Boston Folk Festival - Sept. 15-16, 2007

[monicar]

Ellis was announced as one of the performers for the Boston Folk Festival, to be held on Sunday, September 16.

It is a GREAT line-up. Check it out at Boston Folk Festival

[KarenZ]

anyone goin to the boston folk festival this sunday? what a great line up sched'd!

[Richard + Jela]

I wish!!!

Please be sure to post a report and any pix especially of EP and 'you know who' aka Mark Erelli

Jela

[paddyinthepub]

I wish, too!!! Such a great lineup!!! You going, care? Anyone?

Hope to see reports and/or photos from the big event....
Say, will any of it be streamed through WUMB or other stations?

[monicar]

I'll be there! Really looking forward to it. Will do my best to get some pictures for ya'll.

WUMB doesn't stream the festival ... at least they haven't in the past. I know they record the whole thing though.

Monica R.

[paddyinthepub]

WUMB just announced the lineup on air again....and again, WOW!!! They said Cindy Bones? would be there??? Don't know her, anyone?

Tix are still available...though the songwriting competition is SOLD OUT!!!

[monicar]

Paddy,

It's Cindy Bullens. She used to sing back up for Elton John .... how she got her big break. Lots of other intesting info located here, that I was unaware of: http://www.cindybullens.com

[Patti]

Hi,

I'll be there Sunday, can't wait... even with the Red Sox and Yankees in town this weekend...this is still THE place to be!!

My husband's cousin is in the songwriting competion.. Good Luck to

Mike Ross and Marie Duprey !!!

[paddyinthepub]

Thanks, Monicar. I'll check her out. Bones?!?!?! Don't tell me the hearing goes THIS soon after the eyes.

Patti - that's exciting news....good luck to Mike and Marie!!!

[mm]

I'm going to try to make it!!!
I am very psyched by the lineup...Chris Trapper too!!! I'll bring my camera too. Maybe Karen will have to reinstate the Fan Photo feature from this!

[mm]

I just read some of the FAQ's on the folk festival website....no photography of any type allowed:
"We're sorry, but video taping, audio taping, and photography of any events at the Boston Folk Festival are strictly prohibited as a result of contractual agreements with the performers. Your recording/photo equipment will be confiscated. Media assigned to cover the festival must obtain clearances, in advance of the festival."

[monicar]

Hi Monica M!!!

I've been to the BFF for the past 6 years and have brought a camera with me each time and never had a problem. I don't think they mind little ol' digital cameras.

See you on Sunday!

Monica R.

[care]

thanks to karenz for moving my post to the right thread! however i didn't get any of the replies so sorry for the delay in return!


i'll bring my camera - you bet i'll be taking pictures out the wazoo - with a line up like this!? i'll also bring a notebook and write down set lists.

really looking foreward to it! however i heard it may be cool and rainy?

[paddyinthepub]

care -- thanks in advance for all reports from the Boston Folk Festival.

Cool and rainy?

Seen any footage from Woodstock?

[KarenZ]

care,

You're not the first to start a thread when there was already a thread started. I meant to send you a PM to let you know that I had moved it (that's what I usually do when it happens), but neglected to. Way too much to keep up with. Sorry!

KarenZ

[mm]

It was a great day for an outdoor venue! Ellis played in the first in the round set with Vance Gilbert and Jess Klein all three. Each performer alternated and played about 4 songs, and Ellis did almost all new ones, Summertime, Million Chameleon, The Hurt, maybe another I'm not thinking of, and ended with The World Ain't Slowing Down. Ellis was super, as ever, and donned a Red Sox cap to keep the sun out of his eyes. So it wasn't a sustained concert with any one artist, but a potpourri of lots of them instead.
The next in the round was with Antje, Chris Trapper(!), and Bill Morrissey. Antje's vocals were heavenly and she did one acapella song that just floated in the air.

It was a great happenstance to wind up coming in at the same time as Patti, and the two of us got to sit together (I had to leave after those two sets). That was wonderful, and I also ran into Monica R in the Starbucks free sample line, and she looks mah-velous and cheerful as ever. Ran into a bunch of folks I know as well, and a good time was had by all!

[Patti]

Certainly was a beautiful afternoon. Well, actually it started at 11:00 in the morning. WUMB change the format for the performers this year putting a few performers on stage together. My favorite part is when they start helping out on each others songs...spontaneously!! Vance was in fine form also and accompanying Jess Klein with that hand sounding saxophone thing he does Sounds great but funny at the same time He also added some nice guitar bits to her songs !! Vance will have a new album out next year and the theme is what songs would sound like if other people were writing songs for him!! The few he played sounded great. Ellis also did Cotton Burning, but the baseball cap someone handed him didn't quite fit the mood if you ask me!!

The rest of the afternoon was perfect... Great matchups with Red Molly Bill Staines, Jack Armingding (did a song with his dad too)

I like Mark Erelli more and more everytime I see him.. Like Lori Mckenna says " he can do it all"...
Monica it was great to share the sun and sounds with you, too.
great day, great music, great people,.. just doesn't get much folkier than that!

[Richard + Jela]

Ladies, thanks so much for the reports. Sounds just wonderful and so glad that Mark Erelli continues to grow on you Patti - he's a gem IMHO !

Jela

[monicar]

A beautiful day filled with incredible music. Can't ask for much more than that! I loved Million Chameleon March! My brother Matthew finally got to hear Ellis and I was even able to steal a few minutes of Ellis' time and introduce Matthew too! He's a new fan and will be catching his show at Joe's Pub in NYC.

Monica M, it was great to see you too, as always.

Looking forward to the next time!

Monica R.

[Mtn Gal]

Sounds like a great time! Thanks for the reviews. Did anyone take any photos? Seeing Ellis in a Red Sox cap might take the sting out of last night's loss...

[paddyinthepub]

Thanks for the reports, everyone. I was hopng to somehow pull off a miraculous "two places at once" feat and see this lineup for myself.

I'm wondering this morning:

How was Lori McKenna? Full set? Setlist? Full Band? Acoustic w/ Mark Erelli?

How about the singer songwriter competition? Any standouts?

[monicar]

Unfortunately, no pictures from me. This was the first year that I sat up close to the stage and I actually heard one of the UMB people tell someone they better put their camera away or it would be taken away from them.

Paddy, Lori McKenna was phenomenal. She did an in the round with Mark Erelli and Catie Curtis. Mark accompanied her on all of her songs, which were all from the new CD and they sounded great. Mark also did a few new songs from his upcoming CD that were great.

There were 2 songwriting contest winners, one from the kids group, and one from the adults. I had to take my daughter to the bathroom when the young girl performed, so I missed her name, but man, did that girl have a set of lungs! The guy who won, whose name I don't remember, was really good. I'm sure UMB will have all of the info regarding both of them on their website.

If only I could do this every weekend!!!!!

Monica R.

[care]

just got a second to come back to the computer after a full weekend of fun!

BFF was incredible as everyone has said.

my boyfriend and i were some of the first people there and got prime seats.
i snuck a few pictures (don't tell on me please!) but they were very adamant about not taking pictures of the performers! however BFF were taking a ton of pictures so keep checking bostonfolkfestival.com over the next couple of days.

here's my review/set list etc from the day

vance steps out on stage to do sound check (in a lovely pink hat)
"wait a minute i KNOW all these people! i recognize you- you - you - wait... i slept with you!"

introductions are made
ellis, jess klein and vance are on stage

Vance: " Anyone out there i slept with?"
(EP raises his hand)
Vance: "Hey we were in Maine, and it was cold! It was a rough night!"

too funny

each artist took a turn playing songs- this was a great group to start off the festival with - very easygoing - and they played on each others songs too

vance started
song name? "castles made of sand fall into the sea eventually"

jess klein
I wanna be a strawberry lover

ellis
(on keyboard)
once upon a summertime

vance
new album - "sounds like" as if people sat down and wrote songs for me
this one was "by" John Hyatt and Prince -
Welcome to Love Town

jess klein
real live love

ellis
(new song - name?) "she's history"

vance
"sounds like" Lucinda Williams, Bruce Springsteen
"judge lives here on this side of town... on and on and on and on"

jess klein
shauna lee
(vance joins in with his hand trumpet thing- silly!)

ellis
(new song- name?) - fire in richmond town

vance / ellis/ jess
gentle arms of eden

jess
willie dixon (?)

ep
million chamelons march (reminds me of when him and don con did karma chamelon at passim on new years....)

vance
unfamiliar moon

jess kline
song for a friend of hers "sometimes its easier to say things in songs"

ellis
the world ain't slowin down

[care]

ok part 2

Bill Morrissey
Antje Duvekot
Christ Trapper

first off - Antje was barefoot (thought you'd all appreciate that)

again - i'm really bad with song names since i'm not familiar with the artists but i'll do my best !!!

Chris Trapper starts
silvertown (?)

Antje
dandelion

bill morrissey
comment about the statue on the lawn on the UMB campus
"i'm kinda tired, i played in Portsmouth, RI last night and i got here to weld together that statue... i call it david ortiz" (fantastic!!!)

song: this ain't hollywood


chris trapper
i wish i was cool

antje
AMAZING A CAPELLA SONG!! blew the audience away- everyone at the cd table later wanted to know if this song was recorded!!!

bill morrisey
dangerous way

chris trapper
a vacation song "and away we go"

antje
coney island

bill morrissey
"when this world first set sail i had my passage booked"

chris trapper
boston girls (FANTASTIC!)

antje
judas

bill morrissey
conveluted blues

chris trapper
"keg on my coffin- pawn shop in the sky" (side note: i want to put this on a cd with jukebox on my grave)

antje/bill morrissey
(in discussion over last song)
"No antje we're nto doing "Fat Bottomed Girls"

Handsome Molly


end of their set

set 3
Bill Staines
Red Molly
Jake Armerding

we walked around a lot so i didn't get a lot of info on these people

i really did like Jake Armerdings voice and lyrics though

set 4
catie curtis
mark erelli
lori mckenna

FANTASTIC is the only way to describe this set of artists

they all jammed on each others songs - i guess lori and mark perform a lot together - mark was on pretty much the entire time- they all would've kept on playing had someone backstage not called time on them - and i think the audience would have been fine with that too

quick rundown

lori
i know you

mark
imaginary wars

catie
kiss that counted

lori
what your next lover will be like (?)

mark
hope dies last

catie
the princess and the mermaid

lori
witness to your life

mark
shadowland

catie
"teenagers jumping off a rail road bridge"

lori
make every word hurt

mark
once

catie
people look around

all 3 - last song
we are only passing through

[KarenZ]

Hey everybody! Thanks for the reports! Care, you managed to put a big on my face this morning!

KarenZ

[care]

i figured breaking this up into sections would be easier

the last set was patty larkin, erin mckeowen and chris smither

patty and erin played a lot on each others songs -

i had hoped chris would play "no love today" but no luck

i had heard both patty larkin and erin mckeown before. patty has a funky upbeat sound to her and erin has just the hint of an accent and both rocked out (can i say that in reguards to folk music?) on electric guitars

chris played a great "educational" song called "origin of species"

erin and patty played a duo -"rhode island is famous for you" - fantastic


the only problem with this concert is that i want to go out and buy EVERYONES music or go to ALL of their shows and my wallet simply can't afford that.

i'll put the pictures i took up soon!

[monicar]

Care, I think you were sitting right in front of me. I noticed someone writing in a journal with hearts on it ..... was that you???? I had 4 kids with me, as well as 4 adults.

I forgot to mention Antje's a capella song ...... definitely a highlight of the day. I got to grab her and ask her who wrote the song and she said it was a Steve Goodman song, but I didn't get the name. She has such a beautiful voice and I hope she records that!

[Patti]

Hmmm I would have thought Antje wrote that song, I didn't hear her mention it was someone elses. It was a song about a widow named Penny Evans (?) a Vietnam soldier's wife left with 2 daughters to raise and how the mother's war had just begun..


Yes Vance's sound was def. a muted trumpet sound, not saxaphone as I had mentioned... How the hell does he do that anyway!!

Bill Morrisey was pretty funny, knowing he has gone through some trying times lately he sounded much better than I thought possible. (If you've heard his voice before you know what I mean.) Meanwhile Bill Staines whose music I am not as familiar with has a voice that seems to get better with age!!

[care]

http://s221.photobucket.com/albums/dd26 ... ionchains/

pictures!

[care]

The Ballad of Penny Evans - Steve Goodman


Oh my name is Penny Evans and my age is twenty-one
A young widow in the war that's being fought in Viet Nam
And I have two infant daughters and I do the best I can
Now they say the war is over, but I think it's just begun.

And I remember I was seventeen on the day I met young Bill
At his father's grand piano, we'd play good old 'Heart and Soul'
Well, I only knew the left hand part and he the right so well
He's the only boy I ever slept with and the only one I will.

It's first we had a baby girl and we had two good years
It was next the 1A notice came and we parted without tears
It was nine months from our last good night our second babe appears
So it's ten months and a telegram confirming all our fears.

And now every month I get a check from an Army bureaucrat
And it's every month I tear it up and I mail the damn thing back.
Do you think that makes it all right, do you think I'd fall for that ?
And you can keep your bloody money, it sure won't bring my Billy back.

I never cared for politics, and speeches I don't understand,
And likewise never took no charity from any living man
But tonight there's fifty thousand gone in that unhappy land
And fifty thousand 'Heart and Soul's' being played with just one hand.

And my name is Penny Evans and I've just gone twenty-one
A young widow in the war that's being fought in Viet Nam
And I have two infant daughters and I thank God I have no sons
Now they say the war is over, but I think it's just begun.

[Patti]

Antje did a beautiful job singing this song, thanks for getting the lyrics and now after reading them again I'm sure I would have thought it was something she had written.

Also I was looking through the festival booklet and its list of past performers. I was pretty surprised to only see Ellis's name in the year 2001..(and at first I didn't even see that). Seems hard to believe he didn't play any other years since the festival started in 1998.

[paddyinthepub]

monicar -- thanks for the lori mckenna update.

care -- thanks for your dubious note taking and photos...loved the sky, Ellis and Vance in hats, lori and mark...and you made me laugh, too. No cameras at a folk festival? Interesting.....are we accomplices??

Patti -- I used to be a minor fan of Steve Goodman's, he died fairly young a number of years ago from cancer. He did an Austin City Limits once that was really, really good. Not sure if this is widely known, but Steve Goodman wrote "City Of New Orleans" that Arlo Guthrie covered so well.

"I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans, I'll be gone 500 miles before the day is done"

Now that I think of it, didn't Ellis once list Steve Goodman as an early influence or fave? Which brings me to this comparison:

"playing cards, with the old men in the club car, penny a point, ain't noone keepin score" --City of New Orleans ~ Steve Goodman

And I sat with a girl from Boston
playing cards for cigarettes
I lost her name with the poker game
But her face I will never forget

3,000 Miles ~ Ellis Paul

[Patti]

Paddy about the influence question I have no idea, but you are such a plethora of information. And they way you put song lyrics together is great. Kind of like Vance's new theme album of mixing a few singers together and coming up with what he thinks that would sound like..... I hope Vance will credit the names of the singers he imagines together on the CD.. I think he said the CD will be titled "Sounds Like"..

[paddyinthepub]

Hey Patti...I have a great memory, it's just short...

I remember the first few times I visited Ellis' myspace (early days)
with the list of Ellis' faves and influences both long and impressive. Lots of artists on the list I once counted as musical heroes. I could be wrong about Ellis listing Steve Goodman there, but for some reason it's ringing bells....plus, it wouldn't surprise me at all if Ellis didn't spend a little time listening to the man's music since Steve was something of a pioneer in a little corner of the genre as far as I can tell and LOTS of artists that came after held him in high esteem. I had a couple cassettes a long time ago and found his music to be most entertaining.

I'll add that though 3000 Miles takes place on a bus in the song, Ellis has explained that the song had it's origin in a cross-country train ride a friend of Ellis' had taken....or maybe Ellis took the train ride?

vision ~ hearing ~ memory ~ yikes!!!

Care...Vance's last release was an album of covers and the song you referred to in the recap is by none other than Jimi Hendrix. Perhaps one of his most popular songs come to think of it. Castles Made of Sand might be the title, might not...I'll check and report back. Great song by Hendrix and I do believe I've heard Vance do it, too. Amazing!!!

[care]

bostonfolkfestival.com has some pictures up.

they took a lot -but not many are posted- does anyone know if they post them somewhere else?

[monicar]

Great slide show from the 2007 Festival, as well as a video.

http://www.bostonfolkfestival.org/

MonicaR

[care]

wow the slideshow was fantastic. makes me wish i had been there.... oh wait... i was!

some great pictures of the performers and the scenery. it was a beautiful day.

[paddyinthepub]

Here's the late great Steve Goodman performing Penny Evans

Steve Goodman performs, Penny Evans at Arlo Guthrie's Festival to benefit The Worthington Clinic in the fall of 1975.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6W_a2U-bIU

Cool song...hope to hear Antje cover it someday.