I had the good luck to have seen Billy Bragg when he played the Symphony Space in NYC about two months ago and he played strictly Guthrie music. The show ran probably over two hours and he spoke through almost all of it about the collaborative effort between he and Wilco and the period of American history the music came out of. Neat stuff. He played probably ten songs and the rest of the time was an unscripted monologue.
Wow... How many other Sinisterines were there? List Mummy and Linda and I were there too ... we could have had a picnic! Maybe we need something bigger than upside down badges so we can find each other in crowds... Sinister Hats or something readily noticeable. It was nice, very different for a Billy Bragg show... he was like a sweet professor of Woody songs and music lore. (Ok, ok, I really DID keep waiting for him to pick up an electric guitar from the wings and sing "ShirrrrrrLEEEY.") I've seen Billy do the Mermaid Avenue songs a few times, both with Wilco and with the Blokes. I tend to like it better when he does it with the Blokes, but I think that's due to my taste. A lot of what he said at Symphony Space he'd said here and there before, but it was indeed neat to hear him explain the process of putting the lyrics to music. I think a lot of people did initially wonder about Nora Guthrie choosing him and,as Billy says, think it was Bob Dylan's job -- but once you hear him talk about it you do see the thread that ties Woody's background to Billy Bragg's. Anyone who has the chance to see the tour this summer should definitely do so. Twice. Thomas, are we related? My gram's maiden name was Ferris. --michele +----------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the undead Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister@missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo@missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "tech-heads and students" +-+ +-+ "the cardie wearing biscuit nibbling belle & sebastian list" +-+ +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +----------------------------------------------------------------------+