Spring, 1997
Last night I drove up to Titusville, NJ- the Jersey side of
G.Washington's Delaware River crossing- to a small Unitarian
Church. It is a modern building. Too bad, in the sense that
the architecture to me was cold and unimpressive, but it
turned out to have marvelous acoustics, which mattered a
great deal for this visit.
The Lexuses and Beemers contrasted sharply with my nine year
old Sentra, in the eyes of those who would care, but if they
want to waste their money, fine. The lobby was fairly empty
when we arrived. We were able to check out the display
tables that were set up, and then go right in and grab a
third row seat (we didn't want to sit any closer.) The
people there were nattily dressed, in best yuppie casual
style. This WAS situated between Bucks County, PA and
Princeton, NJ, after all, in a lush, hilly area.
The sanctuary was fairly small (held maybe two hundred
?) and plain (I imagine it is standard Universal Unitarian
style...) The room filled rapidly, but fairly quietly, given
the occasion.
Up to the low platform in front came this guy with
shoulder length curly blond hair and a beard. He introduced
this pretty young woman, with long curly dark hair, Lisa
Beth Weber, who was carrying a guitar, wearing a purple and
white print dress, the print being of moons and stars and
such. She never stopped smiling the whole time she was in
front of us. A big, pretty smile, lots of white teeth.
She started to sing without much ado. Her voice
was pleasant, her songs clever. One song she said she had
never sung in public- she warned us it was "stupid", but
sang it anyway, excusing herself because it tied in with the
next guest- she said to be a singer-songwriter, you
apparently had to write at least a song or two about trains
and diners. So this was hers- called the "Stupid Diner
Song". Really. It was actually quite funny, and did tie her
performance with Marty's, whose best-known song is a cute
ditty called "Diner".
Lisa Beth got the audience (including me) good and
warmed up for Marty. He ran up the center aisle and fairly
bounced onto the stage- indicative of the energy level to
follow....
It was just him and his guitar. But he has a set of
pipes! He opened with a song from his one CD, Black Sheep.
When he sings, he rocks back and forth on his toes, his
knees bent, his whole body into what he is doing. The MC
warned us that Marty's reputation with women is such that he
has been known to get women in the first few rows pregnant
just by looking at them...
I think the song was "Freedom Of
The Road." (I'm thinking maybe I should take notes, but,
then, that would affect my whole experience. Kind of like
taking pictures- it enhances the memory, perhaps, but can
hurt the "real" experience.) Anyway. It immediately
impressed my companion, who had never heard his music. He
has a huge range, and loves to belt out these notes, with
such depth and power it makes my spine tingle. Yet he is
soulful, not an opera-singer type. The second best aspect of
his performance for me was probably his demeanor, his
personality- you sense this person struggling with his life.
He seems a bit like an arrested adolescent- he could be a
very well-travelled, lonely, independent teenager- with a
life-time's worth of hanging out in bars, on street corners,
and out on the road, making music all the while. He is very
personable, even though he seems a bit nervous.
His songwriting has obvious strengths and obvious
weaknesses. On the one hand, he writes great songs about the
women he has known, his travelling and his rainy, lonely
nights. But there is a certain sameness to his songs,
especially in the words. He is certainly singing what he
knows, with no pretension. He does use a number of musical
styles in his numbers, from blues to scat to klezmer, and
makes it all work very effectively...He is in touch with a
variety of musical roots.
I was glad that for one of his two encores, he sang a
song called "I Don't Like Who I Am", in which he yodels
sweetly and beautifully. For this encore, he stepped in
front of the mike, to give the experience of hearing it
closer to the way it would sound on the street- he said it
was his song to pull in listeners when performing on the
streets of Boston. He wandered up and down the aisle,
singing this lovely song, yet projecting. Of course on the
street the grabber must be the yodelling chorus. You might
well be surprised, as I was, how beautiful yodelling can be.
I heard this great song on the radio, wondering why it
wasn't on his CD. I found out it is on his tape- his *real*
debut release called "In The Journey". It certainly deserves
to be on a CD. I hope it is soon. For the radio to play a
song only available on tape, you know they are impressed.
Marty apparently likes to be spontaneous in performance-
he had no set list, and there were pauses between songs
while he decided what to do next, most of the time playing
the first suggestion made by the audience. At one point he
started a song, got about two lines in, forgot the words,
and stopped. Then he tried two more times, finally giving up
and playing something else. He said it was a new song. Later
in the concert he tried again, and got it the second try.
Ironically, the words he forgot were something like "when
the right time comes around".
Despite these faux pas, the audience was enraptured. I
especially enjoyed watching Lisa Beth Weber, whose face I
had a clear view of, across the audience. Her reactions to
his playing were priceless.
When he finished, he quipped "I can call my mom
tomorrow, and tell her I was called for two encores in New
Jersey!"
© 1997 Thomas Coleman