Sections: Music
SXSW (Wednesday) by Daniel Q. Marek March 26, 2003 The Singer/Songwriter
Showcase Surprisingly
enough, it took three New York bands to fill the singer/ songwriter showcase
for SXSW. With such a rich musical history in the Village, it's apparent
they've still cornered the market with tales of inner city blues in the guise
of country ballads and ear pleasing melodies. Beginning
with east-coast crooner Alexi Murdock, the Cedar Street Courtyard began to
fill with an older crowd ready to lose themselves in acoustic delight. With a
vocal style somewhat derivative of Cat Stevens, Murdock set the tone with a
light fluidity that battled the stillness in the room one note at a time. His
airy finger-picked acoustic melodies consumed the audience while a guest
violinist rounded out the rustic overtones and female harmony backups. Half
way through the set, he picked up the pace with a guitar sound masking
Matthews, but with less flair -- a perfect introduction to the next act. New
York City native Rich Price and his band quickly filled the stage with their
pop ballads (think John Mayer with a bit of Texas twang). Price soon proved
his ability to write songs easy to drift off into while loosing yourself in
the rhythm section's driving thunder. Awfully country for a city boy, his
familiar sounds rolled like waves over the crowd capturing their attention
before taking off into a Dylan-esqe harmonica solo while the trio pumped up
and took off in a whirlwind. Although
the overall sound was full and tight, one couldn't help but think that some
of his songs may sound even better broken down to an acoustic element so you
could hear the brilliant passages and writing overpowered by the band.
As Price left the stage, Brooklyn's Dayna Kurtz
walked through the nearly packed house with her guitar slung over her back
and promptly shot out one of the best songwriter sets I've seen. Kurtz' pure,
yet gritty voice accented her spectacular slide guitar work on songs from her
2002 release Postcards from Downtown and a new disc (yet unreleased) that
she's tracked between opening gigs for Richie Havens. Already
gaining critical acclaim from NPR's "Morning Edition" and winning
"Female Songwriter of the Year" from the National Academy of
Songwriters, it's apparent that it is only a matter of time before Kurtz is a
household name. Despite tuning problems due to Austin's humidity, she
strolled effortlessly though songs like "Postcards from Downtown"
and "Leave the Light On" underscoring her unbelievable range. While
playing one of her new tracks still untitled, Kurtz' jazz influence glistened
through the rhythm of her lyrics before taking off in a Django style guitar
solo. Truly a master at weaving the vocal tones of her voice and guitar, the
noisy room fell silent in awe of the performance they were witnessing. A
little over half way though the set, she asked her manager if she could
'reveal' the new song she was about to play, a Duke Ellington cover that she
recently recorded with Grammy sensation Norah Jones. "She
could be out doing duets with Bono or somebody, so it's a real honor to work
with her," she said after releasing the information. The barely stroked
guitar work left a vast amount of space for her unique vocal abilities that
filled the night's air with a blues'd up version of a timeless creation. As if
she needed to top herself, Kurtz quickly switched into "Parlez-moi
D'Amour" showing off her uncanny ability to make such a beautiful
language more stunning than imagined with lyrical shifts in pitch and clarity
that encapsulated an audience of now devoted fans.
As quickly as she entered, Kurtz threw a guitar
over her shoulder and left the stage making room for one of the 60s most
memorable songwriters - Richie Havens. As if Kurtz' performance wasn't enough
to send the crowd away happy, Havens calmly took the stage, sat down and told
everyone how happy he was to be there with them. His
majestic appearance comforted the audience as he took up a guitar and began
the opening chords of "Maggie's Farm." By the song's end, the Cedar
Street sold out and passers by had begun to condense around the entrance (which
still offered a view) while Havens' mystic overtones skipped across the crowd
like a stone on water. Playing a selection from his new album, it's obvious
that after 30 years of touring his precision and need for perfection has
become second nature to this monolith of a man. Pulling
a new trick out of his hat, Havens soon broke into a rockier ballad dubbed
"Stardust & Passion" after telling the crowd it came to him in
a voice while watching TV in a hotel room on tour. After a driving, yet
lonesome air, Havens appeased the crowd by playing his Woodstock hit
"Freedom" like he'd written it a week ago (still fresh, integrating
and new) then walked off the stage. As an
encore, he came back out to talk about how today mirrored the 60s so much and
that "he was sure that this war won't happen." Then, as chilling as
a cool rain on a hot day, he broke into an acappella protest version of Pink
Floyd's "No More Turning Away" in which his captivating and
powerful stage presence engulfed the crowd singing over and over, "we
won't accept what's happening" in a dramatic charisma that kept the
crowd singing after he'd left. |
