Hello everyone,
Elizabeth LaPrelle here. I am on tour with two of the most inspiring women ever, and we have just played our first two shows! Last night at the Jalopy Theatre and tonight at a house concert in Sprakers (upstate).
Someone on facebook requested a list of the songs we did last night, so here is our set list (minus some stories we like to tell during the show):
Thunderback (source-Kathy's Dad)
Lella Todd (crankie by Anna & Elizabeth)
Wouldn't Mind Working from Sun to Sun (source-Addie Graham)
Lone Pilgrim (Addie Graham)
Ida Red (Addie Graham)
Elizabeth Whitmore (crankie by Katherine Fahey)
The Storms Are On the Ocean (Carter Family)
Pateroller (Hobart Smith)
My Lovin Old Husband (Texas Gladden)
Cold Mountains (Texas Gladden)
The Greenwood Sidey/ The Cruel Mother (crankie by Anna & Elizabeth, song from Addie Graham)
Sister, Thou Art Mild and Lovely (Addie Graham)
Old Kimball (Texas Gladden)
The Devil's 9 Questions (crankie by Anna & Elizabeth, song from Texas Gladden)
Bobby Shaftoe (Elizabeth's Grandmothers)
Pickett's Charge (crankie by Kathy Fahey)
The two days before we drove to Brooklyn, we rehearsed like crazy trying to figure out what songs to do, what order to do it in...
It ruled. Here's the best thing about it: seriously, really taking the time to figure out what we want to share and experimenting with just HOW to share it. We stretched, we drank tea & coffee, we forgot meals, we did lateral thinking exercises, we improvised, we scripted, we sang & sang & sang, and we even had an impromptu dress rehearsal. We thought deep, man. I mean, "themes" and "narrative arc" kinda stuff. I almost don't want to give away the themes of our show. I hope that folks who see it will have questions in their mind. Or at least new thoughts.
I've really been enjoying watching Anna use her small Bowie pocket knife to whittle a tiny hammer out of a stick shorter than her thumb.
I'm very grateful to Kathy's husband Neal for putting up with our total invasion of his home with our crankie chaos. It had to be messy there for it to be good out here!
In teaching Kathy a couple of songs in a short time, we've sung a couple of them over and over again. They're songs that mean a lot to me, and I sort of imagine each repetition as carving the words deeper and deeper into a piece of wood, perhaps the trunk of a tree.
It's late! Good night.
No comments:
Post a Comment