Nil Lara at Borders
Check out the innovative Nil Lara at Borders tonight. Come hear the
Venezuelan-raised musician play his groovy, passionate songs when he
plays a free set and autographs copies of his albums. The show begins
at 7 p.m. at Borders Books and Music at 612 E. Liberty St. For more
information, call 662-7652.
Monday
January 27, 1997
A
Folk Festival warms Hill
Evening of high spirits and good music is a success
By Anders Smith-Undall
Daily Arts Writer
Forget how snowy-and cold it was on Saturday. Four-thou-
sand folk music fans and supporters of the Ark did, and in
were treated to an outstanding evening of perfor-
ces at the 20th Annual Ann Arbor Folk Festival at Hill
Auditori um.
The Celtic duo of Ali Bain, a fiddler, and Phil Cunningham,
an accordionist, were the evening's first
act. The pair, who traveled to Ann Arbor R
from Scotland on Friday, ran through a set
of jigs, airs and rollicking reels that
opened the Festival in fine fashion.
Next on the bill was singer/songwriter
Dan Bern, who took the stage armed with
a, his guitar and a caustically sarcastic
s nse of humor. He performed five songs, during which he
revealed himself to be "the new Messiah," professed a child-
hood crush on his older sister, and, while parodying Bob
Dylan, claimed to have been abducted by aliens who demand-
e4 to know why all of his songs were written in the key of G.
Following Bern to the stage were the Drop Caps, featuring
Mike Gordon of Phish on bass and lead vocals. The band was
the first of the night to use electric guitars and drums, and
seemed more than slightly out of place. They began with three
attempts at funk, which tried to groove but did not succeed. The
EF
F{
audience remained unmoved, until Gordon stepped away from
the microphone for the fourth and final number. Sparing the
crowd his unschooled vocals and subduing his blandly plodding
bass line, this song instead featured the skilled musicianship of
the other Drop Caps, emphasizing their nimble banjo and lead
guitar work. The bluegrass-flavored tune was their most suc-
cessful - until Gordon felt compelled to step in with a mean-
dering bass solo that bogged down whatever energy had been
created. Thankfully, this was their last
E v i E W piece before giving way to Susan Werner.
Werner, a classically trained pianist
Ann Arbor and vocalist, began on guitar before
'olk Festival switching to piano due to technical prob-
HiiI Auditorium lems with a microphone. In each of five
Jan. 25, 1997 songs, she demonstrated remarkable
vocal range and emotion. Most notable
was the quietly sorrowful "St. Mary's of Regret.'
At this point, master of ceremonies Les Barker, an English
poet and comedian, took the stage to fill the time between
acts with his off-beat comic rhymes, as he had throughout the
evening. Barker was a change-of-pace treat, delivering such
poems as "Bungee-Jumping for Lemmings." Following his
brief act, Barker summoned to the stage bluesman David
Bromberg, long a fixture at the Ark and a clear fan favorite.
To begin, Bromberg told the crowd it was his first perfor-
mance in more than a year, and then launched into "Travelin'
Blues." He had not made it halfway through, however, when
misfortune struck and he snapped a string. He finished the
song the best that he could, then called for Jay Ungar and
Molly Mason to play while he repaired his guitar. Ungar, a
remarkable fiddler, and Mason, a talented multi-instrumental-
ist, covered for Bromberg with a lovely medley of "Midnight
on the Water" and "Bonaparte's Retreat." Bromberg remained
onstage and attempted to restring but snapped the replacement
while tuning it, much to the audience's amusement.
With Bromberg finally ready, Mason switched to upright
bass from guitar for another bluesy number with Bromberg
singing lead. Next up was Fats Waller's "Ain't Misbehavin',"
with .Mason back on lead vocal.
The three finished with a series of five songs that were per-
haps the highlight of the evening. The first of the four was
Bromberg's "I'll Take You Back," in which he growled
promises to make up with his girlfriend "When water ain't
wet / and Clinton pays off the national debt / ... when James
Brown ain't funky / and King Kong ain't a goddamn mon-
Nanci Griffith performs at the 20th Annual Ann Arbor Folk Festival on Saturday at Hill Auditorium.
key." When the audience's laughter had subsided, openers
Bain and Cunningham came back to join the three for "The
Lover's Waltz," the sweet title track from Ungar and Mason's
new album, and "Dirty Dog," a rousing Cajun romp that had
the audience hooting and clapping along. Next, Ungar led the
group in his "Ashokan Farewell," the familiar, aching theme
to Ken Burns' documentary on the Civil War. Then, to close
the first set, the five stomped through an energizing finale
that brought the crowd to its feet in a standing ovation.
Following a brief intermission, Patty Griffin played four
songs accompanied only by her guitar, highlighted by a beau-
tifully sung rendition of Willie Nelson's "Crazy."
After Griffin, Leon Redbone took the stage, cutting a comi-
cally dashing figure in his customary dark suit, straw hat and
shades. Playing guitar and accompanied by a muted horn, he
entertained the crowd with his wryly eccentric renditions of
turn-of-the-century Dixieland blues.
Martin Sexton appeared next, having just arrived from
Hartford, Conn., where he spent 12 hours snowed in. Like
Redbone, he performed a truncated set of three songs, in
which time he showed off an amazing vocal range that elicit-
ed a standing ovation after he closed with "America the
Beautiful." Of his voice, Nanci Griffith later remarked,
"What about that?! I mean, whoa! Totally unexpected!"
Griffith and her Blue Moon Orchestra, the headliners for
whom most of the crowd had been waiting, came out around
10:45 p.m. They began with John Prine's "Speed of the Sound
of Loneliness,"one of four covers Griffith would play. That was
followed by "The Flyer;" the title track from her most recent
album. Griffith was enthusiastic and in fine voice; the band
was tight, even rocking. Other highlights included an emotion-
al version of Townes Van Zandt's "Tecumseh Valley," which
Griffith dedicated to the recently deceased songwriter; an older
Griffith-penned favorite, "Ford Econoline;" and great rendi-
tions of two songs from her "Flyer" record, "Traveling Back to
Georgia" and "This Heart." The show closed, appropriately,
with all the performers returning to the stage to join Griffith in
the Kate Wolf classic, "Across the Great Divide." At Griffith's
urging, the entire crowd sang along with the choruses.
In all, the evening proved a great success. The Festival, in
its 20th year, is going strong. On Saturday night, it accom-
plished both of its goals: To raise money for the Ark (a sold-
out crowd paid $25 a piece), and to provide a diverse and
entertaining evening.
Susan Werner sings at the Folk Festival.
venezuelan-style Lara plays at Borders, Pontiac
By Kristin Long
Daily Arts WNriter
According to Nil Lara, "the whole thing is about
celebrating life." Whether he plays in a small club like
7th House in Pontiac as he did Saturday night, or as a
member of the touring HORDE festival last year, Lara
knows how to keep his shows
down-to-earth as they represent
- attitude toward maintaining a
ical perspective of life.
Lara's style is by no means
standard. He worked the crowd of
ages ranging from eight to 50 by
hardly working them at all. Each
song painted a picture of his life and his personality
with emotion and sincerity. The New Jersey-born, but
predominantly Venezuelan-raised, artist took the stage
with class before an anxiously awaiting crowd.
Lara and the band arrived late to the theater from
Chicago, beginning their sound check at 8 p.m. when
show was scheduled to begin. The crowd poured
1o the foyer of the venue, waiting there until the
doors finally opened at 8:45 p.m.
The Kildare Trio preceded the headliner, and amid
much conversation from the audience, managed to
provide a decent prelude. The Windsor, Ontario, band
was made up of one female vocalist and three males,
on drums, guitar and bass. They fit the Lisa Loeb style
that has become the trend of many female singers of
today. While their music blended a stellar mix of
quick-paced beats with a mellow tone, the songs
gan to sound the same and eventually melded
together.
By 10:15 p.m., Lara and his accompanying musi-
cians, Andrew Yeomanson, David Goodstein and Leo,
took the stage and opened with "Money Makes the
Monkey Dance" The worlds of Haitian and American
culture collided and formed a sensational scene.
Definitely not a usual performance, the interaction
between the four was electric, which made their pre-
scntation all the more enjoyable.
Appearing on both "Monkey," Lara's second album,
d his major label self-titled album, "Money Makes
Monkey Dance" set the mood for the rest of the
;E
night: completely original, realistic and memorable.
Both "Monkey" and Lara's other independent
release "My First Child," were well represented in his
performance. The two albums contain some of the
same songs as those that appear on his Capitol records
release. Lara explained, "You know how Bob Marley
recorded a song over and over
again until he hit the right tone?
W V I E W Well, that's what I am trying to do
Nil Lara here."
Nira The final product of his efforts
7th House was the self-titled Capitol release
Jan. 26, 997 that hit stores last March. "What
we did was we released the entire
album, and stations across the country just picked the
songs they liked and played them;" Lara said. "Like in
Chicago, (the radio stations) played 'Money makes
the Monkey Dance.' In Maine, they played 'Crawl,'
and in California it was 'How Was I to Know,' which
was to be released by Capitol later. We did it old style.
That's how it should be done?'
Lara said his style stems from his upbringing in
Venezuela, where he began his interest in music at 5
years old. He discovered the cuatro, a four nylon-
stringed instrument from Venezuela, at the age of
eight. He became bilingual when he frequently trav-
eled to Miami and New York to visit his grandparents.
In junior high, Lara moved to Miami.
A majority of his sound stems from the use of the
tres, a Cuban folk instrument from which Lara has
developed a sensational resonance all of his own. The
tres contains three pairs of strings for three notes, and
Lara said he manipulated it to create emotional tones
reflecting his personality.
Diversity was the most obvious characteristic Lara
displayed in his performance. "It's cool to spread the
culture" he said. His songs combine both English and
Spanish, and even the most xenophobic individual
could not help but enjoy the combination. The various
tempo changes the group used kept the mood alive
and the spirit intense.
With entertaining interaction between the musi-
cians, the crowd could feel the excitement. At one cor-
ner of the stage, bassist Leo danced with vigor, and at
the other corner, guitarist Andrews Yeomanson chilled
to the sounds while adding personality of his own as
well. On drums, David Goodstein smiled and added
ample percussion to the group.
Each song, written by Lara, reflected nostalgia,
life and love. The most moving piece was "Bar6,"
written for Lara's former music instructor who died.
"He was a gentle man that used to play with us," Lara
said. "He is a difficult person to replace, so we never
did."
Each song he played was a stellar representation of
Lara's talent. In "Fighting for My Love," he used the
tres and the effect evoked smiles from fans. The
acoustic elements combined with the tres, on the pre-
vious released "How Was I to Know," exceeded any
expectations. The only problem was the sporadic
absence of vocals due to a low microphone volume -
or overwhelming background music.
Aside from his clear enjoyment of the music, Lara
appreciated the enthusiasm of his fans as well. "It's
great to play and look out there and see the people
dancing. I love talking to the people," he said. After
the show, he visited with his fans to show his grati-
tude.
Lara has been on tour for a year and three months,
traveling across the country as well as overseas to
Japan and Spain. "I love the road," he commented.
"The fact that I'm on the road is a whole different
lifestyle."
Despite the distance while touring, the artist is con-
stantly in touch with his fans. "It's all about music. I
want to be open with the people," he said. The man
even checks e-mail at NilLara@aol.com. "I may not
get to it for a while, but I try to respond to everyone"
he said.
Lara brought his culture and identity to his fans, and
the audience identified with him. While the show was
not all mellow and not all hard-core rock, it was a sen-
sational mix of both and surpassed any expectations
that might have been set.
- Nil Lara will be appearing tonight at Borders
Books and Music at 7. He will be performing songs
off of his albums as well as signing copies of his
CDs.
'Il
Nil Lara plucks away at his guitar.
, l
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