I should be going to bed, but instead I thought I'd report in on the Joni tribute evening. We were well represented, with Ashara, Maggie McNally, ChuckE, Jenny Goodspeed and her husband Eric, Bob (Smurph) Murphy, and Eric (whose last name I won't butcher here in public). The venue for the evening was Passim, formerly known as Club 47. Joan Baez got her start there.
There were 22 acts, each one doing one Joni song. As you might guess, the selection was pretty predictable, with only Vance Gilbert being particularly brave, doing a wonderful and distinct version of Goodbye Pork Pie Hat. Otherwise, it was like the roster of songs from "Hits." Speaking of which, the hits of the evening were: the aforementioned Vance Gilbert's GPPH. Jazzy, inventive, true to the spirit of the original, although not the letter of it. Rachael Davis's angelic "My Old Man." The notes just melted in her mouth. Very sweet! Gregory Douglass doing a faithful, but energetic version of Court and Spark. He first described a dream he had about Joni. In it, he met her in the 60s and said she was going to be really huge. She just smiled, but he insisted, "No, really! You have no idea!" Hanneke Cassel playing a fiddle (or should I say violin in this case?) version of Morning Morgantown, with guitar and mandolin accompaniment. Oen Kennedy's Black Crow, complete with realistic sounding crow sounds at the end. Chris Obrien's guitar of Come in from the Cold gave new dimension to the song, even if he ran out of words before the end of the song. I'd have to include Mark Erelli for doing a hilarious rockabilly version of Carey. As we clapped in time, he quipped that Joni wouldn't allow us to do that. (Maybe you had to be there.) There were some misses as well. Dave Dersham offered a lukewarm version of Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire. Bridget Matros did what can only be described as a schizophrenic version of Cactus Tree, first whispering, then painfully wailing through the verses. An artist who bills herself as "Ari" did an unusual version of Blue that made it sound like it was written by Vanessa Carlton. Rob Siegel performed Both Sides Now, but might have been better off doing something more uptempo, since that's how he did BSN. And, we were mentioned a couple of times. I told the announcer that we had a contingent there from the JMDL. The reaction from everyone within earshot was priceless (kind of like "wow! really?") So he announced that we were there. Rose Polenzani performed Willy, but first made a point of thanking our own Yael for helping her out in practicing. Kudos to Yael! There were also two look alikes. Marc Herman was a dead ringer for Les Ross. Merrie Amsterberg could play our own Kate Bennet in the JMDL movie. (Movie? What movie?) I thought of how I wished you were all there with us. I thought of the wonderful community we have here, and how somehow a gathering of a few of us is like reaching across the world to everyone. Thanks to our Mama Lion, Ashara for arranging this mini-fest. Ashes, you're the best! lots of love Anne
