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Grex > Music1 > #8: Richard Thompson - Live! (more or less) |  |
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krj
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Richard Thompson - Live! (more or less)
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Aug 3 05:37 UTC 1991 |
There were *at least* five Grexoids at the Richard Thompson shows at the
Ark Thursday, so let's get those concert impressions and reviews in...
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| 64 responses total. |
krj
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response 1 of 64:
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Aug 3 05:52 UTC 1991 |
To help jog your memories, here's the set lists. Alas, I don't know Shawn
Colvin's repetoire well enough to identify the songs she opened each set with.
"Read About Love" (Rumor and Sigh)
"Backlash Love Affair" (R&S)
"No More Gypsy Love Songs" (Amnesia)
"Jennie" (Daring Adventures)
"Tear Stained Letter" (Hand of Kindness)
"Keep Your Distance" (R&S)
"How Will I Ever Be Simple Again?" (DA)
"1952 Vincent Black Lightning" (R&S)
"Oh I Swear" (Hard Cash)
"Al Bowlly's In Heaven" (DA)
"A Bone Through Her Nose" (DA)
"Keep Your Distance" (R&S)
"Valerie" (DA)
"Mother Knows Best" (R&S)
encore: "God Loves A Drunk" (R&S)
second show:
"A Man In Need" (Shoot Out The Lights)
"Mystery Wind" (R&S)
"I Feel So Good" (R&S)
"I Still Dream" (Amnesia)
"You Can't Win" (Amnesia)
"Now Be Thankful" (Full House (Fairport, 1971))
"How Many Times" (Small Town Romance)
"Waltzing's for Dreamers (Amnesia)
"I Misunderstood" (R&S)
"Shady Grove"
"Wall of Death" (SOTL)
"Shoot Out The Lights" (SOTL)
"Crash The Party" ???
encore: "When The Spell Is Broken" (Across A Crowded Room)
"High School Confidential"
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mcnally
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response 2 of 64:
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Aug 3 08:22 UTC 1991 |
(What's "Shady Grove" on?)
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arabella
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response 3 of 64:
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Aug 3 09:46 UTC 1991 |
"Shady Grove" is an American traditional song, and does not appear on
any Richard Thompson album.
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mcnally
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response 4 of 64:
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Aug 4 05:51 UTC 1991 |
Ahh.. Not familiar with it.
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polygon
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response 5 of 64:
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Aug 4 08:53 UTC 1991 |
I'm quite familiar with "Shady Grove," but I've never heard a rendition like
the one RT and band did that night.
If you want to hear what the song usually sounds like, there's a fairly
straightforward version done by the former Arm & Hammer String Band (I have
a classic tape of theirs). Just to pick one at random out of hundreds.
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mew
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response 6 of 64:
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Aug 4 16:55 UTC 1991 |
Well I really loved the concert. went home in a pleasant state of bliss
and Armin (my companion at the show) and I had the audacity to
sit around playing guitar afterwards for hours. sigh... I guess we figured
well we can NEVER play that good so we might as well have fun. :-)
I'd love to hear his rendition of shady grove. (A song I used to do on
dulcimer occasionally). For some reason it didn't occur to me
when I was buying the tix that the second show would be different so I didn't
get tix to it. Now I really wish I had! poot. :(
Shawn Colvin I was completely unfamiliar with but I liked her style. Good
clear voice, and charming stage presence. I especially liked the accoustic
solo and duet things. Ahhhhh
One thing about the electric part of the set: This band has diversity!
When I saw Pentangle recently I enjoyed them but they really had the same
sound throughout the concert. The Richard Thompson Band made good use of
different instruments and different styles for a nice variety of
effects. I especially was pleasantly surprised with how GREAT the accordian
sounded in the band. This is a don't miss concert next time it rolls around
fellow Grexxers! (Buy tix for both shows!)
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mcnally
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response 7 of 64:
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Aug 4 19:30 UTC 1991 |
If you liked Shawn Colvin during the first set, you should have been
around for the second. I thought she did a much better job opening for
the second set.
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arabella
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response 8 of 64:
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Aug 5 16:36 UTC 1991 |
I really liked her rendition of the Warren Zevon song "Tenderness on the
Block" (which incidentally comes from one of my fave Zevon albums, "Bad
Luck Streak in Dancing School"). In general I really like the warmth and
resonance of Colvin's voice, but there are times when she goes really
really soft for dramatic effect, and sometimes it's just a little bit
TOO soft, particularly when the lyrics become unintelligible. Also,
she has a somewhat erratic sense of rhythm, speeding up and slowing
down unintentionally quite often when she plays solo (this is a
problem that has afflicted me when playing classical piano pieces
before, but I've never noticed it much in folk or roots style guitar
playing before).
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mcnally
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response 9 of 64:
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Aug 5 19:12 UTC 1991 |
I would agree with you that she has fairly serious problem with
letting her voice drop so low that you can't understand her. It
might be less annoying if you were familiar enough with her that
you knew what she was singing, but I'm not and I didn't. I think
she did that less in her second set which is one of the reasons I
liked it better (the other was simply better songs, at least IMHO.)
/
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krj
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response 10 of 64:
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Aug 6 06:35 UTC 1991 |
I'm sorry, Mary Ellen, if only you'd have asked... Thompson repeated only
four songs at his two 1985 Ark shows, and in 1986 he repeated none.
In the second show, an audiencemember asked Colvin to play a particular
song; she replied, "I'm sorry, I played that one at the first show, and
Richard fines me if I duplicate too many." Was she serious?
I really haven't written too much yet; I should pin down more of my memories
before they recede into the haze, and before my scribbled notes become
incomprehensible to me. (Writing in the dark is *hard*.) I was much more
excited about the second set that the first; the second set included a
marvelous jazz workout on "Mystery Wind", with a lovely sax solo from Pete
Zorn, and a pretty sharp rendition of "Shoot Out the Lights". I was a little
disappointed in the band: the 85, 86 and 88 tours had Clive Gregson on
rhythm guitar (and they played Any Trouble's one hit, "Open Fire"); Christine
Collister on vocals (as a pure vocalist she's much better than Colvin);
and, for two of those tours, John Kirkpatrick, probably the most renowned
accordion player in the contemporary-folk scene. John Sherman, the accordion
player on this tour, had a few flubs performing parts that Kirkpatrick
created in the original recordings.
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mcnally
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response 11 of 64:
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Aug 6 08:10 UTC 1991 |
I thought she said "...Richard fines me if I play too many."
I thought it was just an excuse to stop since she'd already played
a few more than she had for the first set and they probably wanted
to get the whole band started.
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polygon
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response 12 of 64:
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Aug 6 11:47 UTC 1991 |
Re 11. I think that's what she said, but I interpreted it the way Ken did.
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mcnally
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response 13 of 64:
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Aug 6 12:37 UTC 1991 |
In any case, I'm sure it was a joke.
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daz
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response 14 of 64:
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Aug 8 20:42 UTC 1991 |
I went to the first of the two shows. I enjoyed more tna the previous couple
of his shows. I'm not sure why. Maybe because it was the most recent. It
certainly wasn't the band. The drummer just didn't cut it. I know he has
used the bass player before (Pat Donaldson?) but he wasn't up to par, maybe
due to the drummer. Anyway, I still enjoed the show alot. I don't think I'll
ever get tired of 'Tear Staained Letter'.
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mcnally
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response 15 of 64:
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Aug 9 05:07 UTC 1991 |
Yes, I was actually almost disappointed when they started playing it again
in the second set and then stopped because they realized they'd played it.
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mew
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response 16 of 64:
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Aug 14 19:30 UTC 1991 |
Oh well I just wasn't thinking. (Probably freudian because I couldn't
afford it anyway!)
sigh.
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krj
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response 17 of 64:
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Aug 18 00:40 UTC 1991 |
I have a report that Richard Thompson will be opening for Crowded House at
a place called "Clubland" on September 20. I don't know yet if this is
with band, or solo acoustic; I tend to think it'll be a solo gig. Anyone
know where Clubland is?
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mcnally
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response 18 of 64:
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Aug 18 12:36 UTC 1991 |
nope, but I heard the same thing, more or less (that he was going to
be playing Detroit sometime soon, opening for Crowded House.)
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morel
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response 19 of 64:
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Aug 19 03:08 UTC 1991 |
Clubland is (I think) the State Theater just up Woodward from the Fox and
directly across from the ElWood Bar and Grill.
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mcnally
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response 20 of 64:
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Oct 9 21:03 UTC 1991 |
Did anyone catch the live RT broadcast on some CBC radio show or other?
Has it happened already or is it still coming up? If it's happened already,
how was it and what did he play?
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krj
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response 21 of 64:
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Oct 11 06:58 UTC 1991 |
I believe it is set for October 20, but I'm not sure. I recall that I
wasn't going to miss it because of the Interop trip, which I'm on now.
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mcnally
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response 22 of 64:
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Oct 11 08:56 UTC 1991 |
ahh.. and I know that you wouldn't have allowed yourself to miss it
before you went, so it must still be coming up..
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krj
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response 23 of 64:
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Oct 21 03:01 UTC 1991 |
The radio broadcast was on CBC as scheduled. It was part of the program
"The Entertainers", which is pretty well recommended to listeners with a
folkish-rootsy sort of bent. Besides about 50 minutes of Shawn Colvin,
Thompson, and an interview with Thompson -- the live material came from
the Calgary Folk Festival -- the program also featured an interview with
music with Robbie Robertson; a short live set from Shadowy Men from a Shadowy
Planet, and another installment of a long interview with Bruce Springsteen's
drummer. Plus a feature about the Calgary music scene. This program is
Sunday afternoons, 2:25 until 5:00.
Off the top of my head, I don't know that I can reconstruct the whole
RT set list: I remember "Read About Love", "Feel So Good", "1952 Vincent
Black Lightning", "Valerie" and "Waltzing's For Dreamers".
I wish I could get a decent stereo signal out of CBC here.
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mew
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response 24 of 64:
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Oct 24 15:51 UTC 1991 |
darn. I don't suppose you taped it? ;-)
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