ARTS The Michigan Daily Friday, March 15, 1985 Page 6 White's folk to warm up Ark By Doug Enders Josh White Jr. is a man committed to humanity and its well being. When he steps on stage to perform, he doesn't just sign to an audience, he tries to touch their souls. Like his father before him, he is determined to draw mankind together with his songs that preach brotherly love. When he comes to the Ark this Friday RUN', The 1985-1986 Michigan Student Assembly ELECTIONS Make your voice heard, and get the experience of a lifetime. RUN FOR AN MSA OFFICE Run, don't walk, to 3909 Mich. Union and pick up a candidacy packet Filing deadline: 5:00 p.m., March 20. for more info, call 763-3241. For the 1985 Stanford Summer Session Bulletin and application, mail this coupon to Stanford Summer Session, Building 10, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305. SUM ME and Saturday, White will bring with him a strong heritage of folk and blues music that extends from his father's career to his own. Like his father, the late Josh White, who was the first black artist ever to sell over a million copies of a single recording in the U.S., the younger White has also tasted success. With well-known songs like "Kings Highway" and "Last Night I Thought I Had a Dream," Eric Anderson once called White "the most refined and graceful folksinger in the business." Besides performing on stage, White's involvement in charitable organizations is another way in which he reaches out to his fellow man. And if you've ever heard the theme songs of VISTA or the Peace Corps, then you've heard White's inspirational voice. Fortunately, his humanitarian efforts haven't gone unnoticed. Several years ago the Michigan state government proclaimed April 20th to be Josh White/Josh White Jr. Day, in honor of White's and his father's services to the state. White also received the Harry Chapin Award for Humanity in 1984 for his work with the needy. When on stage, White's talents aren't limited just to singing and playing guitar; he is also an accomplished ac- tor. Acting since the age of four, when he made his stage debut, White has had a long and extensive training as a per- former. While living in New York, he played Broadway five times, including one starring role. Between his suc- cessful acting and singing careers, White made quite a name for himself and developed into a total performer. It was the marriage of his stage skills and his singing-songwriting abilities last summer, that enabled White to write the play Josh as a tribute to his father's life. It was a one man show in which the younger White recounted the highs and lows of the elder's life through brilliant use of monologue and song. Last summer the production went out on the road and made a successful tour throughout Michigan and the Mid-, west; including a stop at the Ark. Although he'll be leaving Josh behind, look for White's three perfor- mances at the Ark to be filled with good feeling, love, and a variety for all folk tastes; If for no other reason, come in hopes that a little of his success might rub off on you. Friday's show starts at 8:00 pm with tickets sold at the door. For Saturday's shows at 7:30 and 9:30 pm, tickets are being sold in advance as well as at the door. Heartwarming and sincere Josh White brings his music to the Ark tonight and Saturday. Everybody loves The Chieftans a- By Dennis Harvey E very ethnic music form has its peculiar charms, but if I were ever attacked by a savage beast, I'd place my bets for soothing it fastest on traditional Irish. The Chieftans played Hill Auditorium Wednesday night, and anyone not beaming after the second or third tune must have been there to study the architecture, and deaf besides. Long acknowledged as the leading players and popularizers of Irish trad music in the world, The Chieftans have achieved the kind of international crossover success usually reserved for just a few classical artists per generation. They've done film scores (The Grey Fox, Barry Lyndon); have been the opening act for everyone from CAMP SEA-CULL in Northern Michigan seeks counselors with the following skills: sailing, canoeing, tennis, swimming, land sports, arts & crafts, and outdoor leadership skills. Write: 5680 Euclid West Bloomfield, Ml 48033 855-5873 the Rolling Stones to Pope John Paul II; have recorded with types like Mike Old- field and Art Garfunkel; and have been joined onstage by Eric Clapton, Van Morrison, Jackson Browne, James Galway, Dan Fogelburg, and probably your mother, for all I know. They've appeared on the Great Wall of China, in the U.S. Capitol Building, and on Satur- day Night Live. Jerry Garcia and Sting might mutually implode on contact but they've both gone on record as being Chieftans fans. Lest this should begin to sound like the text for a photo spread in People, be assured that the trials of having everyone love them over roughly 21 years and 13 albums have left The Chieftans seemingly unaffected, or at worst a little bemused. The Hill show was surprisingly intimate, and the at- titude of the band dryly humorous. Then, of course, there was all that gorgeous music. The nature of Celtic music invites vir- tuostic playing, and there were almost too many stunning solos during the evening not to mention. My personal fave was Sean Keane's incredible first- set fiddle reel, which was so remarkably fast and complex thatsit seemed almost independent of the towering, seemingly terminally shy man behind the bow. (It's hard to believe Keane and one or two of the other six band members could really be so audience-skittish at this point in time, especially given the outright clowning of Paddy Maloney anti Derek Bell. On the other hand, the horrible suffering Keane endured as the audien- ce refused to stop applauding was a show of humility too good to be faded.) And that's no slight to Matt Malloy's equally startling, fluid turn alone on the Daily Photo by DARRIAN SMITh The Chieftans brought their delightful Irish folk to Hill Auditorium Wed- nesday night and left everyone satisfied with their concert. cn cn w x Q .' 0 1 JUNE 24 THROUGH AUGUST 17 All students in good standing are invited to attend. m -=-- m~ flute, to Martin Fay's lyrical fiddle air from the Grey Fox soundtrack, or to Derek Bell's mournfully pretty harp solo. All these instruments-and leader Maloney's tin whistle and bagpipe-like uilleann pipes, and most dramatically bodhran player Kevin Conneff's ravishing tenor voice-have the ten- dency toward sinuous arpeggios and lit- tle trills that send those shivers cour- sing down the spine in both jaunty dan- ce numbers and sweetly sentimental laments. A guest from the New York Chinese Music Ensemble (whose name, with all due apologies, I will not venture to spell) played a 17-century Chinese chordophone with a single string, bowed like a small cello, on a few tunes: Place an. ad in mt~cbea tti J4 l QIU t 'm m Rn 1 9 JOSTEN'S GOLD ,RING SALE from the new Chieftans in China LP. To say that The Chieftans made even traditional Chinese compositions soun a hell of a lot like more trotting through the Celtic music backlog (indeed, the foreign instrument in this context soun- ded remarkably like a fiddle, with a few moments of strikingly whiny differe- ces) is less a statement of their limits than a way of saying that they can make the world's music their ow Played with a 2,000-year-old Chines gong, the swingin' Oriental classic "Full of Joy" seemed like a standard reel with an almost parodistic element of eastern exoticism; but whatever the cross-cultural sacrifice in purity of form, the result was delightful. More in character, but equally sur- prising, was the guest appearance of Michael Flatley, "world champion step dancer," who had mouths general agape with his occasionally visual ac- companiment to the music. Step dan- cing is the grandfather of tap, deman- ding remarkable dexterity from the waist down and' absolute rigidity above; James Cagney in his few few dancing roles might have given you a hint at the fascinating control the form involves. Flatley was a little, daunting at first-the combinatin of his marionette-like movements and a rather unfortunate formal outfit made him look like a bellhop with happ - feet-but his amazingly springy jum and algebraically complex footwork soon became the audience favorite of the evening. It often seemed as though only a polite condescension to gravity kept him earthbound at all. If there's any limit to the number of traditional Irish tunes to be tapped, several pieces during the con- cert-especially a suite composed by the group for an upcoming Nation Georgraphic documentary, The Ball of the Irish Horse-indicated that The Chieftans are well prepared to pick up where their ancestors left off. The Chieftans are an unending joy; the only deflating thing about their Hill concert was that, eventually, it did end. EURl PE111 CAR T LAST DAY FRIDAY MARCH 15th 11 a.m.-4:00 p.m. $40 OFF 18K GOLD RINGS $25 REBATE ON 10K & 14K GOLD RINGS See a Josten's representative on Monday, March 11- Friday, March 15 from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.