The concert was good- Dave Van Ronk is an old folkie with great 12 string guitar talents and a unique voice. He shambled up to the stage- a gentle-looking 60 year old bearded overweight beerbellied giant with thick glasses, a loud shirt and a cowboy hat, from Queens. Just him and his twelve string. In concert I discovered the power & subtlety of his voice much more than on the records I have heard. It's one of those voices that on first hearing it, you figure is just barely in control, and will probably lose it at some point. But instead you gradually come to realize he is in complete control of it, even though it can vary from whiskey soaked smooth to too-much smoke very rough gravel, to sweet vibrato. Always right where he wants it to be- always on the edge. His speaking voice was very quiet, but his singing varied greatly in volume, very expressively. And his picking - you discover the complexity and beauty that can be found in folk-blues over and over. He plays a lot of old folk-blues from the 20s - Rev Gary Davis, Jelly Roll Morton, Blind Lemon Jefferson, etc. He has great stories to tell- quick little vignettes about the music, the composers he met, and why he sings the songs. His tales made one song flow naturally into another. We both enjoyed it, despite this dude with fried gray matter in the front row. When Dave first came to the stage after being introduced by the MC, this guy says loudly "I've been waiting for this for 25 years", which seems like a nice thing to say. In retrospect maybe he was waiting for some kind of revenge that long. No, not really. He was just overly enthusiastic to the point of extreme obnoxiousness- making inappropriate comments, clapping and stomping on the old resonant wooden floor, often off the beat. And laughing at strange moments, even singing although no-one else except Dave did the entire concert. Playing air guitar. All this in the context of a small, intimate, quiet concert. I just wanted to grab him and throw him out- as did everyone else. At one point Dave said "I learned this from Dinah Washington, my favorite blues singer in the world" and the dude says, plenty loud enough for the entire audience "How can you say that with a straight face?" to which Dave replied "You have something against Dinah?" and the dude said " Oh, no, she's beautiful", obviously cowed. Thank god. A few other times he made comments during Dave's between-song banter, and Dave managed to acknowledge what he said, place it in context and carry on. That part wasn't so bad. It was the rest...Very distracting. I got a headache trying to create a separate box in my head for Dave's music apart from this guy's antics. Dave controlled himself admirably. I don't know if I could have stood it as a performer. I barely could as an audience member. Dave did an encore, yes. He was superb. Do I know how to pick 'em, or what? Once again in a perfect settting with a small appreciative audience, and wonderful, powerful, skilled and emotionally expressive musicianship. With humor in just the right doses. If only that one guy...
