Milagro Saints at Dream Away Lodge, Aug. 21, 1998

by Seth Rogovoy

(BECKET, Mass., Aug. 22, 1998) -- It was a perfect combination of artist and venue on Friday night, when the Raleigh, N.C.-based quintet Milagro Saints brought its singular brand of catchy, mystical folk-rock to the mystique-laden Dream Away Lodge.

In the same way the ramshackle, funky Dream Away oozes character -- each room presents an entirely different aesthetic seemingly from an entirely different era, somehow all tied together through some incomprehensible inner logic -- so does the Milagro Saints’s music take a listener through jarringly comfortable juxtapositions, however paradoxical that might seem.

On the surface, the yin and yang of Milagro Saints are the vocalists. Lead singer, songwriter and guitarist Stephen Ineson is a carnal presence, visually recalling the lead singer of the movie group The Commitments. Performance-wise, he descends from the Van Morrison school of ecstatics -- one part church, one part soul man. His voice is his own, a spoken mumble at the bottom, a Dylanesque, nasal drawl in the mid-range, a Smokey Robinson-like falsetto on top.

Ineson’s counterpart is the blonde, ethereal Joyce Bowden. A veteran of the downtown New York scene revolving around Talking Heads offshoot groups including Casual Gods and Tom Tom Club, Bowden seems anything but, seated during the show amidst a pile of exotic percussion instruments, guitars and a clarinet which sounds like anything but one when she plays it, lending the music more of a flute-like, Celtic air.

It’s the dance between Ineson’s earthy vocals and Bowden’s heavenly echo that gives the group its signature stamp, along with the folky textures and catchy melodies augmented by Lee Kirby on keyboards and harmonica and the sharply-defined rhythms laid down by bassist Ernie Jamison and drummer Robert Shi.

The group drew heavily from its new, eponymous debut CD on MoodFood Records, ranging from melancholy ballads such as “Beautiful and Strange” to upbeat tunes including “Mystic Elevator” and “Lightgiver” that have at least as much going for them as any hit by Counting Crows. The musicians also played a few new tunes that might show up on their next album, songs which while rooted in the Milagro’s distinctive style suggested the group might be moving in a more edgy direction. And nodding to the Dream Away’s own cache of musical history, the band rendered a fiery version of the Rolling Thunder-era Dylan staple, “One More Cup of Coffee.”

Berkshire-based singer-songwriter Robby Baier warmed up the crowd with a selection of his own, enticing soul-folk ballads from his solo CD, “Soul Tube.”

The evening began with the assembled crowd feasting on a luscious buffet dinner. The Dream Away has reopened this summer under new management, which has very carefully retained the unique aura of this historic nightspot while breathing into it new vitality. Although Dream Away has always proudly worn the moniker “in the middle of nowhere” -- and indeed that’s exactly where you will find it -- it is worth the adventure for the food, the music or the ambiance alone.

If you would like to purchase The Milagro Saints' latest CD on-line, please click on the SoundStone logo to the right.