4m

Page 10 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, May 22, 1984
Rain dampens Ark's pub sing

By Joseph Kraus
I T WAS RAINING Saturday night, but 300 people
didn't have the sense to go indoors.
The weather, that flirtatious governor of all things
warm, cold, wet and dry, was not very cooperative
for the Ark's Spring pub sing.
Held on the front lawn of the Ark underneath a tent,
the pub sing would ideally feature a warm sun in ad-
dition to its more controllable offerings of fine British
folk music and Guiness beers.
But that was not to be. Rain kept the crowds
smaller than they could have been both on Friday and
Saturday nights, and smaller crowds meant less
money for theArk.
The less-than-hoped-for turnout certainly doesn't
spell disaster for theArk, but it isn't exactly good
news. Ark director Dave Siglin commented, "I don't
think it 'saved' the Ark - no one thing could ever
save the Ark."

On the brighter side, he noted, "I think we proved a
couple of things. For one thing we proved we can
draw even when it's raining. I mean we could have
had five people there."
The Saturday night crowd was near capacity, in
fact, but the poor weather kept sales of beer and
munchies down.
.But the best news of all was the show itself. The
Friends of Fiddlers Green and Owen McBride alter-
nated sets of Irish, Scottish, and English folk songs to
provide a well-mixed stock of drinking music.
The Friends are a group of English, Scottish and
Irish immigrants who can play all sorts of instrumen-
ts, but who spend most of their time singing and
telling jokes.
The seven Friends filled the stage/Ark porch. Each
sat ina chair in a posture that curiously emulated his
singing style. The rich, deeper voiced ones sat deep in
their chairs, with almost bored expressions. The
higher pitched quirky ones sat forward leaning in'o
the mikes.
The hest part of the Friends act, though, are their

strong harmonies. Take one guitar, one fiddle, and
six voices and you get a sound that's impossible not to
like.
For the most part, they sang traditional songs, but
they threw in a handful of "modern" ones. A song
about Lady Diana featured a chorus of "Yada-Yada-
Yah" and they "fixed-up" one of the late Stan
Roger's songs calling it "Garnet's (Rogers, that is,
Stan's brother) Home Made Brew." They even sang
"First Kiss" a '50s-type song that would have made
Sha-Na-Na blush in four part harmony.
Owen McBride was in a somewhat less rowdy
mood than the Friends, and he suffered from having
his single voice fulfilling the same role as off of the
Friends. Nevertheless, he was a good showman with
a talent for getting his audience to sing along with
him.
He sang almost entirely traditional songs ranging
from "The Irish Rover" to "The Old Orange Flute."
He had an occasional bout with forgetting words, but
he was clever in getting back into the songs.

0


What is Lily Tomlin doing in Steve Martin's body?
When rich, eccentric Edwina Cutwater died,
a crazy guru tried to transport her
soul into the body of a
beautiful young woman.
But the guru goofed.
And Edwina's soul has
accidentally taken over
the entire right side
of her lawyer,
Roger Cobb.
He still controls
what's left.
Now, Edwina and Roger
are living together-
in the same body.
He's losing his job.
He's losing his girlfriend.
And he just can't seem to get
her out of his system.
No matter how hard
he tries.

RTIN - LILY TOMLIN
DMAN Production A CARL REINER film "ALL OF ME"
ins Screenplay by PHIL ALDEN ROBINSON Adaptation by HENRY OLEK
ME TWO" by ED DAVIS Music by PATRICK WILLIAMS
INSON Produced by STEPHEN FRIEDMAN Directed by CARL REINER
A JNGSR9e A UNIVERSAL Release
Presentation

0
0

FREE SCREENING TUESDAY, MAY 22ND
Courtesy of Kodak torc ed basis.
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN/ANN ARBOR
°'a r sponsored by
FILM COOP
* s -hi(jiA:>,ccaue lUNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN/ANN ARBOR