CONCERT REVIEW
Bernice Lewis paints a portrait in song
by Seth Rogovoy(NORTH ADAMS, Mass., Jan. 13, 1997) -- There is a truism in the music business that hometown crowds are the toughest. Familiarity seems to breed skepticism at best and cynicism at worst. How good can you be, after all, if you're just a neighbor like any other -- the guy or gal down the street?
If this is truly the case, Bernice Lewis _ from the next town over in Williamstown _ turned a roomful of would-be skeptics and cynics into true believers on Sunday evening at Milltown Studios, in the first of DCN Entertainment's "Music on Main Street" series.
Chances are that a good number of the 60-odd concertgoers who packed Milltown's Chaise Lounge Gallery to hear Lewis did not need to be persuaded about the singer-songwriter who has called the Berkshires home for over a decade. In that time, after all, she has established herself as a local institution, as a radio host, a teacher, a community musician, as well as a nationally-known figure in our midst.
But at each show Lewis plays, even on her own turf, there are those who are witness to her carefully honed art and craft for the first time. And it is for these lucky people that Lewis performs, giving generously of herself and her songs, taking her listeners on a journey much like one of those Grand Canyon rapid-rafting expeditions she sings about so eloquently, where emotionally exhilarating moments bump up against matters of the heart and spirit, where human bonds and limits are severely tested, and where there is time out for sending postcards home and sharing a beer with friends.
Among the highlights of her show was her delivery of "Bridges That Hold," off her latest album, "Isle of Spirit" (Sanctuary/Blue Bhikku). One of the best songs Lewis has ever written and one that is bound to be sung by other folksingers for many years to come, the piece is as deceptively simple as the footbridges about which it purports to be.. But like those bridges, which find "strength in space and separation," the song opens up to reveal a beautifully rendered paradox of human relationships and love: "All the stories you've ever told/Are boards nailed down on bridges that hold."
Also deceptive were some of Lewis's juxtapositions, which when seen in context show the careful hand of the performing artist at work. Thus, a humorous "old-country" song you would never hear in Nashville called "Born to Schmooze" was followed by "Ways To Survive," a haunting, first-person narrative from the point of view of a young, Jewish woman on the eve of a Nazi "deportation."
"Clear Texas Morning," a yearning ballad populated with grey skies and empty rooms, was followed by "Red Cowboy Boots," a saucy, Western swing novelty that turned the previous number inside out. "Soon As It Stops Raining," an upbeat, new-age ode to mundane procrastination, was balanced with "Isle of Spirit," about "connections" of a higher sort. And "I Need a Wife Too," a humorous look at contemporary wedlock, was in stark contrast to "Who's Gonna Break This Circle," which personalizes the faceless individuals caught in a spiral of emotional and economic dependency.
But more than just the sum of her songs or the emotional roller- coaster ride Lewis gave her listeners, Sunday night's show succeeded, as the best coffeehouse-style, singer-songwriter performances do, by painting a vivid portrait of the artist. And like the greatest self-portraits, it told as much or more about the viewers -- in this case, the audience -- as it did about the artist herself.
[This review originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on Jan. 14, 1997. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 1997. All rights reserved.]
Seth Rogovoy
rogovoy@berkshire.net
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