On Friday we took a short walk to see Amiee Mann at our own Nock Middle School here in Newburyport. I first saw Aimee Mann almost 30 years ago as the bass player in a band called “The Young Snakes” in Boston (she always laughs when I tell her that). She had a freak hit with “Voices Carry” in the band ‘Til Tuesday in 1985 and has gone on to a stellar career as a solo artist. She appeared in a trio setting Friday night with her playing acoustic guitar along with a bass and keyboard player. The resulting, rather short, set was somewhat of a mixed bag. In this spare setting you missed all the wonderful Brian Wilson/Beatles pop gloss that inhabits many of her records. The other outcome of this band was perhaps highlighting the somewhat limited nature of her melodic skill. All that being said it was a good show; her skills as a lyricist and singer are high even if she tends to return often too familiar chord changes and melodic hooks. Her set drew songs from many of her records, but favored her latest CD “@#%&*! Smilers” from which she drew 4 tunes. She also treated the audience with 3 new songs from a proposed musical based on her thematic disk about a boxer “The Forgotten Arm.”
On Saturday morning we when to the lovely Portsmouth Music Hall with our 6 year old to see Dan Zanes and Friends in concert. As parents of a 6 year old we have become acquainted with a lot of modern children’s music, and while much is junk there is a fair amount of stellar offerings, and one of those is Dan Zanes. NH native Dan Zanes rocked Boston back in the mid-1980’s with his band The Del Fugeos but 10 years ago launched his career as a children’s entertainer. I think if him as the Keith Richards of children’s music with his relaxed and scruffy rockers persona. Based in Brooklyn, his band tours the world with its enchanting mix of folk standards, traditional tunes mixed with great children’s music. There else are you gonna hear a Broadway tune by Frank Loesser along with Pete Seeger’s classic children’s song “All Around the Kitchen,” the traditional work anthem “Pay me my Money Down,” “Waltzing Matilda” and a few Spanish songs thrown in to boot! All are performed flawlessly by Zanes on guitar, mandolin and banjo and his friends which includes (gorgeous) Sonia de los Santoson on guitar, Elena Moon Park on violin and trumpet, Saskia Sunshine Lane on bass and Colin Brooks on drums. The band is all first-rate and has a wonderful organic vitality. They never played down to the many kids in the audience but simply treated them (and the adults) to a superb set of traditional and roots acoustic music performed with rollicking wit and energy. At the end of the day the fact that this wonderful show was a “children’s concert” became a moot point.
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