Arts & Fintertainment

Harmonies From The Heart

Girlyman is one of a slew of great acts to perform
at the 32nd annual Ann Arbor Folk Festival.

Suzanne Chessler
Special to the Jewish News

Ann Arbor

F

olk composer and performer
Ty Greenstein writes songs that
range from autobiographical to

fictional.
"Somewhere Different Now" is autobio-
graphical and the title track from the lat-
est recording made by her trio, Girlyman,
which will appear Saturday evening, Jan.
31, on the second evening of the two-day
Ann Arbor Folk Festival.
The annual event held at Hill
Auditorium to benefit entertainment goals
at the Ark features musical legends Kris
Kristofferson and Pete Seeger among its
Saturday lineup.
"Since we're performing with a whole
bunch of other people, we'll probably do
an abbreviated version of our show:' says
Greenstein, 34, in Girlyman with Doris
Muramatsu and Nate Borofsky. "We play
mostly original songs written by all three
of us, sometimes individually and some-
times together.
"The songs are a mix with an emphasis
on lyrics and three-part harmonies. In
between, we have a blast joking around
with each other, cracking each other up
and hopefully cracking up the audience."
The group's fourth CD, Somewhere
Different Now (Live), captures a live per-
formance lasting 76 minutes and packed
with 29 new and old originals; unrecorded
covers; stage banter and improvised
ditties. The title song has to do with
Greenstein's 2007 move from New York to
Atlanta, where the trio now is based and
where she has faced lots of life changes.

Girlyman: Nate Borofsky, Doris Muramatsu and Ty Greenstein.

At the other end of her songwriting spec-
trum is "Superior," a fictional rendition of
a mother whose son has gone to war.
The trio began working together while
attending Sarah Lawrence College, where
Greenstein's concentration was music and
fiction writing. The three went their sepa-
rate ways after graduation and then came
together again in New York.
After deciding to team up professionally,
they launched through music festivals,
morphed into the opening act for bigger-
name pop stars, such as the Indigo Girls
and Dar Williams, and then toured on
their own schedule.
"Part of the Girlyman theme has to do
with the fact that we all feel we don't quite
fit in terms of gender and sexuality, but
our songs are not just for gay audiences:'
says Greenstein, an alto whose first guitar
teacher was her dad, Ron Greenstein, a
professional bassist rooted in bluegrass.
"Part of the reason we picked the name
Girlyman was to seem lighthearted and
fun and not take ourselves too seriously.
I think that some people have problems
getting past our name and the fact that
Nate wears makeup on stage, but that has
nothing to do with our music, which sort
of speaks for itself:'
Girlyman started recording hi 2004,
signed by Amy Ray of the Indigo Girls for
her indie label Daemon Records. After their
first studio album, Remember Who I Am,
they moved to Little Star (where "Superior"
is one of the tracks) and Joyful Sign.
With more recordings under its belt,
the group went on to perform at diverse
places, such as the Barns at Wolf Trap in
Virginia, the Old Town School of Folk
Music in Chicago and the Freight and
Salvage in Berkeley, Calif. Concerts in

Mexico and the United Kingdom have
been scheduled.
"I think this is a good time for indepen-
dent artists to reach out to fans:' says the
New Jersey-bred Greenstein — her given
name is Tylan — whose group previously
performed in Ann Arbor and Lansing.
Greenstein, who thinks of herself as
a "JewBoo" because she combines her
Jewish experience with Buddhist practices,
has performed "Hava Nagila" on stage
when it seemed the right choice for the
moment (a track of the traditional Jewish
melody is on Somewhere Different Now).
The entertainer, who grew up in a
Reform home, worked in human resources
at the Jewish Theological Seminary while
building her stage career and enjoys cel-
ebrating religious holidays with her family.
"As a Jewish Buddhist, I'm very interest-
ed in meditation and do a lot of yoga;' she
says. "That has helped me with everything
in my life."
The trio feels like extended family to
Greenstein. While they all live separately, she
with her manager and partner Genevieve
Barber, they spend lots of free time together,
sometimes sharing home-cooked meals and
other times just hanging out.
"When we toured through Atlanta, we
loved the feeling of it',' she explains. "We
had made good friends there, and it just
appeared like an easier place to be, espe-
cially because we are on the road as much
as we are. On many levels, it seemed more
spacious."
Any Girlyman show takes its cues from
ticket holders. "Our shows depend on
the interaction we have with audiences','
Greenstein says. "Some crowds are very
interactive and others just like to sit back
and listen.

"I hope people feel uplifted after seeing
us. The songs and harmonies are from the
heart and about the energy we're creat-
ing. We want people to have the feeling
that they can go out and create things for
themselves."

course, it influenced me. I adore [Francis
Ford] Coppola. I think he does [show] war
in a surreal manner, which is the correct
thing to do.
"I have problems with other big
American war movies that show war is bad
for you; it's a useless idea, but it's a lot about
glamour and glory. A young [moviegoer]
might say,`Yes, war sucks; but I want to be
the guy in the movie because he's so cool.'
Nobody wants to be the guy in my movie."
Folman adapted a Czech novel for his
marvelous 1996 debut, Saint Clara, and

his next project is an animated, English-
language adaptation of Russian science
fiction novelist Stanislaw Lem's The
Futurological Congress. He's writing the
script on airplanes and in hotel rooms,
perpetually jet-lagged but reveling in the
attention Bashir is getting.
The filmmaker has three children, and
he says it's their decision — not his —
whether they enlist in the military or con-
tribute in another way. Given his wartime
experience and his anti-war conviction, is
he in favor of Israel abolishing mandatory

military service?
"I can tell you that on the day that army
[service] will not be mandatory in Israel,
we will know that we're a normal country;'
he says. "That's for sure. But we're a long
way from that now."

❑

The Ann Arbor Folk Festival begins
Friday and Saturday nights, Jan. 30-
31, at 6:30 p.m. at Hill Auditorium,
825 N. University, in Ann Arbor.
$30-$45 for one night, $50-$80 for
the series. (734) 763-TKTS or www.
a2ark.org .

The Lineup

The acts listed below will be part
of the 32nd annual Ann Arbor Folk
Festival on the indicated days:
FRIDAY:
Jeff Tweedy
Old Crow Medicine Show
Carolina Chocolate Drops
Ryan Montbleau Band
Katie Herzig
Chelsea Williams
The Ragbirds
Joe Pug
Jim Lauderdale, MC
SATURDAY:
Kris Kristofferson
Pete Seeger
Carolina Chocolate Drops
Girlyman
Luke Doucet & The White Falcon
Claire Lynch Band
Misty Lyn & The Big Beautiful
Joe Pug
Jim Lauderdale, MC

Oscar Buzz from page B5

Bashir may be cathartic for vets, but it's
revelatory for their lovers and mothers. "A
lot of women told me that it was the first
time they understood what war looks like
[through] the eyes of their husbands or
sons," Folman says.
Both harrowing and sensuous, the
documentary invites comparison with
the most notorious and surreal movie
made about Vietnam, and it doesn't bother
Forman a bit.
"Apocalypse Now is one of my top five
films:' he says without hesitation. "Of

B6

January 22 • 2009

JTA contributed to this article.

Waltz With Bashir opens Friday,
Feb. 6, at the Maple Art Theatre in
Bloomfield Township. (248) 263-2111,