Concert report: Judy Collins and Don McLean 5/10/14 -- with comments about Josh & Pete Seeger

I went to see Judy Collins and Don McLean at the Tarrytown Music Hall on May 10, 2014.

Judy sang first for an hour.  Then we had a twenty minute intermission.  Then Don McLean performed for an hour and a half

The Tarrytown Music Hall is a historic theater.  It's been used for music and movies. Keeping it alive has become a community project.  Almost all, if not all, of the people who work there are volunteers, compensated by the opportunity to see free concerts. The restrooms are old.  As a result, I spent most of the intermission standing in the women's restroom line.  We were supposed to get a new, larger restroom at the Music Hall in 2013, but it hasn't happened yet.

Judy looked very beautiful.  She was wearing a cherry colored skirt and top, with handkerchief hem and loose, flowing jacket.  The outfit looked like it was made of silk.  She was very thin, much thinner than she used to be when younger.  Her hair was bouffant and long.  I didn't bring my binoculars, so I could not scrutinize her face too closely, seeing as I was in the balcony -- and I was glad, because she really looked great from where I was looking.  She's 75, but still does a great show.  Her voice has a slightly harsh edge due to age, but she's still worth listening to

I was amazed at recognizing so many of the songs that she sang.  I hadn't realized how many of the songs that I might have heard as a kid were connected with her.  Here's a YouTube video of her singing a John Denver medley that she also sang at the concert I heard https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNFdh1xZawk

She played both guitar and piano, though she had a pianist accompanying her on most of the songs.

I believe that the style that she was singing in would be generally classified as folk music.

The volume was perfect -- not too loud, not too quiet.

As usual, I went to that concert sleep deprived and snoozed through a couple of her songs, but that's likely good as the songs were relaxing.

Don McClean is about 6 years younger.  Generally his singing was strong and youthful sounding.  Occasionally his pitch wavered a bit, but mostly he sang very well.  The volume of his portion was much higher and I frequently had my ear plugs in.  He's chubby, but I think that helps him.  I learned recently that heavy set people have an advantage to singing, because the air in their lungs is under higher pressure. 

His band was larger, with 4 guys (or was it 5?) behind him -- and generally they kept a pretty powerful beat going, so I was bopping around in my seat most of the time.  

He sang longer and a more varied program than Judy, with songs that were rock, country, and crooning.  The crooning type songs were with only a piano, whereas the louder, country & rock include the whole band.  

I recognized very few of his songs other than "Crossroads," "Vincent," "American Pie," which he closed with.  "American Pie" had everyone on their feet dancing.  The balcony, which is old and kind of nerve wracking anyway,  A lot of people left after that song.  It was quite late, but I think also they might have been worried that the old balcony wouldn't stand up to that kind of dancing activity.

The people who left early missed out, because he sang two encores, including "Vincent" which, of course, is the one of his songs that Josh has covered.  I love that song, but I do prefer Josh's version.

Don was so kind as to sit outside at a table an autograph CDs and let us take pictures with him.  He was there until at least midnight.

We were a bit disappointed that Judy & Don did not include a duet.  I thought that would have been a nice touch, even though their music is very different.

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Note about Josh & Pete Seeger

Now, given that this blog is usually about Josh, I'm going to get down to connections with Josh.

Judy and Don are very different performers.  The one similarity in their concerts was that both knew and were inspired by Pete Seeger, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_seeger.  They both mentioned him. 

This is an important point for those of us who live near the Hudson River, because Pete was very interested in our river, and in protecting it from pollution. There is a movement to name the new Tappan Zee Bridge, currently under construction, after Pete Seeger.  That could still happen.

I once met Pete Seeger, marching in a protest against the then-impending second invasion of Iraq by the US government.  I also once saw him performing at Friends General Conference Gathering.  

He was a tireless source of energy and social activism.  He was sort of omnipresent in this area.  

There was something about him that really caught one's attention.  Even at 90 he had an infectious pixie like smile and performed with energy.  I believe he was over 80 when I saw him in the protest march and he was walking faster than I was.   In advanced age, he could only croak out a few notes, but that didn't stop him from getting on stage with his banjo, typically with a younger performer for support.

David Foster said that you could tell a star, because when they got on stage you wouldn't look at anyone else, just at the person with star quality.  Pete Seeger had that.

He was a nationally known musician at one time.  He wrote many prominent songs: notably "Where Have All the Flowers Gone," "If I had a Hammer," and "Turn! Turn! Turn!" Pete Seeger was also in The Weavers, which a was a folk group that was at one time absolutely huge in this country.

Pete was blacklisted by McCarthy in the 50's, because he was at one time at least nominally a communist, nor did he deny that this had been the case.  He did later say that he had been misled by Stalin and Lenin, and that he came to recognize that their policies were not admirable.

McCarthyism supposedly ended in the 50's but it haunted Pete Seeger ever afterwards.  

Pete died in January of this year.  I couldn't help but notice that Josh did not acknowledge his death.  Josh is usually very plugged in to this sort of thing.  He tweeted about Andy Williams' death, for instance.

I tweeted Josh a couple of times about his not mentioning Pete's death, but no acknowledgement was forthcoming.

This really raises questions for me about Josh and how Hollywood he is.  I've been meaning to blog about this for some time, but haven't' gotten around to it, due to the chemo that I've been going through.  But hearing both of these performers mention Pete has goaded me forward.

Josh seems to be his own person and somewhere between being a mainstream musician and an Indie musician.  He doesn't do songs that are fed to him like pablum.  He makes a lot of his own musical decisions and writes his own songs, many of which are unusual and distinctive sounding.

Still, when it came to mentioning a very popular and famous musician, who happened to have been blacklisted in Hollywood and never fully recognized thereafter, Josh was curiously silent.

I suppose it could be that Josh just never really liked Pete Seeger's music or the Weavers.  That's a bit hard for me to believe.  I can't help but think that Josh has to please the powers that be. If Seeger is still blacklisted, Josh might feel compelled not to mention him.

To me, this is creepy, the power of that McCarthy might still have, dead hand, sixty years later, to make us judge a performer by his politics rather than his performance.