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by Seth Rogovoy
HILLSDALE, N.Y., July 28, 1996 -- A quartet of new-folk superstars brought the first of three days and nights at the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival to a close on Friday night with a round-robin performance that highlighted the strengths of the contemporary folk genre.
With new-folk cheerleader Christine Lavin hosting the event, John Gorka, Greg Brown, Patty Larkin and Lavin each in turn rose to the challenge of performing a song that spoke to a theme. The themes ranged from the playful -- "songs you don't know yet" -- to the obvious -- "your most requested song" -- to the esoteric -- "songs you think of as movie soundtracks" -- to the intensely personal -- "songs that really got to you when you wrote them."
The sum effect of this gimmick was to heighten the intimacy that each performer brought to bear to the material. Without the luxury of their own, hour-long sets with which to build momentum and rapport -- those would come later, scattered throughout the weekend -- the singer/songwriters had to rely on the sheer power of their personalities and, mostly, the strength of their songs to establish a connection with the thousands of fans lining the dark hillside at the Long Hill Farm. That they did so connect is a testament as much to their individual talents as it is to the enduring power of the well- crafted folk song.
While the quartet was also able to rely somewhat on familiarity to help get across -- there were undoubtedly few in the audience who hadn't already heard Larkin's "Metal Drums" or Gorka's "I'm From New Jersey" -- not so the four relative unknowns who were each given a turn at the end of a round to break through with just one song of their own.
While only time will tell if any of these four will someday graduate to the headlining status of a Gorka or Larkin, they each distinguished themselves as singular performers. Martin Sexton's uncanny vocal virtuosity bowled over the crowd; Dan Bern offered a sly, hip, neo-Dylanesque update on the talking blues for the '90s; Jennifer Kimball, formerly of The Story, made her debut as a singer/songwriter in her own right with "The Cavalry Song," a powerful number that could easily hold up to any of her former partner Jonatha Brooke's tunes. Lucy Kaplansky also performed.
At the end, the entire crew of headliners and up-and-comers joined forces to transform Ben E. King's "Stand By Me" and Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode" into acoustic new-folk numbers.
Earlier in the evening, after the day-long new artist showcase and performances by The Kennedys and Greg Greenway, The Nields played a set of their original folk-rock that successfully achieved the elusive goal of combining lyrical and conceptual sophistication with humor and sensuality in a seemingly effortless and uncalculated manner. It's the sort of winning formula that is destined to land them a major-label record deal before long.
[This review originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on July 30, 1996. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 1996. All rights reserved.]
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