THE BEAT
Sloan Wainwright: Piano woman
by Seth Rogovoy(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., March 27, 1997) -- Listening to Sloan Wainwright's self-titled CD, with songs ranging from arty to folky to bluesy -- and with rock, pop and jazz thrown in for good measure -- one might think that the upstate New York singer- songwriter had a deep and broad-based musical education.
But in fact, according to Wainwright -- who performs at CC's Cafe in the campus center at North Adams State College on Saturday night at 9 -- she is primarily self-taught. "I never studied music," she said in an interview conducted via E-mail. "I did take some music composition classes as a teen, and I have worked with a few vocal coaches through the years."
One of the reasons Wainwright's work on her Waterbug Records CD stands out from the typical, new-folk pack is that her instrument is piano, not guitar. By necessity the songs and sound are different when the piano is the instrument on which and for which songs are written.
"Guitars seem to drive the `folk' thing," said Wainwright. "Pianos are big and hard to travel with. You can't always bring your piano with you and you can't always trust the instrument provided....It's generally quite tough being a keyboard player in this genre."
If she wanted, Wainwright could fall back on another instrument. "I took banjo lessons with Jay Ungar for a couple of years way back," she said. "I still have yet to play banjo in front of others. I make a weird face when I play." (Presumably not unlike the face some listeners make when they hear banjo.)
Wainwright stresses that while her album and performances bear her name, "Sloan Wainwright" is a group. "The way that we work is that I present the song I have written to the group -- words, chords, melody and general vibe -- and we grow the songs together," she said. In addition to Wainwright, the Sloan Wainwright Band includes Steve Murphy on guitars and mandolin, Cary Brown on keyboards, Liadain Clancy on vocals, Doug Wray on bass and Greg Burrows on percussion.
"Steve has played rock and roll guitar all his life," said Wainwright. "Cary studied classical piano since he was knee-high to a grasshopper. He is also a jazz player and he is quite involved in the ska scene. Liadain's roots in music are Irish traditional. All of our musical influences mingle."
As for the familiar last name, Wainwright acknowledges, "Loudon is my oldest brother and a supportive brother. As far as the music goes we are so different. I usually do not introduce myself as his sister, not unless people ask. I'm sure it sells tickets simply for curiosity. It does create a certain expectation. My hope is that people are happily surprised."
Honeyboy Edwards: Living the blues
To recount the career of David "Honeyboy" Edwards -- who warms up the crowd for folksinger Odetta at Friday night's concert at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, the final of the "Four Fridays of Folk" series at the museum -- is pretty much to recapitulate the history of the blues.Born in 1915 and raised in the Mississippi Delta, Edwards began singing and playing guitar as a way to avoid work in the cotton fields. At age 17, he hit the road and toured the South with singer Big Joe Williams. During the mid-'30s, he travelled around as a solo player and with other artists, including the legendary Robert Johnson, with whom Edwards claims to have been on the night he was poisoned.
In the '40s, Edwards did stints in Helena, Ark., and Memphis, working with musicians including Big Walter Horton, Floyd Jones, Sunnyland Slim and Howlin' Wolf. By 1953, after jobs in St. Louis and Houston, Edwards moved to Chicago, where the country-blues artist absorbed the electric-blues sound of that city alongside the likes of Magic Sam, Muddy Waters, Bobby Bland and B.B. King.
In 1996, Edwards was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame. At age 81, he is one of a dwindling number of first-generation bluesmen tracing roots back to the birthplace of the blues in the Delta. Call 458-2303 x. 505 for more information on Friday night's show.
Dead White Males, not
While they all appear to be white, the members of Dead White Males aren't dead nor are they all males. The North Adams State College- based band is fronted by Iris Lyons, whose seductive, insinuating vocals stretch from a waiflike whisper to a full-bodied scream over the course of the group's six-song EP, "Sketchy."The irony of the group's name is purposeful, said the band members -- who also include Jamie Choquette on guitar, Nik Hewitt on bass and Mansour Bethoney on percussion -- in an interview conducted via E- mail. The joke with the name goes along with the group's self-styled "post-Impressionistic modern rock."
"We sometimes have an ambiguous sound," said Choquette, speaking for his bandmates. "This is similar to the Impressionist era of wide brush strokes that avoids the specific detail. We base our sound from other influences that incorporate this method of playing -- for example, early alternative, Psychedelic Furs, the Police, Rush and Roxy Music."
As it plays out on "Sketchy," the band's sound stretches from the chiming, melodic pop-rock of "Lies" that recalls 10,000 Maniacs, to the wispy, sensual acoustic-soul of "Elusive Fish," to the harder- rocking, metal-funk of "Home Shopping Dub," reminiscent of Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Songwriting duties are shared among Bethoney, Choquette and Hewitt, all of whom had previous band experience. While no stranger to the stage, Lyons -- who is active in NASC's theater department as a fine and performing arts major -- is a newcomer to rock performance.
Strangely enough, the group made its live debut on the stage of North Adams's Night Shift Cafe, opening a show there for Black 47 in the fall of 1995. While the band got off to a shaky start that night, on the basis of its professional-sounding EP it seems much improved since then. Indeed, the band gigs regularly in the Worcester area, where Hewitt is from, and in New York's Capital District. It also has a few Northampton and Boston dates awaiting confirmation.
In the meantime, the band is headlining a free concert tonight in the Venable Theatre at NASC at 8, and will also appear at Milltown Studios on Main Street in North Adams on Friday, April 25. The band has its own Web page at http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Palms/9178. Call 664-0739 for more info.
Backstage bits
Rumor has it that Edward Kowalczyk, the lead singer of mega-rock band Live, has been making substantial time with a local woman from Pittsfield. The story goes that he picked her out of the crowd at a concert, and since that time he has been spotted with the mystery woman at such chic city gathering spots as the Misty Moonlight Diner. Anyone know who the mystery woman is?....Jim's Big Ego, featuring Jim Infantino, new-folk's cross between the Beastie Boys and Warren Zevon, is coming to the Macano Inn in Housatonic on Friday, April 11. Local singer-songwriter JoAnne Spies is scheduled to open the show at 8. Call 274-6636 for tickets and information....
[This column originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on March 27, 1997. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 1997. All rights reserved.]
Seth Rogovoy
rogovoy@berkshire.net
music news, interviews, reviews, et al.
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