I was supposed to take a walk and go shopping today, instead I’m blogging and listening to the Met game. Hopefully, you’ll view my loss as your gain. Maybe I’ll get out for a shorter walk later. It’s such a beautiful day. I’m going out tonight to see Alex Wong and Vienna Teng.
Yesterday I went on the monthly pilgrimage of the season to Dobbs Ferry for the last Common Ground Coffeehouse concert of the season. This is yet another gathering of yet another tribe. This was a double-bill that was hard to resist, Jake Blount (pronounced Blunt) and Nora Brown (pronounced Brown), an old time music spectacular. As is now our tradition I took the train to Scarsdale where I was picked up by Elana. We arrived at the venue before the artists. Nora showed up shortly after, but poor Jake was caught in heavy traffic on 95 coming down from Providence. I have been to so many shows where 95 made an artist late. On a few they didn’t make it for the start of the show. We didn’t have that problem yesterday. Sound check went a little long, but doors still opened well before showtime.
The first audience member to arrive was a young woman with the right priorities. I saw that she had a copy of Ovid’s Metamorphosis. As I love mythology and read that I said something. She was studying for a final on Monday but came up from NYC for the show. Folk needs more young people in the audience and she’s exactly the kind of fan we want. I only found this out because I remarked on what she was reading. I always say something when someone is reading a book I love.
Nora went on first. She is known as a banjoist, her Facebook Page is Nora Brown Banjo, but that’s not all she can do, she started with an a capella song. When you see Nora, you will not just hear great music, but you’ll learn ethnomusicology. She tells stories about the history of the song and often how she discovered it. She would have fit right in with the first folk revival of the fifties. I first saw her when she played the Irvington Folk Festival that Carter presented in 1 BC (Before COVID-19). It was January 31, 2020, so perhaps that’s 1 AC if we change the dating system at the start of the year. That was my only time seeing her before the lockdown. I’ve seen her a number of times since it lifted. She’s now part of my frequent flier program.
I had only seen Jake once, at NERFA as part of the duo Tui. He impressed the hell out of me, and I’ve played them on Gord’s Gold but had not seen him since. COVID-19 interfered with me seeing many musicians. He’s a multi-instrumentalist, fiddle, banjo, and guitar. The guitar was electric last night. He’s a marvelous musician and also a musicologist. His specialty is the old time music of black musicians from the southeast. Did you even know there were old time black musicians? No matter how racist the society is, musicians will find a way to hear and influence each other. That’s both encouraging and discouraging. What’s discouraging is that its noteworthy.
The show ended as I wished, with the two of them playing together. Trad musicians can do that with littler preparation. I was lucky enough to catch that on video. Watch and you’ll want to see Jake and or Nora next time they play near you. This was my second old time show in a week. Tonight’s show with Alex and Vienna is something completely different.
Sadly, I suspect I will not take my walk today despite the beautiful weather. I will tomorrow, it better not rain.
Wise Madness 