'I nursdmy, September 12, 1974
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
PCge Five
TI~ u rsd~y, September 12,, 1974 THE MICHIGAN DAILY Page Five
U
Blake
By JOAN BORUS
I first saw Norman Blake
nearly four years ago when he
was known as "Dylan's guitar-
ist," the man responsible for
the fine picking on Nashville
Skyline.
A year later, seeing him as a
returns on
'mellowed
college freshman at the Power
Center, I began to appreciate !
him for his thrilling and bril-
liant guitarwork - music that
left me awed that someone!
could produce such fast, yet
clean picking and licks.
However, it wasn't until his
first appearance at the Ark well, but also adds something other a great deal thus making
last February that I began to to the bluegrass idiom. for greater versatility. Coordi-
fully explore the man and his In addition to this feature, nating the group is one of his
music. The Power Center wasn't Norman is also revealing his biggest projects at this point.
the place for Blake; it was too skill on a wider range of instru- Despite the fact that he has
antiseptic and cold, and mostly, ments. He has always played become more widely recognmz-
just too large a place for the about 10 instruments - the ed, Norman continues to insist
kind of music that had its or- mandolin, the dobro, and the on musical integrity as his fore-
igins with friends and neighbors fiddle among them - and he most priority. Anything that:
getting together on the front took an obvious delight in dis- will detract him from producing
porch; playing these lesser known tal- music of the first quality is re-
Despite the fact that it was ents to his audience. garded by Norman as irrele-
the weekend of the big Dylan Then too, the inclusion of vant.
concert, huge crowds flocked to other musicians has added This credo is responsible for
the Ark to hear music that no greater possibilities to the kind his insistence on recording with
doubt turned them on just as of music we'll be hearing from smaller record labels, where he
much as those who went to hear Norman. has greater artistic control.
Dylan. In this set of concerts he was Originally Norman recorded
The Ark seemed to be of just joined by Short, a cellist who with Rounder Records, a small
the right scope and size for originally had a classical back- company based in Sommerville,
Norman's music, and the con- ground. Her sensitive accom- Massachusetts. A difference of
certs he gave there surely left paniment, with its emphasis on opinion on their sales proce-
him with a much larger follow- double - string bowing, which dures led Norman to record
ing that when he started. gives drone-like and multiple with a Chicago record com-
Listening to Norman at the instrument effects, produced a pany, Flying Fish.
Ark's opening concert for the mellowness and depth that Fields of November reflects
school year last weekend reveal- greatly enhanced Blake's in- the new trend in Norman's mu-
ed that a number of changes strumentals- sic - gone for the most part
have taken ;place in his playing Nancy is one of the musicians are the fast-paced, hard-picking
and style. Perhaps they are not of the group that plays with pieces that were so prominent
so much changes as an attempt Norman on his new record The on the first album. Instead the
to display many of the previous- Fields of November, put out on cuts are richer, and somehow
ly hidden facets of Norman's the Flying Fish label. more homey.
talents. Others who play with Norman Norman has so changed his
As Nancy Short, a cellist who are Charlie Collins on fiddle approach that even the engi-
played frequently with Norman and Tut Taylor on dobro, with neering on his two albums is
and who appeared with him last whom Norman plans to start a totally different. When I com-
weekend, expressed it, "We're new record label, Tennessee. mented that the music sounded
just bringing it out now to show Eventually they will be joined more immediate and accessible
folks." by a banjo player and an addi- on the new record, Norman ex-
To be sure, some things re- tional guitarist. plained that the first album was
main the same - the breath- In the future, Norman will recorded in a studio with the
taking velocity, the clean pick- be traveling with members of newest equipment and under
ing, and the old familiar fav- this core group. the most scientific conditions,
orites such as "Cattle in the He feels that with their mul- while Fields of November was
Cane" are still a part of Nor- tiple skills, the group will be recorded in a garage, with the
man's repertoire. H o w e v e r, able to interchange with each musicians sitting around in a
there is a newer, softer, more - ---
mellow aspect'to Norman s
playing.
Whereas by sheer technique
vate an audience, his perform- US
alone e woul beiaber capt
ace has taken dton t r iceas isLA ~ ik.
pect h more devot his Noon Luncheon Fr iday,Sept.1 3
own compositions.
Songs like "Last Train from SPEAKER:
Poore Valley," which deals with DR T H EOD RE KACH
a young wife's desertion of her C DR ,HE*ORU' EL
husband during a mining de- Director of Office of Ethics and Religion
pression, have a moving quality T C.
which not only adapts itself I C:
"Ethical Inarticulateness
crod in Hier Education"
C opening discussion in our semester
SERIES:
r Ethics and Values
adlui nin Higher Education: Thej
grasp-changes, melody, words, Ignored Dimension
harmony - going right on. So
much of their style is Stephen HOMEMADE SOUP and SANDWICH 40c
Stills.
At the end when the group
did "Ohio," their multi-million-
selling single about the Kent 5th HIT W EEK! 231 S. STATE ST.
State massacre, I could feel 5WDial 668-6416
that all along CSNY have point- SIDNEV POUTIER BILL COSBY
ed out corruption - and have SDN Y FBLTE
been right. A HfRRY BEL5W KE As u ch. Dan
-- - "They get
-- - IUPTOW N 0 funny when
SATURDAY you mess
how 7 NIG HT with their
'I money!
-Next--
o u tsI Marx. Bros.
II CRACKERS"
Sept. 13 & 4
M0 PeT. - tT
M ich. Le gue S Sn Wedopen 12:45
Shows at 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 p.m.
Mon Tue.-Thur.-Fri. at
in Mih. U7on&!9 Only
"I ONE WEEK ONLY !
tri
circle.
Ironically, this approach has
given the listener a front-row
seat and seems to lend itself
beautifully to the type of music
Norman makes.
The same reasoning that
keeps Norman on smaller re-
cord labels is that which
makes him cautious about giv-
ing interviews. For the most
part he feels that his personal
affairs do not relate and only
detract from the kind of state-
ment that he is trying to make.
Nevertheless, this hasn't kept
him from giving humorous, re-
laxed and highly personal con-
certs.
As he put it . . . "there's
music for the front porch and
the neighbors and there's mu-
sic that you play for the mu-
sicians and the experts."
To make his music more im-
mediate and accessible to more
people seems to be the road he's
on right now. It is, as he ex-
pressed it, "a mellowed-down
trip."
i
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SHORT or LONG
HAIRSTYLES TO PLEASE'
DASCOLA
BARBERS
ARBORLAND-971 -9975
MAPLE VILLAGE-761-27331
E. LIBERTY-668-9329
E. UNIVERSITY-662-0354
COMPLETE BED
MATTRESS &
BOX SPRINGS
from $84.60 & up
BUY FACTORY DIRECT
ANN ARBOR
BEDDING
52 YRS. OF SERVICE
9-5 Daily 1002 PONTIAC
9-4 Sat. 761-2277
i
i
Daily photo by KAREN KASMAUSKI
Serving dinneruntil 2 a. m.
Plenty of parking in rear
(closed Mondays)
215 N. Main Ann Arbor 663-7758.
Norman
CSNY
Blake
(elight
at Cleveland S
By IRIS BELL
Eighty-eight thousand people
packed Cleveland Stadium forj
the next-to-last concert of this
Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young
tour on Saturday, August 23. j
Jesse Colin Young performed
first, then Santana, then the
Band, who were handicapped
by the sudden illness of their
keyboards players and whose
short set was -beautiful any-
way, and then -- The Legend
-- David Crosby, Stephen
Stills,DGrahamrNash and Neil
Young.
SThere wasn't a single disap-
pointing moment in anything
that came from the stage; the
four men who make up CSNY
come and play superb music,
and their audiences know it.
CSNY's followers know if
and when an improvished sec-
tion is through they know whe-
ther it was more than ordinar-
ily good. They are young, but
much oftheir education has
been conducted with transistor
radios close at hand, so they
have developed a good sense for
music.
At most concerts, the audi-
ence regards itself as .a large
part of a show, but with CSNY
the performers are so extraor-
dinary that people just go there
to listen.
I had never heard the group
live before and had no idea how
they would do the switching
from electric to acoustic instru-
ments, from sextet to solo. With
them was Russ Kunkel on
drums and Joe Lala on percus-
sion and Tim Drummond on
bass.
There was just no tension at
all and no blown tunes in the
performance - nobody was
wiped out - and the energy was
palpable.
Stills, fingers flashing, did
"The Word Game," a long and
involved, but perfectly cohesive !
almost - chant about fhe hatred
of children for their bigoted
parents and this sad, lie-ridden
country. The song concludes
with the lines "because his
children, they art growing up
and plainly tired of putting up
with bigots and their silver
I Friley, Shook
Grishak and Wilcox
cups, they're fed up, they might}
throw up on you."
A lot of the songs were writ-
ten by Young, and Crosby sings
and plays gorgeously, and Nash
is great - but there will never
be another like Stills.
They often sing that famous
jazz-like triadal harmony and
the others trail off, and there
will be Stills with it all in his
S4
oph SI
Try(
Fri. & Sat.,
r
at.6:0
Basement of
THE BANANA CABARET ZAZUZOO
FROM OUTER SPACE HALFWAY REVIEW
And Now ..." ,
TAPIOCA
HOLIDAY*
v Sept. 12- 8p.m.
Sept. 13,14, 20,21-- & 11p.m.
H ALFWAY INN--EAST QUAD--RC -:
For Reservations: 761-7831
a Peachy Cream * Production
AUDITION NOTICE
Auditions for University Theatre Program's
PE RICL ES
with Guest Artist NICHOLAS PENNELL
and Showcase Productions of.
THE KILLING OF SISTER GEORGE
and
THE RED LANTERN
tA model proletarian drama from the People's Republic of China)
THURSDAY: SEPT. 12-7:15 FRIDAY: SEPT. 13-7:15
PERICLES: room 2528 Frieze SISTER GEORGE: room 2518 Frieze
RED LANTERN: room 2508 Frieze
Reading copies aavilable at Theatre Office, Mendelssohn Theatre Bldg.
PERICLES Production in Power Center, Nov. 27-30
THE KILLING OF SISTER GEORGE-Mon.-Wed., Oct. 21-23, Arena Theatre
THE RED LANTERN-Wed.-Sat., Nov. 13-16, Trueblood Theatre
PETER BOGDANOVICH'S
TARGETS 1968
A R ESBogdovich s first film, made when he was a mere movie buff is also
Boris Karloff's last screen performance. It is a horror-thriller story about
an old movie star making an appearance at a drive-in and a clean cut boy
next door who yields to psychological terrors to become a sniper. In color.
FRANCOIS TRUFFAUT WEEKEND
Fri.: SHOOT THE PIANO PLAYER
Sat.: STOLEN KISSES
Sun.: SUCH A GORGEOUS KID LIKE ME
TONIGHT AT ARCHITECTURE AUD.
cinema guild79 ADM. $1
FILM BUFFS
The Ann Arbor Film Co-operative is holding an OPEN MEETING to pncour-
age application for membership. If you are interested in working on projects
such as:
Ssign up a7UAC
for more info call 764-1107
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