|
|
| Author |
Message |
krj
|
|
Shows at the Ark
| 
Sep 16 00:22 UTC 2001 |
An item for discussing upcoming shows at the Ark, Ann Arbor's renowned
folk music stage.
|
| 29 responses total. |
krj
|
|
response 1 of 29:
|
Sep 16 00:33 UTC 2001 |
Wed. Sept. 19: The Wrigley Sisters, twin sisters from the Orkney
Islands, which I think are somewhere north of Scotland.
Jennifer plays fiddle and Hazel plays guitar. My recollection
of one of their early albums is that they were playing fairly
straight traditional music, but the publicity material for them
often talks about folk-jazz. They played for a while in the band
Seelyhoo.
http://www.wrigleysisters.com
The Wrigley's USA tour began on Sept. 8, so they should have been
in the country before the air travel shutdown. I expect to be there.
Opening for the Wrigley Sisters are the Scottish band Tabache, who
are definitely folk-jazz; I've enjoyed their first album.
|
krj
|
|
response 2 of 29:
|
Sep 16 00:36 UTC 2001 |
(I forgot to mention: this is the same night that Lucinda Williams
is appearing at the Michigan Theater. A reminder for happyboy.)
|
krj
|
|
response 3 of 29:
|
Sep 22 05:00 UTC 2001 |
I was in a sour mood over the international crisis, and so that
probably colors my impressions of the evening.
Tabache turn out not to be the folk jazz band I thought they were;
I got them confused with Bachue' Cafe. Ooops! Tabache was a trio:
a Scottish guy playing fiddle, an Irish woman playing flute, fiddle
and singing, and a guitarist. They were ok, fairly generic
acoustic Celtic music. They might have been a little off their
mark because of jet lag; they had just flown in on the day of
the concert. I didn't think too much of the guitarist.
The Wrigley Sisters were a lot better, but I still was feeling
mentally agitated and almost left in the middle of the set.
Jennifer Wrigley is a very good fiddler -- she won the BBC Young
Traditions award given to an outstanding young folk instrumentalist
a few years back -- and Hazel was a much more entertaining guitarist,
quite melodic. They did some very entertaining comic riffs on
"Where We Come From," which in this case is the Orkney Islands north
of Scotland. Hazel explained how the jazz roots of her guitar playing
stem from two teaching-generations back, when one of the first
guitarists on the Orkneys was influenced by Django Reinhardt and the
Hot Club of France via the shortwave radio.
Hazel divides her time between the guitar and the piano, and I wasn't
in a mood for her piano playing, I'm afraid.
At the end of the evening Tabache joined the Wrigley twins for a
long tune set with a lineup of piano, three fiddles and guitar.
The massed fiddles were nice.
For young performers, the Wrigleys have a lot of CDs to sell:
five as the Sisters, plus three or four more which they played on,
including one from their old band Seelyhoo. I settled on just
getting their most recent one, "Skyran."
-------
October brings a number of interesting shows to the Ark.
Irish band Dervish, who I have never seen, and old Scottish reliables
The Tannahill Weavers appear in the space of three days in early
October; later in the month we get Del McCoury's bluegrass band.
|
katie
|
|
response 4 of 29:
|
Oct 17 18:59 UTC 2001 |
Sat Oct 27: Lou and Peter Berryman make their annual October visit to
the Ark. No one writes songs like Lou and Peter! See you there!
|
krj
|
|
response 5 of 29:
|
Feb 11 22:21 UTC 2002 |
From the Ark calendar:
Sunday, February 17: locals Jo Serrapere and KC Groves do their
new old time act Uncle Earl. I hope I can go.
Thursday, February 21: Danny Barnes and Thee Old Codgers.
(that one's for happyboy)
Thursday, February 28: Muzsikas, from Hungary, a band I've followed
for maybe 16 years...
Tuesday, March 5: Richard Thompson
but damn, tickets are $35. This is likely to be the first
Thompson concert at the Ark which I've skipped.
Thursday, April 11: Kate Rusby, noted young British folksinger,
presumably with her husband John McCusker
Friday, April 19: Altan, the very well known Irish band
(another one for happyboy to note)
Wednesday, April 24: Waterson:Carthy. I'm burned out on Eliza Carthy,
but her family trio, with her parents Martin Carthy and
Norma Waterson, I'll still want to see.
There are also a bunch of shows with celtic-sounding band names
listed for March, but they are all bands I have never heard of before,
and no details have been posted yet on the Ark website.
|
eeyore
|
|
response 6 of 29:
|
Feb 12 00:46 UTC 2002 |
I'm thinking of hitting the Finvarra's Wren, but think that I'm already
going to too many shows in the next month or two.
My list, so far:
Saturday, March 23: Lucy Kaplansky
Saturday, March 30: Sons of the Never Wrong
Monday, April 1: Dar Williams
Tuesday, April 16: Richard Shindell
The only expensive one in the bunch is Dar, coming in at $25. The rest are
between 12-15.
My wish list:
3-17: Chenille SIsters (also on 3-16, but I'll be at the Great Big Sea
concert that night)
4-9: Finvarra's Wren (I know that they're Irish, but know nothing else...but
I've been told that I'd like them)
4-20: Christine Lavin
4-26: Austin Lounge Lizards
The last two I'm more likely to make than the first two. However, I'm
thriled that the Ark finally has a bunch of shows worth going to! I've been
very dissappointed in the last year with their lineups....there has been so
little that I've actually been interested in. Hopefully this won't be all
of the good concerts for the year.
|
krj
|
|
response 7 of 29:
|
Aug 26 19:44 UTC 2002 |
Since it now seems unlikely that I'll be able to make the Detroit Festival
of the Arts this year, it's nice that the performer I want to see the most,
Spanish bagpiper Susana Seivane, will appear at the Ark, Tuesday September
17. Also stopping by from Detroit Festival of the Arts will be Danu,
the preceding night.
The totally-rebuilt bagpipe rock band Wolfstone, from Scotland,
are set for Monday Sept. 23. The last two Wolfstone shows I saw had
the most enthusiastic audiences I'd ever seen at the Ark, but since then
the band has broken up and been completely reconstituted, and I have
completely lost touch with what they are doing now. I did hear one
promising track on the BBC.
Monday, Sept. 30, is Lo'Jo from France. Their 1999 album BOHEME DE
CRISTAL kept me going in the hospital last month. I'll write more as
this show approaches.
|
krj
|
|
response 8 of 29:
|
Nov 21 23:10 UTC 2002 |
Free show at the Ark this Tuesday: the Asylum Street Spankers, from
Austin, Texas. They have a web site at
http://www.asylumstreetspankers.com and I don't know anything
about them, but a band sounds like more fun than the struggling
singer-songwriters who make up most of the Ark's free concerts.
Mickey, can you tell us anything about these guys?
|
anderyn
|
|
response 9 of 29:
|
Nov 22 02:26 UTC 2002 |
Yes, do tell!
|
micklpkl
|
|
response 10 of 29:
|
Nov 22 04:43 UTC 2002 |
Oh, yes the Spankers are loads and loads of fun! I haven't seen them
play in a while, since they have been spending a lot of time on the
road, but they have been a weird, fun staple in the Austin music scene
for years.
They began, I think, as a 10 or 12 piece ensemble, playing vaudevillian
& novelty songs. I hope they still do some of these numbers (and I've
heard that they do) because they're terrific --- a unique combination
of blues and early jazz. Nowadays, the band sort revolves around a core
group of four, and they do some really lonesome bluegrass & even
a "hick hop" with dated gangsta rap with country murder ballad lyrics.
We're talking instruments like washboard, ukelele & sometimes a hand
saw, in addition to the more traditional guitars, fiddle & harmonicas.
It's the type of music that could get very tiring, if the core of the
group weren't such great musicians and able to completely disguise the
absurdity of the lyrics with the amazing music.
I'd definitely suggest going to see them --- but make sure you're in
the mood to joke around and hear some hilarious, if off-colour, lyrics
from the Spankers. They're part of makes Austin so wonderfully weird.
|
anderyn
|
|
response 11 of 29:
|
Nov 22 10:22 UTC 2002 |
Ooooh, maybe I'll have to try to make it over there, then!
|
krj
|
|
response 12 of 29:
|
Nov 26 15:31 UTC 2002 |
((rats, I'm going to have to miss this after all.))
|
krj
|
|
response 13 of 29:
|
Mar 30 04:20 UTC 2003 |
Upcoming:
Sunday April 6: Robin & Linda Williams. Leslie's been a fan
about as long as this American country/folk duo
has been performing; I've liked them for about 15 years.
They're regulars on A Prairie Home Companion.
Monday/Tuesday April 14-15: Leo Kottke, two nights.
Guitar wizard with an entertaining dry style
of stage patter. Hey, Carla, maybe he's the American version of
Adrian Legg... :)
Sunday April 28: a klezmer band called Yid Vicious. I've never heard
of them before and it's doubtful I can go to the show,
but I just had to mention the band name.
|
mcnally
|
|
response 14 of 29:
|
Mar 30 08:42 UTC 2003 |
Definitely a great band name..
|
anderyn
|
|
response 15 of 29:
|
Mar 31 02:54 UTC 2003 |
I was thinking of going to them myself. :-)
|
scott
|
|
response 16 of 29:
|
Apr 1 03:35 UTC 2003 |
Reschedule: April 16 is now Ute Lemper at the Ark, instead of the Michigan.
|
scott
|
|
response 17 of 29:
|
Sep 23 21:53 UTC 2003 |
Jane Siberry is playing the Ark in December, I think on the 16th.
http://www.pollstar.com to nail it down...
|
katie
|
|
response 18 of 29:
|
Sep 25 01:00 UTC 2003 |
I'm getting my tix on Sat!
|
krj
|
|
response 19 of 29:
|
Oct 27 18:21 UTC 2003 |
I was kind of interested in Tuesday's free show at the Ark.
The band is The Clumsy Lovers, described as "celtic bluegrass rock."
However, Carol M. just sent me a link for *another* free show
Tuesday: Bulgarian Gypsy music at the U.Michigan Union, Tuesday,
8 pm.
http://www.umich.edu/~iinet/cwps/Bulgarian.htm
Bulgarian might trump Celtic for me. Yargh, I hate conflicts like
this.
|
dbratman
|
|
response 20 of 29:
|
Oct 29 17:12 UTC 2003 |
What you need, Ken, is a band that plays _Bulgarian_ bluegrass Celtic
rock. Really, if you can have the three, you can have the four, and
I've no doubt it's coming.
|
orinoco
|
|
response 21 of 29:
|
Oct 30 21:09 UTC 2003 |
Bela Fleck has probably attempted it at some point.
|
eeyore
|
|
response 22 of 29:
|
Feb 15 01:52 UTC 2004 |
Clumsy Lovers are *fantastic*!!!
I was very entertained when I read my last post in this item. Most of the
bands that I had listed were ones that I had decided on seeing with this guy
that I had met at the A2FF a couple of weeks before. We both made out our
lists, compared them, and found that they matched almost exactly. Well, we
did go see all those shows together....and by the end of the list, we
started dating. We're now living happily together in Royal Oak. How
sweet....brought together by folk music. ;)
|
krj
|
|
response 23 of 29:
|
Feb 15 22:11 UTC 2004 |
I think the Clumsy Lovers might have just had another Ark show scrubbed
by bad weather; they're on the bill again for sometime in the spring.
|
eeyore
|
|
response 24 of 29:
|
Feb 16 01:13 UTC 2004 |
Huh, thought I'd already responded to that..,...
It's April 23rd, I think.....sometime in april for sure, though.
|