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Post by F0|50M PR|50N 88 on May 4, 2009 8:08:57 GMT -8
I liked Jenny Scheinman right away. She managed to look angular and pregnant at the same time--a curious mix of severe and tender. And the voice! I have this idea that she doesn't give a damn if she looks appealing to men or not. Deedee don't you dare call her a gyrating vagina. She's her own animal and I sort of think that's what Robbie needs right now.
It's About The Money I liked. Imogene I need to hear again because I think I can feel creepiness seeping through and that is very cool. Waiting On These New Things To Go appeals to the curmudgeon in me. God sometimes I hate art kids.
I waited to see this show before d/l the 50 vc. My first exposure to Robbie was live and you know, I am sentimental.
Thanks for the review, Antoine. I was going to smite you once for each elbow patch, but I will relent.
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edbro
Loves chat rooms
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Post by edbro on May 4, 2009 13:38:45 GMT -8
A great show last night at the Old Town School. Robbie was in fine voice, and while he had some funny comments, there was not the usual shtick -- he definitely was ready to get down to business. The band sounded incredibly tight for having only played a few gigs together, and there was no shortage of virtuoso soloing. A setlist to the best of my recollection (not in order, sorry): I'll Trade You Money for Wine Goodbye Virginia They Want Me Here Moses on the Mountain (absolutely amazing version) Keep Those Cards and Letters Coming In The Sun of Your Soul (I didn't like all the avant-garde noises any better live than I do on the record) My Backyard (an excellent Nora O'Connor tune) Arthur Koestler's Eyes I Say, Hang Him It's About the Money (a cool, funky version -- a real highlight of the show) Waiting on These New Things to Go Jenny Scheinman tune that was very good Caked Joy Rag Because You Can Imogene (half-ruined with some goofy effects from this box that Danny Barnes was goofing around on) You Can't Go Back Danny Barnes song that was very, very good Common Law Cabin Irreplaceable The World is Full of Pretty Girls Encore: I Wanna Be Mama'd There may be some quibbles about what got played and what got left out, but it was really a great show. I've got to say, Sun of Your Soul is unbelievably fantastic. I first heard it while flying to Tucson, racing the clock to be with my mother before she passed. I next was caught off guard by it again hours after she died. It is a true picture of the chaos of mind and emotions with respect to death. I was amazed at the flood of emotions released each time I heard it live. Thanks Robbie, I needed that one. |
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Post by tonyloaf on May 4, 2009 14:07:25 GMT -8
I went to both the Space show and the Old Town Show.
(pause for laughs)
Maybe it's just me, being a fairly new (two year) Robbie fan, but I thought the Space show was just a whole new level of great. Partly I think it was the length. He played for about three hours. The band did everything covered at Old Town plus "Nick and Don," "Angela," "Let's Kill Saturday Night" and more that I can't remember. Plus, Space is a pretty good place to see a show. The stage is basically a riser so it's very intimate.
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ranger
Loves chat rooms
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Post by ranger on May 4, 2009 20:57:12 GMT -8
Very fine show at SPACE. I have only seen Robbie at Fitzgeralds previously, a few times, and the vibe at SPACE was very different but worked well for the 50 vc. show. Robbie commented a couple times on how "well-behaved" the crowd was. It felt more like a recital - everyone in their seats, rapt and soaking it in, in contrast to the roadhouse experience at a Fitzgeralds show. I splurged for a reserved table near front and center, worth every penny, but this is a great room no matter where you sit or stand.
Many, many highlights. I thought Arthur Koestler's Eyes stood out - an amazing song live. I too liked the low-down version of It's About the Money, and Waiting on These New Things to Go is a great song. Just an amazing, uniquely diverse set overall. Mixed and matched "all his musician friends" throughout the night - all were wonderful and most took a turn or two in the spotlight. Jenny Scheinmann was particularly impressive. I can imagine that her duos with Robbie in Brooklyn are something special. Danny Barnes had a nice turn up front with one of his songs, but overall seemed to spend a lot of time noodling with his banjo synthesizer thingie, set on a little table in front of him. As with the Old Town show noted by Antoine, his noises during Imogene seemed to belong to some other song.
I read on the SPACE website (and saw a guy working the camera) that all shows are taped by the venue. Let's hope Robbie makes it available somehow.
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Post by Dan on May 20, 2009 17:31:04 GMT -8
ROBBIE FULKS / RAY MASON BAND @ MERCURY LOUNGERobbie Fulks / Ray Mason Band / Mercury Lounge, July 9, 1998 Possibly the best solo artist of the so-called 'neo-traditionalist country movement,' Chicago-based Robbie Fulks proved to a passionate Mercury Lounge audience just how significant his roots-y original songs are. By emulating legends such as Hank Williams (whose microphone mannerisms Fulks has down pat), Lefty Frizzell, and George Jones, this lanky, sometimes hilarious, blonde-haired singer-guitarist offered an untainted slice of Americana. A genuine purveyor of the Nashville sound, Fulks deserves widespread attention much more than the complacently hokey cosmopolitan cowpokes currently watering down C & W in that once vital six-string capital. Admittedly, Fulks has not broadened the scope of Country music, but his talent as a songwriter and performer is undeniable. And his '97 LP, South Mouth, and its sterling follow-up, Let's Kill Saturday Night, affirm his worth. At the Merc, he impressively delivered weepy tear-stained ballads countered by humorous upbeat ditties like the ringing "I Told Her Lies." With tongue firmly in cheek, he had the audacity to attempt a slow, deliberate version of Abba's sugarcoated pop kernel, "Dancing Queen." It'd be criminal and shameful if this wonderful artist didn't receive the accolades he rightly deserves. Longhaired aged-in-the-wool Massachusetts native, Ray Mason, delivered a clean, crisp set of down home pop and blues-y rock confections beforehand. So popular amongst the roots-rock community that a tributary collection of his originals, It's Heartbreak That Sells, was recently released, Mason crafts stylistically eclectic tunes that come in all shapes 'n sizes. Providing comforting details about rural New England, he sang about "Mailbox Blues," his answering machine, and a girl going "Out Of Her Mind." Backed by an experienced combo, Mason scruffed up some neat guitar licks and sang in a baritone not far removed from John Hiatt or Counting Crows' Adam Durwitz. Many highlights from this Friday night show could be found on his marvelous Castanets long-player. Nearly fifty, this avid record collector has more spirit, spunk, and charm than artists half his age.
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mytehawk
Has friends who are psychos
Do unto others-and then split.
Posts: 225
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Post by mytehawk on May 20, 2009 21:14:38 GMT -8
In the May 18, New Yorker, in Annals of Finance "The Death of Kings" Notes from a meltdown, the author, Nick Paumgarten, is interviewing, Colin Negrych, a macroeconomic and geopolitical strategist disguised as a bond salesman who's "clients are some of the most venerated investors in the world". Citing Negrych's views on letting Lehman Brothers fail, Paumgarten writes:
"Or, as he put it, quoting the country songwriter Robbie Fulks,"It's a full blown chore overlookin' what's plain to see."
"
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Post by F0|50M PR|50N 88 on May 21, 2009 7:31:09 GMT -8
In the May 18, New Yorker, in Annals of Finance "The Death of Kings" Notes from a meltdown, the author, Nick Paumgarten, is interviewing, Colin Negrych, a macroeconomic and geopolitical strategist disguised as a bond salesman who's "clients are some of the most venerated investors in the world". Citing Negrych's views on letting Lehman Brothers fail, Paumgarten writes: "Or, as he put it, quoting the country songwriter Robbie Fulks,"It's a full blown chore overlookin' what's plain to see." " Dude, he totally should put an ad in the back of the New Yorker advertising his availability for private shows. Or forget ads, just network around rubbing his pointy corduroy elbows against polished Armani elbows. He could troll that guy's client list for big money betrotheds and I bet he'd find some. Now there's some shit I wouldn't mind crashing. Who wants to hang around with me by the fancypants tent and sneak inside when the band starts? |
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Post by tommylee on May 21, 2009 8:53:56 GMT -8
Blonde?
Well, OK. I defer to the hair color experts in the media.
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Post by Duvi on May 27, 2009 9:31:51 GMT -8
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Post by tommylee on May 27, 2009 10:21:22 GMT -8
The Bangles fans hated that song when I posted it on their website.
What the fuck do they know.
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Post by nobodyoudknow on May 28, 2009 11:17:41 GMT -8
They played "Nick and Don" on Outlaw Country this afternoon.
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Post by Dan on Jun 5, 2009 3:35:16 GMT -8
From the blog The Selected Ballads: Two Duos - Grimes/Cyrille, Scheinman/Fulks....Though she's clearly capable of playing just about any style of music, violinist Jenny Scheinman is probably best known for her jazz work. Talking genre in relation to Scheinman's work can be misleading, though. The music she's made with Bill Frisell, for example, incorporates significant classical and American folk elements. And if last night's show was typical, her recent live collaborations with singer-songwriter-guitarist Robbie Fulks have been showcasing her love and talent for country music. I was pleasantly surprised to hear that these two musicians were working together, as I was to hear that Fulks is now living in Brooklyn. He may now qualify as the borough's finest country musician, though that's a little like having the finest knishes in Nashville (sorry, country musicians of Brooklyn!).
This was my first time seeing Fulks live, and he lived up to his reputation for on-stage wit, even getting laughs with a between-song riff on Tarkovsky's Andrei Rublev. I'd always thought of Fulks primarily as a songwriter, but his guitar playing and singing (lead and harmony) impressed at close range, testimony to his experience and mastery of traditional styles. He played some great songs that I'd never heard, including some from his 50-song MP3 collection 50-Vc. Doberman. Fulks is the kind of songwriter that creates and inhabits characters - a fed-up barroom troubadour in "Goodbye, Virginia", a homicidal father in "Whitetail Woods Incident". His songs rarely seem to be sung from the point of view of "Robbie Fulks". He's also able to write new songs that sound old - he's obviously a serious student of country music, in all its forms.
Songwriters that have these characteristics are like "genre" film directors, in that they tend to be thought of as great "craftsmen" rather than great artists, often an unfair or incomplete judgment. It's no insult to point out that Fulks' craft as a writer is exceptionally strong, though. A close listen to the way he chooses words and fits them into the structure of his songs will tell you that much. Nothing is out of place and, at the same time, there are little sparks and surprises in the songs that take them beyond the workmanlike.
Having only heard Jenny Scheinman in jazz and instrumental contexts, I didn't know quite what to expect of her as a singer and folk-country songwriter. Maybe it's some kind of latent bias I have toward vocal music that makes me surprised to find out that someone I associate with instrumental music has a good voice - "if they can sing like that, why aren't they doing it all the time?" Actually, Scheinman seems to do a good job in her career of balancing and accomodating all the various types of music she's interested in (another Frisell associate, bassist Tony Scherr also sidelines as a rootsy singer-songwriter). There seems to be deep emotion behind Scheinman's songs, but they're not straightforward confessions. She incorporates dream logic and imagery and uses suggestive and allusive lyrics to set up and increase the impact of more plain, direct declarations.
Her fiddling is top notch, totally embracing the style of whatever tune she's playing. No showiness. No "jazzing things up" to show she's more sophisticated than the material. Besides trading original songs, Scheinman and Fulks also played two associated with the Carter Family, "Single Girl, Married Girl" and "John Hardy", plus a Jimmie Driftwood tune and an Alvin Crow instrumental, "The Broken Spoke Waltz", which a young Scheinman learned from a record her father brought home from a trip to Texas. This was the last of the Scheinman-Fulks shows at Barbes, but her ongoing Tuesday night residency continues. The next couple weeks look to be a return to jazz territory. |
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Post by F0|50M PR|50N 88 on Jun 5, 2009 5:34:12 GMT -8
Robbie don't be mad at me, but when Grayb@allz first mentioned "The Ballad of Nick and Don" and its effect on him I totally thought he was just fishing for laughs and it wasn't a real song.
I have to say Scheinman's plainness is beyond endearing. It's so fucking cool. She's a student of everything without the pince-nez and book smell. I'd hug her if she wouldn't be embarrassed.
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Post by flat on Jun 14, 2009 5:38:44 GMT -8
From a review of Jon Doe and the Sadies on Amazon:
"3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars What The Knitters was to X, this is to The Knitters., May 31, 2009
By William P. Davis "Snowballthrower" (So. Lake Tahoe, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
I have a soft spot for some country music covers. This is interesting. John Doe is Americana. The songs are taken seriously. It's not a parody. These songs are given their due in a heartfelt manner. Might I suggest, if you like this, Robbie Fulks' "13 Hillbilly Giants" is awesome and Gram Parsons/Flying Burrito Brothers "Sleepless Nights" is the best."
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Post by Dan on Jun 16, 2009 16:41:45 GMT -8
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