Ina May Wool, Acoustic Cafe, London, 9th April 1999
Moon over 97th Street
words and pictures by Susan Cane
Over the past few years the Internet has led me to a lot more music than I'd ever guessed it would or could do. Tonight was the perfect example of this, because without the Internet there's no way I'd have been at the Acoustic Cafe...
A couple of months before the show I had never even heard of Ina May Wool, let alone listened to any of her music. Then I happened to read a couple of her postings to an e-mail music discussion group - and of all things I was intrigued by her name!
So out of curiosity, a few days later I had a look at her website. There I found out that she was based in New York, and what I read - about comparisons to people like Emmylou Harris, Carly Simon and Bonnie Raitt, about being described as "a contemporary Jane Austen" and about her connection with Jack Hardy's Fast Folk organisation - convinced me that I ought to hear the music for myself.
Usually when I buy a CD without having heard any of the artist's music, it's because it's been recommended to me by a friend or I've read a review published somewhere (my computer isn't the best, for downloading samples). This time I just sensed that this was something I would like - and that I should get on and hear the music without waiting for somebody else to point me in that direction.
So I contacted Ina May to ask how I could get hold of a copy of her CD, MOON OVER 97TH STREET. She told me what I needed to know and also that she was going to be playing some dates in London. I said that I would try to get to one. It then occurred to me that perhaps I shouldn't have made that decision before finding out whether I liked the music - but I told myself that if I hated the CD, I could just stay at home!
Luckily, when the CD arrived, I really liked what I heard. A real mixture of styles and influences, from gentle vocals on the quiet ballads to spirited, 'rockier' tracks... some blues... some jazz... A variety of backing instruments too, from the simple guitars and keyboard on Hotwired & Hungry, to the fuller sound on J'ai Gagné, which includes drums, bass, accordion and violin.
So to one of the London shows... There were five in all - following on from some dates in Scotland - and I was soon choosing between the Acoustic Cafe on April 9th and the Paradise Bar the following day. At first the later show was appealing, mainly because it was on a Saturday. Then I discovered that the venue was in a part of London that I didn't know at all - and that I was sure to have difficulty in finding.
I was already beginning to favour the Acoustic Cafe, when a friend announced that the Paradise Bar sounded "like a massage parlour". It was only a joke, but I went for the Acoustic Cafe anyway! The Paradise Bar might be a great place, for all I know, but I didn't get to experience it for myself this time...
I'd never been to the Acoustic Cafe either, but its central location (just off Charing Cross Road) made me think that even somebody like me, who has no trouble getting lost a mile from home, ought to be able to find it without too much difficulty - and yes, the venue was very easy to find.
When I first arrived there I wondered how I'd gone so long without knowing of its existence, as I must have walked right past it at least a few times. Posters and flyers advertising forthcoming bands are stuck to its big glass windows. Inside, at the front, there are a few small tables and some chairs. A corridor leads past the bar to the wider, darker room where the musicians play. The low stage spans the back wall and that wall is covered with huge mirror panels, which also extend along parts of the side walls. The mirrors, along with a big glass skylight, stop the room from feeling quite so cramped and dark (as long as it's light outside, of course!).
Having found the venue and gone inside, it didn't take me long to realise that I was ridiculously early - even by my standards. It was ten or so minutes before 7pm and the place was completely empty, apart from a few members of staff who were gathered around the bar, chatting.
I asked one of them about paying and he said that nothing would be happening until about 9.15, so somebody would take my money later... and was I really planning to stay until then? I knew I was only going to hear one set, but I was looking forward to it and I didn't want to miss it.
I'd assumed that arriving soon after opening time was the only way to guarantee being able to get in. Hmm, I don't think it's that sort of place, after all! So I bought a Coke and went to sit in a quiet corner, to work out what I was going to do next...
A
few minutes later the door opened and I looked up to see that Ina May Wool
and her husband, Daniel A. Weiss, had arrived. I recognised them from the
pictures in the CD booklet and on her website, but the guitars and other equipment
they were carrying were give aways too!
So when they went to the room at the back to do their soundcheck, I spent a couple of minutes plucking up the courage to go and introduce myself (something I'm terrible at doing, for some reason). It seems that even at the smallest venues it's not usually possible to get anywhere near a soundcheck, unless you stand with your ear pressed against a locked door or listen to muffled sounds coming from another room. So for whatever reason - perhaps because it's an aspect of live music that I don't often get the chance to see - I was really glad that I was there for those few minutes of testing.
Asked if there were any songs I particularly wanted to hear, my mind immediately went blank and I couldn't remember any of the titles. So I had to resort to describing my favourites: "the one about the divorce" (J'ai Gagné, which was already on the set list) and "the last but one track - the one before the instrumental" (January Thaw, not on the list, but later included in place of something else).
Soon the soundcheck was over and then there were a couple of hours to kill before the gig actually started. So the three of us ended up in a little cafe nearby, having a long chat. Wandering the streets of Soho later in the evening, I proved myself to be completely hopeless as a tour-guide. There's nothing surprising about that, though... Looking in the windows of all the music shops (I 'd never noticed quite how many of them there are), we passed Andy's Guitars. On display was a guitar labelled 'EX WILLIE NELSON'S COUSIN!', then added underneath, in pencil, 'MAYBE'. (A few days later I told this story to a colleague. He roared with laughter then stopped suddenly and asked "Who's Willie Nelson, anyway?")
Back at the Acoustic Cafe shortly before 9pm, people had started to arrive. Some of them sat or stood in the bar area, while some were in the other room looking as if they were waiting for something to happen. This was just a small crowd, but they looked like they were going to listen. One man had come to the Acoustic Cafe to see the duo after meeting them at the 12 Bar Club a few days earlier. On that occasion he'd had to leave before their late-night set eventually began, so this evening he was making another attempt to hear them play. I found myself a good place to stand and balanced my camera and other bits and pieces precariously on a stool.
Just before 9.30pm things finally got going. The stage itself was filled with all the equipment belonging to Hundred Dollar Funeral (the band who were going to be playing later in the evening), so microphones for Ina May Wool and Daniel A. Weiss had been arranged on the floor, just in front of the stage. In front of a sparse (but attentive, as far as I could tell!) crowd, they introduced themselves and began their ninth gig in nine days. Most of the songs were from MOON OVER 97TH STREET, with a couple of unfamiliar ones included too.
So though I knew most of the songs, this was the first time I'd heard live versions of any of them. Ina May Wool sang lead vocals and played acoustic guitar and Daniel A. Weiss (who usually plays in a Broadway show) sang backing vocals and played electric guitar. You Said, one of the new songs - new to me, anyway - was introduced as a song about "hanging about with sleazy musicians on the streets of New York, which is something I know a little bit about".
Janis is another song that I would have asked for, if I'd remembered. As it turned out I got to hear it anyway, so it didn't really matter. Ina May said that the song was inspired by a conversation she had with her mother. Around the time she finished school she had told her mother that she wanted to make her career in music and songwriting. Her mother burst into tears, she said, and was only able to utter two words: "Janis Joplin!" The closest I've ever come to Janis Joplin was seeing a big photograph of her displayed on the wall behind the stage, at Threadgill's in Austin, Texas - but somehow the song makes me feel that I know the person a little bit better:
"Little
eyes and hair gone crazy
It was groovy -- beautiful
Her light was bright but hazy
Purple hazy if you will
But the fog it does obscure things
And it's some things you just need
Keep on getting wounded
Eventually you bleed"
Just before Dark Star there was a call for the drummer from Hundred Dollar Funeral to come and fix the snare, which was making some interesting noises of its own. That sorted, the set continued without the extra percussion.
January Thaw is possibly my favourite track from MOON OVER 97TH STREET and I was especially glad to hear it live. Probably the saddest song on the CD and also the saddest one of the night - partly because of the lyrics and partly because of the 'subdued' way it's sung. It's one of those songs that I love without really being able to explain why.
A song about divorce wouldn't usually strike me as the best way to end a set (I always prefer it when the last song I hear is a happy one, rather than a sad one!), but J'ai Gagné is probably the happiest divorce song you're ever likely to hear. With lyrics like:
"But
as we changed the locks that day
I
wondered if she'd be OK
Until
she told me what her mother said
You
lose one man -- you find ten"
You just know that the subject of the song (a friend who comes from France, we were told) will manage, somehow!
OK, so this wasn't the Albert Hall - but given the choice I'd always pick a little place like this rather than a huge theatre or concert hall. I don't suppose anybody playing the Albert Hall is ever likely to be so friendly or ask me which songs I want to hear, either...
I
think it was after 11pm before the Acoustic Cafe became really full. By the
time I left, somewhere around midnight, Hundred Dollar Funeral had just finished
their second set and the place was jam-packed with people who looked like
they were only just starting their night out.
As
for Hundred Dollar Funeral themselves (a British trio consisting of a lead
singer/guitarist in his late teens, a bass player who appeared to be maybe
in his fifties and a drummer who was somewhere in-between), their sort of
music isn't really my sort of music - so I'm not the best person to reflect
on what I heard! Their brand of rock/blues seemed to be going down very well
with the rest of the crowd, though.
So was it worth the journey to London and the overnight stay, to hear one 45-minute set? Definitely. Of course I would have liked to hear more than that, but maybe I'll get that chance another time. With any luck this string of sets in small venues, plus a couple of radio appearances, will have created a bit of UK interest in Ina May Wool's music. (Oh, and nobody ever did ask me for any money...)
Set list: Down On Tenth Street, You Said, Janis, Taxi Driver, Elephant Learning To Dance, Dark Star, January Thaw, Devil You Don't, J'ai Gagné (I Won)
Susan Cane