Your account does not include highlighter on images.
Searches Highlighted on Image
| March 24, 2006 Barnstable Patriot |  |
|
©
Publisher. All rights reserved. Upgrade to access Premium Tools
PAGE 19 (19 of 28 available) PREVIOUS NEXT Jumbo Image Save To Scrapbook Set Notifiers PDF JPG
March 24, 2006 |
|
|
Website © 2025. All content copyrighted. Copyright Information Terms Of Use | Privacy Policy | Request Content Removal | About / FAQ | Get Acrobat Reader 
|
By NicholasSmith
»aV
arts@barnstablepatriot.com
Willie, Norah , and Donald:
When Old Music is Good Music
Old and new is a common musical theme in this col-
umn. This is mainly because new music will always be
compared to two things: old music and the other new
music that comes along at the same time. Ya dig? With a
shovel?
Take Willie Nel-
son's new release,
You Don'PKnow Me:
The Songs of Cindy
Walker, an album
that catalogs some
of Willie's favorite
Cindy Walker songs
from his youth, for
example. Mark my
words, reviewers will
inevitably compare
the album to the
country tunes of old
and current popular
country stylings. This is no groundbreaking, revelatory
assertion, just a simple statement of fact - we judge the
value of music by comparing it to other music, usually
part old and the other part new.
You Don't Know Me is a new album that makes Willie
Nelson sound old, which of course he is (if I've offended
any 73-year-old , please excuse me).
It's not that the crackle and vibratto of his lonesome
country voice is any worse, or any better for that mat-
ter, than it was 10 years ago. But what do you say about
the album beyond the fact that it's vintage Willie doing
what Willie has done best for over 30 years and over 30
albums?
Willie sings songs that make you wish your car was a
horse and Cape Cod was a place with a prairie instead
of an ocean ... at least that's the way his songs make me
feel. I suppose Willie has also been pretty good at being
President of the proud , marijuana-smoking, hippie-gone-
cowboy or vice-versa troubadour club, which regardless
of his reticence , has no term limit.
Oh, and another thing, thank goodness Willie gave up
covering Gershwin tunes and trying, I probably should
repeat , trying to sing reggae, and went back to his dreary
and soft, tumbling tumbleweed roots. Willie is an Ameri-
can icon and his version of country tunes will forever be
a symbol of the red , white and blue. Even if there were
more new country artists following his lead, which there
aren't many, none could do what Willie does at 73 years
young. See that? Old and new, old and young; the com-
parison is unavoidable.
On a sidenote , Norah Jones and her New York musician
friends also released an album this month, entitled , of
. all things, The Little Willies, a dedication of sorts to the
man who can make boat-loving ocean enthusiasts con-
template a move to Wyoming. Norah is, of course , a new
musician doing old tunes for a new country audience.
And no, Norah's version of "I Gotta Get Drunk" is not
nearly as good as Willie's.
Anyway, Willie
and Norah' s brigade
aren't the only ones
out there making
antique music for
the spic-and-span
airwaves this month.
There 's another: Don-
ald Fagen.
Donald Fagen, the
famed keyboardist
and co-founder of the
'70s jazz rock band
Steely Dan, released
the third of his solo
album trilogy, Morph
the Cat. His last solo album, Kamakiriad , was released in
1993 and the first , The Nightfly, in 1981.
Walter Becker, the other founder and guitarist of Steely
Dan, is absent from the album, but the sound of Steely
Dan is everywhere in Morph the Cat from beginning to
end. After a couple listens, one wonders how much soul,
beyond the guitar-work , Becker ever brought to the
songs of Steely Dan.
Fagen is a notoriously serious musician. Steely Dan
was, after all, the band that refused to play live during
the entire decade of the '80s despite widespread demand
from their legions of fans and regardless of the fact that
up until that point touring was the most important
marketing tool and food-on-the-table wage for all rock
groups.
Commercialism didn't matter then and it certainly
doesn't matter now. Morph the Cat is full of contempla-
tion for the meaning of life and death , brought about on
two tracks in the form of conversations in song: the first
with W.C. Fields in the "Brite Nightgown" and the second
with the ghost of Ray Charles in "What I Do." Neither are
themes that typically try to find the mainstream audi-
ence.
That's the way it goes, though. Fagen is an old guy
that's secured his reputation as an accomplished musi-
cian. He doesn't need to think about new sounds. He's
Steely Dan. And the Steely Dan sound will never die.
ON THE LOCAL CIRCUIT:
Jason Valcourt plays his blend of homegrown bluesy acoustic
reggae at The Island Merchant , Sat. night 3/25 {n 10 p.m.
? OnMusic
I
ii
T
hi
r
A
R
T
r*
:
>
Strong
performances reveal
inner demons
By Britt Beedenbender
arts@barnstablepatriot.com
COTUIT CENTER FOR THE ARTS PHOTO
WHAT'S ON HIS MIND? Vincent Myette plays a conductor whose thoughts are
laid bare in The Stendahl Syndrome at Cotuit Center for the Arts.
With
arms sweeping
through the air, eyes in-
tense,the music cours-
ing through his body, the maestro
gives voice to his thoughts - his
disdain for the French horns, the
lust that is ignited by Wagner, his
opinion of the soprano's dress.
No, this is not Royston Nash
but rather Vincent Myette, who
gives a riveting performance in
the The Stendhal Syndrome by
Terrence McNally beingperformed
at the Cotuit Center for the Arts.
Comprised of two one-act plays,
Full Frontal Nudity and Prelude &
Liebestod are works that explore
the meaning of art and the impact
of art on our lives.
Full Frontal Nudity takes place
in the Uffizi gallery in Florence
where three tourists view "David,"
Michelangelo 's sculptural tour de
force. Their guide Bimbi suggests
they engage in "silent contempla-
tion" and merely take it in. The
vivacious Lana finds herself lusting
after David's chiseled physique
and asks how old he was when he
posed for the artist. Hector, the
intellectual , is disgusted by his
companions' ignorance of art and
contemplates the sublime, while
Leo ponders whether he is as well
endowed, on a relative scale, of
course. Their thoughts become
the springboard for a series of
brief discussions and musings on
love, marriage, self-analysis, and
the meaning of life. The piece is
both thought-provoking and en-
tertaining.
Prelude &Liebestod (Life/Death)
is at first comical, then intense and
ultimately tragic. Employing Wag-
ner'smasterpiece Tristan &Isolde ,
astoryofhuman ruination through
sensual yearning, the play places
us in the minds of the maestro,his
wife, the diva, the concertmaster
and a fan who wants to seduce
the man with "magnificent arms
on a mighty torso." We hear their
thoughts and in the process gain
an insight into ourselves aswe have
all experienced the disconnect be-
tween how we are supposed to act
or think and how we really feel.
CONTINUED ON PAGE B:6
Cotuit
plays get
inside
characters'
heads
Strong performances
mixed with confused
portrayals
By John Walters
arts@barnstablepatnot.com
RACHAEL KENNEALLY PHOTO
WEARY/HAPPY - The infirmities of age have not lessened the love of Norman
(David Ellsworth) and Ethel (Jan Anderson) Thayer.
As predictable as the swallows
returning yearly to Capistrano ,
so to, is the return of the loons
and the Thayers to Golden Pond.
The play, which became a huge
movie hit with Katharine Hep-
burn, Henry Fonda and daughter
Jane, is the charming story of an
elderly couple's summer retreat
to their favorite cottage on a lake
in Maine.
The Barnstable Comedy Club
production directed by Linda
Stevens delivers playwright Ernest
Thompson's poignant message of
growing old and weaving together
family ties,whichsometimes come
from the most unexpected places.
Except for some uneven acting, this
show would have the radiance of
the sun setting on the picturesque
New England lake.
Playing Norman Thayer, Jr., and
his wife Ethel , David Ellsworth and
Jan Anderson turn in very well-
rounded performances. Ellsworth's
deadpan delivery of some very
funny lines while maintaining his
crotchety outward appearance
works very well. Anderson 'srole of
the dotingcaregiver isalsoright on.
She complains about her husband
of 50 years, but her love for him is
always close to the surface.
Playing their daughter Chelsea,
Christy Morris never quite gets on
even footing with them. Chelsea
has always been somewhat dis-
tanced from her rigidlystoic father,
but that unfortunatel y comes
across as a stammering, head-star-
ing-at-her-feet character, without
a spark of energy that would or
could stand up to him. Morris is
also lost behind the wig she wears.
The 1970s hairstyle gives her little
CONTINUED ON PAGE B:6
On Golden
Pond'more
choppy
than
smooth
College'sJanus
Players amuse with
collection of short
plays
By Bethany Gibbons
arts@barnstablepatriot.com
F
ast,fresh and tastytheatre
is now being served on
Cape Cod.
For those with adventurous ap-
petites, We're All Dorks at Heart .
performed by the Janus Players
at Cape Cod Community College,
is piquant fusion fare. This blend
of original one act plays comes
together nicelyfor an eveningofin-
novative, exciting entertainment.
Most of Dorks is outrageous, but
also sharp. The overall impression
is "Ray Bradbury writes for Sat-
urday Night Live," with more foul
language. What sets this collection
apart from similar showcases is the
performances. The troupe really
nails it and sustains a tight, mag-
netic presence on stage for a solid
hour. It is not only the exuberance ,
but also the intensity of these ac-
tors that make this show hum.
The writingis good,if a bit goofy,
and the staging is excellent. Mark
Teffer's opening play is weak and
overbearing, but he more than
makes up for it with Soda Jerk
and Space Bucks! in the second
half of the hour.
Jerk is a standout for its humor.
A futuristic old man rattles on
to a group of bored-looking kids
about how great soda used to be.
His endless blather turns to tales
of Star Wars, and at one point he
preaches about some intergalac-
tic battle saying, "That' s what
we should all aspire to become:
beautiful apathetic destroyers of
those with nothing to lose."
The play wraps up with a pleas-
ing twist. Pappy, the "Jerk ," is
played with great energy by Zack
Philbrook. whose performances j
impress throughout the night.
Philbrook' s play Fraudjutec is
a short and funny advertisement
for cloning. His spokesman, Skip
Generation , is played profession-
ally by Dave McCarron. Phantas-
magoria by JamiesonAllen Horton
is a well-costumed medieval skit
with some humorous surprises. J
Philbrook rises to the occasion
again as its protagonist , monster
Slayful Kilglee.
A short and thoughtful Paranoid
Prince , by Brianna FitzPatrick
shows off Garth Fitzpatrick's act-
ing chops, as PrinceAudric. Prince i
provides a contemplative moment
I
CONTINUED ON PAGE B:6 j
Doffe Works