The soundtrack of today’s Wise Madness is Hamilton. I woke up early this morning and as often follows I fell back asleep. I did so while listening to Hamilton and it invaded my dreams. I was at a folk convention, not NERFA. I left the main room and there was a loud speaker playing the music from the conference. It switched it to playing Hamilton. After that wherever I wandered Hamilton was playing. I went to a snack bar and the woman at the countered started singing Aaron Burr, Sir and knew all the lyrics, and then just kept on singing more. I was quite taken with her. I passed a TV and Hamilton was playing on it. A strange TV version with the sets being pictures of sets, not sets. There was a scene in a dorm room. The one constant was Hamilton. I love how dreams work.
Yesterday was the second Tuesday of the month, My Gentle Readers should know where I was. That’s right, John Platt’s On Your Radar. John’s guests were Plywood Cowboy, Sophie Buskin, and Genevieve. OYR is always a home game. I decided last night that I’m not going to give my usual list of friends in the audience, I’m going to just give you a count. You know you should add at least one to the total as I always forget people. I just counted 15. The room holds only 60 and that count doesn’t include John and his wife Sheila. And then there were the performers.
Genevieve was on first. I usually refer to her here, and in real life as Gen. I’ve known her longer socially than as a performer. She’s my friend that lived in the bush in South Africa for 8 years, working as a wildlife photographer and conservationist. Now you remember. When I promote OYR on Instagram I repost many pictures from the artists. All the ones I posted of Gen were of animals. I kept suggesting that she might bring them to the show. She didn’t but she brought her photography book with pictures of them. I was hoping the meerkats would show up in the audience but I guess they couldn’t get tickets. I could tell they really wanted to be there.
Gen does not play folk, she a pianist/singer/songwriter. Folk is a big world I’ve seen and heard her often and this was the best show I’ve seen her give. There were moving songs, energy, charm, and a golden voice. There were no meerkats so there was also disappointment.
I’ve seen Sophie Buskin many times too. I met her when she stalked me at NERFA. This was the best show I’ve ever seen by her. What was in the water? She’s taken it up a level. Is Sophie folk? She plays electric guitar, and is backed by an electric bass and a drummer with a full kit. I have seen her acoustic and she’s a folk legacy, her father is David Buskin. Last night she was a rock musician with good lyrics, that works in the folk world. She’s also charming and funny and for the first time I noticed her beautiful voice. She shared something else in common with Gen, her drummer, Jagoda, played shuitar with Gen. Now you might guess that shuitar is some sort of exotic instrument from Asia. If you did you’d be wrong. It’s a untuned guitar played like a percussion instrument. Jagoda uses the guitar as a wood drum. As for the name, it rhymes with guitar. You’ll put it together. I think it’s a brand name.
I saw Plywood Cowboy at NERFA, Bruce Swan presented them at the DJ Showcase. I didn’t think I knew them socially. I was wrong. The leader and songwriter is Steve Dedman, who I did meet. I was still blind then so didn’t recognize him from the stage. I met him socially and didn’t put it together till after the show when he said he was Jay Mafale’s cousin. The only thing tougher than being an idiot is being a blind idiot. Now I’m a sighted idiot, much better. So I met all three performers socially first.
I wish I could find my NERFA notes, what they did was not what I remembered from their two songs at the DJ showcase. They are a string band, that I got right, but that’s about it. Part of the difference is that Steve took advantage of the piano on stage and moved to that. When he did they kicked it up a notch. Like Matt Nakoa, John Fullbright, and Heather Pierson, they transform when driven by the piano.
I had hoped to eat with Gen after the show but she had to head home and pack so I went with my default dinner plan, Rosario’s pizza. They were out of my favorite slice, thick crust with pepperoni and sausage. I found out that they know it’s my favorite slice. I am a regular. In a way that proved fortunate as I tried something new, a sausage and cheese pretzel. It’s a huge filled pretzel. It was served with a dish of pizza sauce to dunk it in. Essentially it’s a sausage pizza with pretzel dough substituting for pizza crust. Essentially, it’s great. This is totally untrue but it needs a back story. Sicily was for a time part of the Germany based Holy Roman Empire. The great emperor Frederick Barbarossa was born on Sicily and his native language was Italian. This fusion of German and Italian culture led to the creation of the pizza pretzels. Next time I’m there I might forego my favorite slice and try the pepperoni.
After dinner I wimped out once again and did not go to Rockwood Music Hall Stage 1 to see Michael Daves. I love Michael but he doesn’t go on until 10 and it’s a long trip home so it’s tough. I need to do it more often than I do. Michael is the king of New York Bluegrass, an incredible guitarist/singer/songwriter. He is at Rockwood every Tuesday and that makes it so easy to say, “I’ll see him next time.” And then I don’t.
This was a very Wise Madness edition of Wise Madness. The only essential I missed was commuting. I had no major troubles but I ran into one of the subway stock characters, the Angry Person. The D train was delayed at Broadway Lafayette. One guy was seething and when they said, “Sorry for the delay we are waiting for clearance to pull out” the guy got up and struck the conductor’s booth which resulted in a resounding bang. After the train pulled out it was announced that the train would be running local on the C tracks to Columbus Circle. He shouted, “They couldn’t say that before we left so I could switch to the F?” the next stop is W 4th Street where you can also switch to the F. He just wanted to be angry. I’m tempted to say something in these situations but I know nothing will help. The most likely outcome is that some of that anger would be directed at me.
Now this is a complete Wise Madness. Hamilton is over, I’m listening to far more peaceful classical music on WQXR. I get a lot more writing done to that.
Wise Madness 