NEWS ARTICLE
"New Dylans" Steve Forbert, Loudon Wainwright to headline Clark winter folk series
by Seth Rogovoy(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., Dec.11, 1998)-- Singer-songwriters Loudon Wainwright III and Steve Forbert, each hailed early in his career as "the new Bob Dylan," will perform in this winter's folk-music series at the Clark Art Institute. Wainwright will kick off the "Different Voices" series on Feb. 20, followed by acclaimed new Irish singer-songwriter Susan McKeown, who will perform on Feb. 27. Forbert will bring the curtain down on the series on March 6. All shows are at 8.
Wainwright, the son and namesake of the famed Life Magazine writer, first gained renown in the early-'70s for his offbeat wit and satirical compositions that poked fun at himself and the entire singer-songwriter genre. He enjoyed a Top 20 pop hit with "Dead Skunk (In the Middle of the Road)" in 1973.
In the late-'70s, Wainwright parlayed his musical fame into side careers in theater, appearing in the play "Pump Boys and Dinettes," and on TV, where he enjoyed a small, recurring role in the series "M.A.S.H.," playing an offbeat singer-songwriter. He also boasts the unusual distinction of having been successively married to members of singing-sister groups the McGarrigles and the Roches.
Like many other male singer-songwriters in the '70s, Wainwright was saddled with unfair comparisons to Bob Dylan. On his 1992 album, "History," Wainwright included a tenderly mocking tribute to Dylan, "Talking New Bob Dylan," referring to himself and his Dylanesque colleagues John Prine, Bruce Springsteen and Steve Forbert as "your dumb-ass kid brothers."
Ironically, Wainwright, much like Dylan, has recently enjoyed a revival in popularity due in part to the popular success of a singer-songwriter son, in his case Rufus, whom he immortalized in an early composition entitled "Rufus Is a Tit Man."
The Dylan comparisons were inevitable for Steve Forbert, who like Dylan burst on the pop scene after working his way up through Greenwich Village folk clubs. He made his recording debut in 1978 with the FM radio staple, "Goin' Down to Laurel," and enjoyed a genuine pop hit two years later with "Romeo's Tune," which went to number 11 on the Billboard singles chart.
Since that time Forbert, like Wainwright, has enjoyed a consistent career as a recording artist and club performer, having established a small but fervent following for his charming, distinctive wit and carefully-honed songcraft.
While deeply rooted in traditional Celtic music, relative newcomer Susan McKeown has won critical acclaim for her original, Celtic-influenced compositions, or as one writer has described her music, "alternative-Celtic-jazz-rock-folk." McKeown (pronounced mick-yone), who has several albums of original and traditional materital to her credit, has drawn comparisons to Sarah McLachlan, Natalie Merchant and Sinead O'Connor. At the Clark she will appear with her backing band, the Chanting House.
Tickets for the "Different Voices" series, part of the overall "Music at the Clark" program, will go on sale on Jan. 11, 1999, at the Clark museum shop, Cold Spring Coffee Roasters in Williamstown, and Juice and Java in Pittsfield. Tickets are $15; $10 for members; $8 for students and children. Series subscriptions are available for $38; $25 for members. For more information or advance reservations, call 458-2303, ext. 324.
[This article originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on Dec. 12, 1998. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 1998. All rights reserved.]
Seth Rogovoy
rogovoy@berkshire.net
music news, interviews, reviews, et al.
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