Yesterday was the second Tuesday of the month and that means John Platt’s On Your Radar. The performers were Our Band, Terry Klein, and Kate Callahan. I’m being good today and including all the links. I’ve been slacking off and only giving links when I have macros to insert them.
It was not just the second Tuesday of October, it was also the 10th of Tishrei in the Hebrew calendar, and that’s Yom Kippur, the holiest of Jewish Holidays. That meant that most of the Jewish contingent of On Your Radar regulars were absent. Three of us came anyway, I won’t mention the other two by name, in case God didn’t notice. I don’t want to rat them out. Know why I’m not worried about going to hell? There is no such place. To make it even more fun, two of the performers are half Jewish, so together that makes one Jew, right? With both it’s the half that doesn’t count, the father. Jewishness comes only from the mother. I might be an atheist, but an atheist that did very well in Hebrew school. Even though nine regulars were missing, we still had a nice sized audience.
I got there early but was still there after Fred. After making sure that everything was running fine and our seats were reserved, I came back upstairs and hung with him till doors opened. When we went in Kate Callahan introduced herself to us. This is part of the fun of the folk world, it’s intimate, we talk to and become friends with the artists. It’s a community.
Kate was up first; I was not at all familiar with her though as I publicize the concerts, I had read her bio. The one thing that stuck in my head was that she was the Connecticut State Troubadour. The previous four State Troubadours have all been On Your Radar, Kate, Kristen Graves, Chuck E. Costa, and Lara Herscovitch. The current Troubadour is Nekita Waller, I wonder if she’s on John’s Radar.
Kate’s most recent album is Triumph and it’s not about the sport car or motorcycle. She is all about empowerment, she even teaches Vocal Empowerment at York Correctional Institution in Niantic, CT. She’s the third musician I know that has worked with prisoners, the others were Jean Rohe, and Joe Crookston, that’s very good company. Did Joe do On Your Radar back in the day? I should know, but I don’t. It would have been in the early days. He must have. This is going to be a connections rich edition of Wise Madness.
I was also unfamiliar with Terry Klein. Terry was a successful Boston area attorney who disliked confrontation, so he and his family pulled up stakes, moved to Austin, two start on the less confrontational career of a musician. He’s become a Texan; you can tell because he keeps his Stetson on. Both Fred and John called him a wordsmith, I concur. One new song that particularly impressed me I referred to as worthy of Shindell, Fred suggested Sam Baker. Talking about that with Terry after the show I found that his producer also produced two of Sam’s albums. Like I said, the folk world is intimate. Terry’s father is journalist Joe Klein. One of next month’s guests is Willa Mamet, the daughter of David Mamet. Caroline Doctorow, the daughter of E.L. Doctorow also did On Your Radar. That’s three children of award-winning literary figures. You might be noticing that I’m finding lots of connections today. Sometimes that just happens, I’m a connection machine.
The first two artists were new to me, the third was old friends, Sasha Papernik and Justin Poindexter who along with a bassist and drummer are Our Band. This was Justin’s third time On Your Radar, the first was with The Amigos, then the Tres Amigos, and then he played guitar with Tara O’Grady. Sasha is Justin’s wife, I met her socially before I saw her perform. She’s a classically trained pianist, a singer, and a songwriter. Lots of talent there as Justin is a conservatory-trained guitarist. What do you get when you combine a classical pianist with an affinity for Russian folk music, Irving Berlin, and George Gershwin with a guitarist with a background in folk and jazz? You get great music. Duh.
After the show I found Katherine talking to Justin. I met them the same day, at NERFA. Katherine is in Bobtown. The small theme of the day continued. I was once again prudent and turned down a post-concert dinner invitation from Katherine and Gidge. You know that hurts. Instead my dinner was 99¢ pizza. Curious thing, it doesn’t cost 99¢, it costs $1, and that’s with tax. 99¢ is a name, not an accurate description.
One more connection before I go. Five people in the audience at birthdays this weekend and their ages are all within 5 years of each other. I know four of them, Viki, Sheila, Ihor, and Fred. They were all sitting in the front row. John pointed out, think back what the date is 9 months earlier. I wonder if there really is a concentration of births around then.
Wise Madness 