2009 NERFA

(Northeast Regional Folk Alliance)

Conference Scrapbook

Commentary and photos: Richard Cuccaro

We left Manhattan at 7:30am on November 13th, and set out for the conference in Kerhonkson in upstate New York. The weather gods were predicting an ugly day for this Friday the 13th. Glad to say, for this area, at least, they blew it. The weather that day on the mountaintop was sublime, totally in character with the conference itself. Saturday’s weather turned drizzly, but was still unusually warm. That made trips outside to the car for a few forgotten items a piece of cake.

Inside, giddiness reigned. Wall-to-wall music could be found around every corner and the showcases were packed with talent — and a few surprises.

Now THIS is what I’m talkin’ about!

It seems as if Peter James is saying the above about the unexpected but welcome balmy weather outside the hotel during the kick-off cocktail party on Friday afternoon. It seemed to be a harbinger of the overall high-spirited nature of the conference. That’s Amy Blake, of “The Place” house concerts, at left.

In his Tricentric showcase appearance, with his “Beautiful Band,” Joe Iadanza performed a boisterous rave-up on his signature song, “Lovers in the Park (I Love).” With the help of the trio Gathering Time, Joe and company gave us an unforgettable piece of drama. It was emblematic of the high energy and density of talent of this year’s conference.

Community

Ali Chambliss and Kathleen Pemble - just chillin’ at the lobby bar.

Dennis da Costa, sage of all things folk and country, is flanked by Lara Herscovitch and Phil Minessale in the exhibit hall.

Anne Saunders, Falcon Ridge Folk Festival  impresario, and Reba Heyman do some catching up.

Robin Batteau, right, gets cozy with Ellen Bukstel (from Florida) during the cocktail party.

That’s Canadian Ken Whiteley, monster picker at left, and John Flynn at right, listening to some guy whose suspenders let him know when to stop eating.

These guys look like members of Homeland Security. That’s Nels Andrews 2nd from left and AJ Roach, far right. The other guys are deep undercover, no doubt.

Bob Rosensweet, at right, expresses something akin to skepticism.

Could it be the tie, Bob?

Karen Finkenberg, left, of Huntington, LI  Folk Music Society with Barbara Manners of Ridgefield, CT.

Around the piano, Bob, at far right, does what he loves best — playing blues harp at one of the many jams. No skepticism here.

Since the author’s wife, Viki (AKA the “Food Police”), was unable to attend, this photo is offered as proof that I ate only half this Linzer torte.

Formal Showcases

The duo of David Buskin, left, and Robin Batteau, right, made a

triumphant return to the folk scene this year. Long-time percussionist, Marshal Rosenberg, center anchored their lush sound.

Danielle Mairaglia — dazzling, musically and otherwise

Joe Crookston showed everyone that he just keeps getting better.

Tricentric Showcases

After missing BettySoo last year, we made sure not to miss her Tricentric performance.  This definitely heralds the emergence of a stellar performer.

Ladies and gentlemen, the new folk string band with the killer chops and exquisite harmonies, Tripping Lily!

Nels Andrews undoubtedly found new fans and gig opportunities during his Tricentric set.

Guerrilla Showcases

Paul Sachs, our November feature shared some of his trademark intensity during his set in the Acoustic Live guerrilla showcases.

Ali Chambliss in the KindredFolk room shows what a passionate folkie looks like.

At the urging of WFUV’s John Platt, we rushed to see Layah Jane. We saw that his enthusiasm was well-founded. She’s like Diana Krall with a guitar. Without it, perhaps even a bit more. Here she is in an impromptu semi-private afternoon showcase performed in our room.

Later, at the Suite Maple Sugar showcase, just to be sure, we caught another set…

Buskin & Batteau played a bunch of guerrilla showcases, including ours (left) and Focus Music (right).

We almost didn’t get Beaucoup Blue into our Acoustic Live showcases. A late bailout remedied that situation!

Another late bailout enabled us to correct our failure to include the YaYas in our showcases. Here they are, at left, sharing their musical wizardry.They’ll be in our

showcase invitation folder from now on, without fail!

Late Saturday Night at the Lilfest Room

Annie and Rod Capps jammed with Jason Dennie, just before Jan Krist and Jim Bizer dropped by. Left to right, above, are Jason, Annie and Jim. After one last glass of wine around 4am, it was time to turn in. A perfect ending to a perfect weekend.

Tripping Lily -- The Day Everything Became Nothing

On a personal level, it was my perception that the biggest buzz among my contemporaries at this conference belonged to Tripping Lily. The level of virtuosity on both instrumental and vocal levels was extraordinary. I haven't been this excited about a band in this genre since Crooked Still. The harmonies of fiddler/guitarist Monica Rizzio and brothers Demetrius and Alex Becrelis, who alternate on guitar, mandolin and ukelele, are mind-boggling. The themes on this recording deal primarily with personal/romantic relationships, but dig deeper than most to explore the lies and delusional attitudes that go along with love's failures. The songs are a swirl of old-timey, bluegrass, folk and pop styles and they sound totally unique. The closest comparison would be Nickel Creek, or some of Chris Thile's later work. The songs insinuate themselves into the listener's mind. "Getting Good (at this thing we call love)," a pop gem, readily got its hooks in me  and can stay there as long as they want. "Little Black Dress" should satisfy lovers of a more trad Celtic/bluegrass style. I find myself humming the daydreamy "California," more and more, as winter bores inexorably in. It's a good thing I had a head start in listening to the other CDs on this list. I found it hard to switch off of this one. We look forward to having Tripping Lily as a cover feature soon.

KC Clifford -- Orchid

Speaking of being in love, there's a line from a movie I didn't see that goes "You had me at hello." The places it was quoted seemed disparaging. That doesn't apply here. KC had me on the first track, "Broken Things." Her voice is the equal of any Nashville or Austin pro. Nancy Griffith might be an apt comparison. There's a lot of heartbreak here, but it's handled so expertly that I have no problem waiting awhile to get happy again. Violins keen behind her laser-clear voice, and I'm transported. All this is not to say that KC can't get pissed off. In "Loud and Clear," her impatience with someone who won't deal with reality gets expressed as she sings, "Lies are comin' at you loud and clear, but the truth is somethin' that you don't want to hear." I know you’re tellin’ me the truth, KC… but you can lie to me if you want to. Another Acoustic Live feature story on its way soon.

Craig Bickhardt -- Brother to the Wind

Craig is an award-winning Nashville singer/songwriter and this album is a wonderful introduction for the uninitiated (namely, me). He has a warm voice and a gift for capturing the essence of life around him. In "Life With the Sound Turned Down," he sings, "In my big old LTD, nothin' but time and the road and me…" With great harmonies, solid mandolin and dobro backup, this is great start to a solid album.

Nels Andrews -- Off Track Betting

The brilliance of this album can't be overstated. Its atmospheric nature puts me in mind of Robbie Robertson's first solo work. The writing is richly textured and the lyrics, while tightly crafted, seem to come from stream-of-thought, half-consciousness. It's there in the first lines of the first track, "Fever Dream": "Wake from a dream, you've got a jackrabbit heart / Jumping horses midstream, sagebrush to washboard road you dart…  As with a David Lynch film, we peer in, fascinated, wanting to know what the images mean. "Two decorated veterans of the Korean war / drew first blood, but the ground wanted more. Oh… we all want more. There is mud on the floor / there are pills by the bed. You are weak at the knees  / You are heavy in the head / Pretend the night is a slow moving cloud. Let go of this fever dream" In the background, bells tinkle and echo. Birds twitter. He keeps this stuff up through the entire album. I feel like sometimes, I'm on some drug, trapped in a far-east temple, my mind racing through hallucinations of lives other than my own. I've had this album on start to finish a whole bunch of times. The fascination continues and shows no signs of slowing down.

AJ Roach -- Revelation

AJ is a friend to Nels Andrews and will often perform on the same bill in a group setting (such as the Acoustic Live Falcon Ridge showcases -- and NERFA as well). I'm sure their friendship springs from their mutual respect for each other's brilliance. AJ can sing like a country prophet preacher in the throes of revelation. Thus the album title. The opening track portrays a sinner willing to jump in the river with a gunnysack "burden" to finish cleansing the sins that the "Lord" couldn't, though nailed to a "tree." We can hear the Virginia mountains of his home in his voice when he sings, cleverly sarcastic, in "Chemicals": "Whiskey's my shepherd Oh and I shall not want. It maketh me to lay down in a strange woman's bed. It maketh me talk out of both sides of my mouth. Maketh me feel like I'd be better off dead." A sermon by way of bad example. Authentically done, too, which is why one Scottish critic stated that his set was "a backwoods travelogue that was virtually a masterclass in illustrating  just how much sophistication goes into creating so-called 'primitive music.'" That encapsulates it as well as I ever could.

Treasa Levasseur -- Low Fidelity

Here's a Canadian woman with a big voice, steeped in the blues, without any of the affectation that sometimes accompanies the genre. No growls, no gravel-throated passages, no fake southern accent. That said, listeners may find a comparison to Marcia Ball appropriate. She plays keyboard, like Marcia, and on the Lousiana-laced "Give Me Just One,"  one could be forgiven for thinking, for a moment, they were listening to Marcia. The gospel-sounding "Rest of the Ride" adds to the Marcia-like vibe. Lots of soulful horn accompaniment helps. Nobody here is complaining. This is just too good. Additionally, Treasa's obvious French origin gives validity to the Louisiana connection. The CD jackets says made in Toronto. We hope she pays us many a visit.

Lyla Jane --  Brightness & Bravery / Grievance And Gratitude

This Toronto-based singer with an angelic voice was another artist to make an impact at the conference. Touted by WFUV's John Platt as a must-see, she backed up all advance buildup with killer sets in every showcase (including the impromptu afternoon set in our hotel room for about a half-dozen people. With a breathy delivery, she fuels fantasies as she sings: "I want to love you with the light on / So I can see your face." Acoustic pop doesn't get much better than this. We’re looking forward to her live appearances in our area.

Jan Krist & Jim Bizer - Influence

If I were to look for some advice during a period of doubt, I might check in with someone from the U.S. Midwest. Connected to life experience and human nature, they seem to get it right most of the time. Jan Krist and Jim Bizer, both from Michigan, fit the bill perfectly. Working together on this CD, they manage to dispense a basketful of life-affirming  wisdom without getting all up-in-your-face preachy. Things here range from pensive to laugh-out-loud funny. They're savvy on several fronts, mixing their harmonies, musical styles and subject matter with consummate skill. In places, overdubs appear to turn them into a tight band. In "End of the Road,” two friends appear ready to meet the final moments of life. At the end of the road, where the world turns into sky… It's been such a long, long walk, now it's time to fly… Despite the darkness of the subject matter, there’s an undercurrent of joy that manages to infuse this track as well as the rest of the album. Another song, “Island,” is the perfect case in point. A crisis has brought two people together, holding on to each other, creating their own imaginary “island” as a place of refuge and a place to ride out life’s uncertainties: “We go where we will, standing still, forever or just until… the oceans rise… our dreams capsize… we realize it just can’t be…  ‘cause we can’t see beyond our faces… The melody and harmonies are exceptional. While these two have their own solo careers, they make a great duo and we look forward to seeing them together again down the road.

Phil Henry -- Robots Unplugged (pre-release for the upcoming Robots in Love)

We've loved Phil's voice for a bunch of years now. This 3-song EP provides further proof that Phil deserves more attention from the folk community. We like all three songs a lot, but one in particular totally drew us in. In "Open Range," the narrator, speculating about a sterile hospital death, wants to die like a gunslinger, mortally wounded in a field: "I hope my horse goes runnin' when he finds me on the ground." The central figure tells the listener to look for his demise in an old cowboy film on TV during a couch-potato Saturday afternoon.  It compares, he says, preferably, a Western film motif to a celluloid robot love affair (Wall-E, we're guessing). Despite the "Robots" in the title the sound is quite old-timey, with its use of banjo accompaniment. We're eagerly waiting for the full CD.

BettySoo - Heat Sin Water Skin

As the album opens with “Never Knew No Love,” the throb of the bass and drums and the grit of the lead guitar might lead you to think that you put a Lucinda Williams CD on by mistake. But, no… that’s just revered producer Gurf Morlix’s way of giving BettySoo some of what he gives Lucinda. She uses it well. That high, clear voice takes us everywhere we need to go, in order to explore the back dusty alleys of heatbreak in the Southwest. On “Just Another Lover,” we get a sense of what goes on in a dissatisfied woman’s mind… and one you wish you could get close to again: “Am I just another lover to you / Another piece of skin you could get close to / Someplace warm where you once fit in / Invisible, expendable as oxygen / Am I just another lover to you? / Am I a well you once drew from? / Just a place to wet your tongue? The lap steel cries as BettySoo’s flower petal of a voice trails across the listener’s body and the pull of desire is palpable. Another bone-rattler (this album is full of them), “Get Clean,” intones: “Say love’s like shotgun spray / One pellet kills the snake / I’m not picking up that gun / Sometimes I like to hear rattles shake / It’s time to get clean / It’s time to get clean / Take what’s hidden and make it seen…”  While we know she’s married, and in person, she conducts herself in a demure way, the power she has to conjure up fantasies is alarming. From what we’re reading online, her first album, Little Tiny Secrets is just as good as this one. We’ll be getting  our hands on that one right quick.

Matt and Shannon Heaton -- Lover's Well  

The Heatons specialize in the Celtic sound. While I don't consider myself to be a huge fan of things Celtic, I found this album extremely enjoyable. Perhaps it's Shannon's voice, with its sweet, delicate treatment of the legends of the British Isles. The instrumental accompaniment has a familiarity. Matt's guitar uses a lot of technique heard in the work of singer/songwriters over the years. That said, there's plenty for the fans of Celtic music to enjoy. The instrumental, "Brad's Honeybees" a jig or reel (not sure) uses whistle, mandolin and accordion as well as any Celtic band I've heard. Matt and Shannon harmonize beautifully on Lover's Lament." Flute, mandolin and boron round out the sound on this one, once again a lovely, delicate treatment of an old theme. One after another on every track, Matt and Shannon's gifts are used to maximum effect. A treat from beginning to end.

James Lee Stanley - The Eternal Contradiction

James has a voice that glides like a world-class skater on an olympic rink. If you happen to have a romantic evening in mind, in front of a fireplace with a roaring fire going, this album would make a great choice for aural support. There are some serious songs here, for you and your significant other to contemplate, but James’ vocals keep the  intimate mood going. The album’s first track, one of two covers, the 1950’s hit for Tommy Edwards,“It’s All in the Game,” sets the mood. The other cover, Neil Young’s  “The Loner,” with its expression of need, does little to suppress that mood. The acoustic setting and James’ voice polish off the rough edges. While we’re fond of the grittiness of the original, the lofty perch this rendition occupies is a welcome variation. The album concludes with “Change,” a soothing clarion call for universal acceptance riding over an infectious percussive shuffle.

The YaYas - Everything

Catherine Miles, Jay Mafale and Paul Silverman, a trio from Long Island create a sound that quickly got my attention when I first saw them live. This  was  a couple of months before the NERFA conference and didn’t get my hands on a CD until then. If I had know it was going to be this good, I would’ve pestered one out of them sooner. While Jay on  guitar and Paul on keyboard are terrific, Catherine’s voice is the jewel in the setting. She’s riveting. It’s no wonder Annie Lennox is listed as an influence. In “The Falling,” her voice soars on the refrain: “Yeah it feels so free, the falling. Yeah it’s oh, so fast, the falling.” There’s a cleverness in the writing in the opening lines, “I’ve never been afraid of heights / But I am afraid of the ground.” “Don’t Give Up on the Sun” seems to be an entreaty to someone to not give up on life, on living. It’s dreamlike, with Paul’s keyboard ringing like chimes and Jay’s solemn guitar strum conducting a stately march. Catherine’s voice floats, ethereally high  over them: “Please let him keep looking toward this horizon…When I’m thinking of him, it’s twilight. And it seems to me he’s giving up… Don’t give up on the sun…” On the upbeat numbers, Catherine’s voice is energetic and engaging and Jay and Paul provide a strong foundation. We’re so lucky this group is local and we can see them live frequently.

Donna Martin - Seed & History

While Donna Martin’s contact information lists her as a Connecticut resident, she has a sound that seems, at times, authentically southern rural. With her gentle voice, she explores the follies of human behavior. “Once in a While,” looks at the homogeneity of modern life. “Soon there will be no do drop in, no mom and pop, no famous homemade  recipes at the rest stop. everybody needs their own style, everybody needs a surprise  at least once in a while. In an album chock full of stories, the one I like best is, “Goodness Everywhere.” Dedicated to “Pam,” it alludes to the goodness that brings help when needed. “Everybody knew my name, and from every direction, everybody came… Love overwhelms till we come undone, then wake up  and find out we are the ones, worthy of every atom of care… there is goodness everywhere.”

Wyatt Easterling - Where This River Goes

When you listen to Wyatt Easterling sing, it’s

difficult to believe that he has been known more for being a Nashville producer than a performer. His voice is like a fine violin. On “Modern Day Drifter,” our favorite, he tells of the wanderlust that dwells in men’s hearts, waiting to claim the restless.

Jason Dennie - Sampler

Jason’s full CD hasn’t reached us yet, but we have to give mention to this championship fingerstyle guitarist and singer/songwriter. Raised on Bluegrass, he’s learned his lessons well. However, our favorite selection here, “Sharkskin Bikini,” is an contemporary, jazz-like instrumental tour-de-force — a brilliant fretboard flight. Rapid passages that soar and drop leave this listener breathless. Until that CD he promised us gets here, this sampler will be getting lots of plays on the iPod.

The Great 2009 NERFA CD Haul