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Sunday, August 15, 2004
Hurricanes, Thursday Next, Irish Fest Recap and Mark Heard
Hurricane Charley
My parents have been up in Ohio for the last two months, but their primary home is in Port Charlotte, Florida. Their plan was to leave Ohio in a week and a half fora long-planned driving vacation of the west, including Tahoe and San Francisco. Instead, thanks to Hurricane Charley, they left for Port Charlotte this morning. Early reports are that the damage to their home includes some missing roof tiles and the screening covering their lanai. All in all, if this assessment is correct, then they were extremely lucky. If they can get their home secured and repairs underway, then they are still hoping to make their trip. Mom is a paid part-time Christian Education staffer at Punta Gorda First United Methodist Church, in the area that seems to have received the worst of the storm.
Jasper Fforde
I drove to Dayton on Wednesday to see Jasper Fforde, author of the Thursday Next series. He is amusing and engaging in person, and read a passage from his latest book, Something Rotten. The most important news from the event is that it may be a couple years until the next Thursday Next book appears, as he will be working on a mystery that is sort of hinted at in The Well of Lost Plots based on Jack Spratt and the nursery rhyme characters who have been set into Caversham Heights.
Dublin Irish Festival
Weather: perfect
Richard Thompson: incredible beyond the ability of words to describe. All he had, and all he needed, was an acoustic guitar.
Best Celtic rock band I saw: Tempest. They have all the rock and roll moves and impressive instrumental skill as well. Got their 15th Anniversary box set at the festival - very impressive three-disc collection with a disc each of studio, live, and radio station appearances, many from Columbus station WCBE. It includes a brand new studio recording of Dylan's "Masters of War" that you will be hearing soon on the Online Folk Festival.
Best Traditional band I saw: Danu. Impressive instrumental skill creating a wall of sound. No wonder they've won all those BBC Folk awards.
Most overrated band there: The Saw Doctors. They struck me as being like the Huey Lewis and the News of Ireland - pleasant, inoffensive four-minute pop tunes featuring a saxophone that you can hum along to. I was surprised by how much adulation was heaped on the band by the crowd given how mediocre the music seemed.
Best Rick James Tribute by a Celtic Rock Band: Canada's Slainte Mhath, who played a credible version of "Superfreak" featuring uillean pipes and fiddle. Slainte Mhath played a very entertaining set. I'd never heard them before, but I was very impressed, and they got they crowd up and dancing by the end. They mix a bit more funk into their style than many of the bands I saw.
Best Band With Two Pipers: Knocknagael, from Cincinnati. They put on an impressive show, with a very funky bass player and two pipers.
Best Band with Hairstyles circa 1986 The Alarm: Wolfstone. Both the guitarist and the bass player had that spiky updo mojo going for them, though they didn't quite have the necessary length. The bass player was the best I heard all weekend and their musicianship was tight.
The Other Band I Thought I'd Like Better Than I Did: The Prodigals. I couldn't understand their lead singer through the thick accent, I quickly got tired of the button accordion, and the songs all started to sound the same. After about 35 minutes I left to catch the end of the Gaelic Storm set. I have to admit that, having not seen Titanic, I knew nothing about this group, and I found them entertaining and talented and won't hold their appearance in that movie against them.
Mark Heard
Singer/songwriter Mark Heard is the Featured Artist of the Week this week on the OFF, commemmorating the anniversary of his untimely death on August 16, 1992 at age 40. He was a remarkably talented songwriter and performer, and he had an amazing way with words. For some of the amazing lyrics, visit the Mark Heard Lyric Project. His last three CDs, Dry Bones Dance, Second Hand, and Satellite Sky, in particular are worth tracking down. Dry Bones Dance is my favorite, and it sounds like a cajun hoe down gone slightly awry, in a good way. High energy folk rock. It still seems a shame to me that he was taken too soon, right when he was hitting his creative prime. He influenced several of today's important folk singer/songwriters including Bruce Cockburn (whose song "Closer to the Light" is about Heard's death), Pierce Pettis, and Brooks Williams among others.
My parents have been up in Ohio for the last two months, but their primary home is in Port Charlotte, Florida. Their plan was to leave Ohio in a week and a half fora long-planned driving vacation of the west, including Tahoe and San Francisco. Instead, thanks to Hurricane Charley, they left for Port Charlotte this morning. Early reports are that the damage to their home includes some missing roof tiles and the screening covering their lanai. All in all, if this assessment is correct, then they were extremely lucky. If they can get their home secured and repairs underway, then they are still hoping to make their trip. Mom is a paid part-time Christian Education staffer at Punta Gorda First United Methodist Church, in the area that seems to have received the worst of the storm.
Jasper Fforde
I drove to Dayton on Wednesday to see Jasper Fforde, author of the Thursday Next series. He is amusing and engaging in person, and read a passage from his latest book, Something Rotten. The most important news from the event is that it may be a couple years until the next Thursday Next book appears, as he will be working on a mystery that is sort of hinted at in The Well of Lost Plots based on Jack Spratt and the nursery rhyme characters who have been set into Caversham Heights.
Dublin Irish Festival
Weather: perfect
Richard Thompson: incredible beyond the ability of words to describe. All he had, and all he needed, was an acoustic guitar.
Best Celtic rock band I saw: Tempest. They have all the rock and roll moves and impressive instrumental skill as well. Got their 15th Anniversary box set at the festival - very impressive three-disc collection with a disc each of studio, live, and radio station appearances, many from Columbus station WCBE. It includes a brand new studio recording of Dylan's "Masters of War" that you will be hearing soon on the Online Folk Festival.
Best Traditional band I saw: Danu. Impressive instrumental skill creating a wall of sound. No wonder they've won all those BBC Folk awards.
Most overrated band there: The Saw Doctors. They struck me as being like the Huey Lewis and the News of Ireland - pleasant, inoffensive four-minute pop tunes featuring a saxophone that you can hum along to. I was surprised by how much adulation was heaped on the band by the crowd given how mediocre the music seemed.
Best Rick James Tribute by a Celtic Rock Band: Canada's Slainte Mhath, who played a credible version of "Superfreak" featuring uillean pipes and fiddle. Slainte Mhath played a very entertaining set. I'd never heard them before, but I was very impressed, and they got they crowd up and dancing by the end. They mix a bit more funk into their style than many of the bands I saw.
Best Band With Two Pipers: Knocknagael, from Cincinnati. They put on an impressive show, with a very funky bass player and two pipers.
Best Band with Hairstyles circa 1986 The Alarm: Wolfstone. Both the guitarist and the bass player had that spiky updo mojo going for them, though they didn't quite have the necessary length. The bass player was the best I heard all weekend and their musicianship was tight.
The Other Band I Thought I'd Like Better Than I Did: The Prodigals. I couldn't understand their lead singer through the thick accent, I quickly got tired of the button accordion, and the songs all started to sound the same. After about 35 minutes I left to catch the end of the Gaelic Storm set. I have to admit that, having not seen Titanic, I knew nothing about this group, and I found them entertaining and talented and won't hold their appearance in that movie against them.
Mark Heard
Singer/songwriter Mark Heard is the Featured Artist of the Week this week on the OFF, commemmorating the anniversary of his untimely death on August 16, 1992 at age 40. He was a remarkably talented songwriter and performer, and he had an amazing way with words. For some of the amazing lyrics, visit the Mark Heard Lyric Project. His last three CDs, Dry Bones Dance, Second Hand, and Satellite Sky, in particular are worth tracking down. Dry Bones Dance is my favorite, and it sounds like a cajun hoe down gone slightly awry, in a good way. High energy folk rock. It still seems a shame to me that he was taken too soon, right when he was hitting his creative prime. He influenced several of today's important folk singer/songwriters including Bruce Cockburn (whose song "Closer to the Light" is about Heard's death), Pierce Pettis, and Brooks Williams among others.
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In 1996, a double disc of Mark Heard's music called Orphans of God was released to raise awareness (and to raise money for Heard’s widow, Janet). It included covers from Pettis, Cockburn, Buddy & Julie Miller, Michael Been (of The Call), Vigilantes of Love, Victoria Williams (with Mark Olson, Tammy Rogers, and the Millers), Tom Prasada-Rao, Olivia Newton John, The Williams Brothers, Chagall Guevara, John Austin, Tonio K., Colin Linden, Marvin Etzioni, Brooks Williams, Kate Taylor and many others.
Marvin Ezioni was a founding member of LONE JUSTICE (Maria McKee) and he also produced cuts for THE COUNTING CROWS and TOAD THE WET SPROCKET.
Most recently he produced Grey DeLisle (The Graceful Ghost)and Ralston Bowles (Carweck Conversations). "Carwreck Conversations" credits David (McSparren)Raven on drums. David was Mark's Drummer on 6 of his last recordings as well as on Pierce Pettis's Tinseltown.
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Marvin Ezioni was a founding member of LONE JUSTICE (Maria McKee) and he also produced cuts for THE COUNTING CROWS and TOAD THE WET SPROCKET.
Most recently he produced Grey DeLisle (The Graceful Ghost)and Ralston Bowles (Carweck Conversations). "Carwreck Conversations" credits David (McSparren)Raven on drums. David was Mark's Drummer on 6 of his last recordings as well as on Pierce Pettis's Tinseltown.
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