Sept Offers

Matt Bliton

Two of my favorite people performed on the 10th at Gone Wired Cafe in Lansing.  Matt Bliton has put together his band to include guests on certain songs...all to great effect.  Their harmonies are welcome on these particular tracks.  Matt also has Linda Abar do a lead or two, and she is truly a pleasure to listen to.  There are rumors to a new Matt Bliton CD in the not-too-distant future.  Looking forward to it!

Linda Abar

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9/11/11

September 11, 2011...that's 9/11, ten years later.  Much has been written and many events were planned for this day.  I participated by attending a large community group performing Mozart's "Requiem".  It was as moving as expected....plenty of tears.  People were respectful and quiet before the concert and most appreciative at its conclusion.  Here is what it looked like:

Mozart's "Requiem" performed on 9/11/11


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                                             The Coffeehouse at All Saints

 Friday, Sept 16

This is our 6th year and our opening night, Friday, Sept 16 was jam-packed with duets, The Friday Strings, some Broadway, Monty Python, sing alongs, a First-Hand report of the Kardashian-Humphries wedding, Back To School musings, Dan Brown from Ann Arbor, The Basement Boys and more.  It was a fun, full night of excellent performances and sing alongs.  I think everyone had a great time and I'm grateful Dan Brown made the trip from Ann Arbor.  Here's a shot of a jam session hosted by the Basement Boys:

Jam Session w/ The Basement Boys

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Jackson Browne

The 17 Guitars of Jackson Browne

Saturday, Sept 24 brought a real treat to East Lansing....Nicky and I saw Jackson Browne at the Wharton Center on the campus of Michigan State University.  He was in excellent voice and switched between guitar (17 of them) and piano as the song dictated. In what was an unprecedented move on Mr. Browne's part (at least I thought so), after he sang 2 songs he started to take requests form the audience.  No, not so strange...except HE DID IT THE REST OF THE NIGHT! What fun for people to call out their favorite JB tune and have him happily comply.  This was a lot of fun. We had great seats.

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Fleet Foxes at Hill Auditorium, Ann Arbor 

The final concert event of the month was a trip to Ann Arbor with my good friend, Matt Lynch, to see Fleet Foxes who had been touring their relatively new CD, Helplessness Blues.  I have to admit, I was concerned about the quality of the live performance since so much of what FF does is provide interesting and persistent harmony.  I just thought it would be easy to do in the studio and difficult to bring on tour. I needn't have worried as they have this down to a fine science.  They were wonderful and precise.

Just before Fleet Foxes took the stage

Lead singer Robin Pecknold is obviously the driving force of this indie band, but bassist Christian Wargo and drummer Joshua Tillman were just as important when the dream-like harmonies began. Great job by this tight band.