Last night I went to see Diana Jones at Kathryn’s Space, my eighth concert in nine days. One of those was an all-day Irvington Folk Festival. That’s a lot of music, even for me. Good thing it was all great music. Luckily there were not too many conflicts, I could have seen TMBG last night, and Deni Bonet at Carnegie Hall on Friday but those are the only ones I feel bad about missing. Please don’t remind me of the other ones I regret missing that I forgot about.
Unlike Friday’s odyssey, it’s easy to get to Kathryn’s in Alphabet City. One train and one short bus ride, so no adventures on the way. I was doing merch and got there early. The early arrivals were highly enriched in my friends, at one point I knew everyone there but one person. Let’s play who will I offend by forgetting they were there; John & Sheila, Kelly and her son Ben, Jeff & Carol, Dan & Phyllis, Richard & Viki, Orly, Tony, and Ina Mae. That’s a lucky 13! I’m not counting Paul as he was the opening act. I’m also not counting the people I’m forgetting. This was a home game.
Paul is a natural opener for Diana as he’s a great songwriter; very few can hold their own with Diana. When Kathryn aka Kay introduced Diana, she called her “the great Diana Jones.” When people follow that usage I always think; “Not to be confused with the mediocre Diana Jones.” On further thought I reconsidered as both her first and last names are so common there are probably hundreds of Diana Joneses in the country, so which one needs to be specified. The singer/songwriter I saw last night is certainly great.
Her upcoming album Song To A Refugee comes out in April. I know the website says March, it was just rescheduled. As you can figure out; it’s songs about the current refugee crisis including their mistreatment by the American government. I could have said, “The Trump Administration,” but it’s important to remember that this is being done in all our names. It is up to us to do something about it. The album is going to have a single, all the proceeds of which will go to a refugee support group. She’s joined on the song by Steve Earle, Richard Thompson, and Peggy Seeger. RT gets italics because that’s how she said his name. That’s how I feel about him. He also plays guitar on the single and other songs. Diana has the Richard Thompson seal of approval, that’s almost as impressive as having mine.
Diana is one of those writers that has to say things like, “This is my love song where nobody dies.” That’s real folk music. Slaid Cleaves said that in Scotland they said, “You call that a folk song? Only one person dies.” Unlike many folk singers she never drones. I’m never bored when listening to every word. Every word has a purpose and she doesn’t think that singing slowly makes it dramatic. This is the most important way for me to judge a songwriter. I hang on every word from the start. This week I saw an opener that lost me two lines into every song. they took forever to say nothing. There was more content in the first minute of any Diana song than in their entire set.
I’m supposed to go to the police station today, but I was told there is no rush and I’m not really feeling up to it. It’s one of those days. I have some things I have to figure out. Not things I’m up to sharing here. I am just up to sharing that I can’t share. Good thing I had a great week musically. Let’s get back to that. Here’s a recap.
Friday January 31 – Irvington Folk Festival with Dar Williams and Antje Duvekot
Saturday February 1 – Irvington Folk Festival with Dustbowl Revival, Joe Crookston, Nora Brown, et al.
Sunday – JKLOL that’s Jefferson Hamer, Kristin Andreassen, Lauren Balthrop, and Lawson White
Monday – The Murphy Beds and Ye Vagabonds
Wednesday – The Restless Age
Thursday – The Bonny Light Horseman
Friday – The Everly Set
Saturday – Diana Jones and Paul Sachs
I’m tired just typing that. Random thought, Paul Sachs’ username on Instagram is psachs, I always think Pesach when I see it. I shouldn’t eat leavened bread when I see him. Any gentiles get that? I write gentiles but think goyim. That reminds me that one reason I identify with refugees is that I’m the grandson of four refugees. If they weren’t allowed in the country not only would I not be in the US, there’s a good chance that my ancestors would have been wiped out in the holocaust, if they survived the pogroms to live that long. On Pesach we say “We were slaves in Egypt;” not they were slaves. We are supposed to feel like it happened to us. We were all slaves. We were all refugees. We were all persecuted. That’s true of all My Gentle Readers. Take persecution personally.
Wise Madness 