song - obviously a car song
Fish Bowl - ok for this song and many in their set Kevin Danzig steps on the side of a tambourine.
Indigo Blue - is the color she is wearing
Folk Rap Song - a capella but with drumming on the back of the guitar
Do you know what love is? - Cat gives most of us in the audience "shakers" -water bottles filled not with water but with an inch of rice at the bottom - what fun! Could we stock these free shakers at all the house concerts? Maybe they don't fit for all songs but it is fun to add to the percussion on this song - yes even I can make music (with a shaker).
Francine's down so down, she's daddy's little girl - she misses her daddy big time!
One day you're gonna love me for 100 yrs - ok maybe the fortune teller is just an educated guesser!
Why oh why oh - about a kid who loves his first car and there is only one thing he wants more - this is an audience sing-along
Communion - is it a barefoot bum who is sharing water that is like wine and bread? "there was something in his eyes"
Troubador - Kevin and Cat add in lyrics about the adoring fans at the Panzer house concert, Steve, Sherry - we are all in this version - this is so much fan!
Contrasts tonight: A local couple who has songs on well known national TV shows and she is the lead vocal. Another couple who travel so much maybe they aren't local anywhere, with a male lead singer who visits the dysfunctional perspective and both play lots of fun percussive instruments. Hopeful whimsical close harmonies all.
You must know, I am so not impartial. The Panzer House is the first house concert I ever attended, and I still tell everyone it is the best in this area. I walk in each time thinking this Panzer show can't match or top the last one - and I am always pleasantly surprised to be wrong. There is no ho-hum here. I hate to miss a show. The 10-25-03 Panzer show has Diane Ziegler. I saw her some years ago and was so looking forward to seeing her again. And also Justin Roth - Sherry says "If you close your eyes Justin's guitar playing could be Peter Mayer...in other words, incredible. We'll be hearing alot more of Justin in the coming years. This is his first east coast tour." I saw him at this year's Falcon Ridge Folk Festival and so want to see him again soon. But I have a ticket to see Joan Baez - legendary folk singer whose new CD is covers of songs written by the kind of contemporary singer-songwriters who come to the Panzer's and similar venues.
And although I have a reservation for the 11-21 Panzer concert with the incredible David Roth, if I go I will miss seeing Lori Kelley and Carey Creed at the 333 Coffeehouse in Annapolis that night! But enough about me. And as reservations at the Panzers are filling up earlier and earlier and most shows have waiting lists, please forget everything I said about this venue, and definitely don't tell your friends!
P.S. if you don't have a Joan Baez ticket, you can still see her for free on 10-25 at Borders at White Flint Mall, Kensington Md . Their web site says: Joan Baez October 25, 2003 2:00 PM - Join us as legendary performer Joan Baez performs songs from and signs her new CD, Dark Chords From a Big Guitar.
