Two Concerts in Two Evenings

It never rains but it pours, and it is pouring around here, both literally and figuratively. Last night I went to see The Anonymous Four in concert. My friend had given me tickets for my birthday last August; lucky thing I remembered where I put the tickets and when the concert was!

The Anonymous Four are a quartet (duh!) of women who sing mainly American sacred music: sacred harp, shape note, etc. Maybe you have heard them on A Prairie Home Companion and NPR, among other venues. Technically, they were very good. Their harmonies were exquisite and it was a pleasure to hear both old favorites and new songs. But, as my companion for the evening said afterward, perhaps they were a little too good for the style of music they were doing. All of them are classically trained, with real book larnin', music degrees, and everything. And the thing is, the music they performed, largely comes from grassroots traditions. It is community music, and as such, felt a little out of place being performed for an audience of polite middle-aged people in a concert hall. At least that is how I felt, but I have been known to be a little opinionated every now and then.

Tonight I went to hear one of my favorite contemporary singer-songwriters, Kris Delmhorst. She was wonderful, as usual. If you like folkie stuff and have a chance to see her, by all means do. She's based in the Boston area, but criss-crosses the country (and the Atlantic Ocean) pretty frequently. She may be slowing down her touring a little after June, because she's having a baby. (Sigh. Mommy energy: It's just one more reason for me to love her.)

Here's a sample: