October 2000--tour with Roger McGuinn

From the RT list. Edited to make more sense, I hope--my edits are in brackets.

Dates: Towson, Oct. 17, 2000; Harrisburg, Oct. 18, 2000.




Subject: [RTLIST] RT in Towson, MD

25 words or less:

Richard has a new shirt.
Richard sang a new song.
On "Tambourine Man" with McGuinn, Richard sang the high part.
He's hoarse. He's intrepid. Boffo.


Subject: [RTLIST] 150 words or more on Towson (mostly McGuinn)

OK, I'm barging in again...(yeah, Ben was at the same show, but I think
he's confusing Goucher with Gallaudet, which is in the same general region).

Scott said:

>BTW, Roger McGuinn was absolutely terrible. When he played Ballad of Easy
>Rider I wondered whether he wasn't embarrassed to play it in front of OH,
>who did such a fantastic cover. If the room hadn't been full of aging
>former hippies, he probably would have been booed off the stage. Those of
>you going to McGuinn shows, spend the first hour of the show in the bar
>and walk over afterwards.

McGuinn was actually heckled. He was having a hard time keeping his
12-string in tune (he had a 12-string acoustic, a banjo, and an electric
guitar that I know someone else can name-I'm blanking on the model). It
was very warm in the hall, and quite humid. So he finally set the
12-string aside and said, "I'm going to switch guitars." Whereupon some
rude bastard yelled something like "You should change music, too." (Scott,
I hope I didn't just call you a rude bastard!)

I'm not a McGuinn fan, but a lot of people seemed to enjoy him, rude
bastard notwithstanding. We (husband and I) thought he seemed very ill at
ease--and we have this thing about people demanding that we sing or clap
along, so we were conscientious objectors to his attempts to get us to join in.

Still, if you wait an hour before going in, you might miss some of
McGuinn's performance with RT, which was pretty entertaining. RT is a
generous accompanist--he really makes McGuinn sound better. And I liked
"Easy Rider," though it didn't hold a candle to Fairport's version.

Assuming that the McGuinn set in Harrisburg tonight is similar to last
night's, you'll definitely find me in the bar during that @%!^#$! chestnut
mare song, which opened last night's show. If there is a bar. I've never
been to this venue before.

By the way, last night's show started very late. I heard (unconfirmed)
that the reason was that the sound crew that was supposed to set up the
auditorium had been in a terrible traffic accident and had to be replaced
by a new crew. I hope everyone's OK. (I think this was a local crew--not
Simon, who was there, or anyone who travels with McGuinn.)


Subject: [RTLIST] Harrisburg, 18 October 2000

Holy Mother of Pearl, as I think someone on M*A*S*H used to say.

McGuinn was far better tonight, though maybe it was just because I was in
spitting distance (row A, seat 2...what can I do to ensure that I have this
seat at every RT concert I attend for the rest of my natural life? Lordy!)
and was getting the sound pretty directly, without a lot of speaker
distortion. He did "Bells of Rhymney," which was a real treat. On the
other hand, my clever attempt to miss "Chestnut Mare" by hanging out in the
lobby bar was foiled by a rearrangement of the set list.

Speaking of rearranged set lists, Richard shook his lottery barrel tonight
a wee bit. We got a lot of the same stuff as last night, but overall the
set list tonight was even stronger than last night's. And he didn't seem
to be in any throat distress. And he didn't flub a single line, as far as
I can recall. (And there I was, up front with my cue cards....)

He opened with "Walking the Long Miles Home." I hope that someone else
kept track of the rest of it. I remember these songs, not in this order
(and abbreviated 'cause I'm a lazy git who should be in bed): Galway to
Graceland, Ghost of You Walks, When the Spell Is Broken, Turning of the
Tide, Daddy Is a Mummy, Valerio, Waltzing's for Dreamers, Dry My Tears,
Uninhabited Man (I think....), Crawl Back, Valerie, Easy There Steady Now,
Mingus Eyes...what have I forgotten? (Oh. Vincent. Duh.)

Someone more techie than me should describe what he did with his tuning for
"Easy There Steady Now"--retuning the lowest string way down and thereby
simulating Danny a wee bit.

Highlights included a somewhat more polished version of "I Agree with Pat
Metheny," a Nader endorsement of sorts, a story about Ralph McTell's skewed
audience demographics, and the outburst of an obviously very young
attendee: "I love Richard Thompson!" to which RT gamely replied with a few
bars of Raffi's "Baby Beluga."

Anomalies noted: a ball cap with a red "F" on it during the duet with
McGuinn (for the main set it was back to the ol' beret/balmoral); something
pink wedged in at the head of the guitar (thumbpick?);
three-count-'em-three cheat sheets plus an index card from his pocket; more
elaborate stage lights than I've seen at a solo show in a while. (This was
a pretty posh setting--700 seats, two balconies.)

A spectacular show, well worth the drive, even without the stop for donuts.

Pam (on a sugar/caffeine high)
pmw@annapurna.com

P.S. Oh, yeah, though I was in spitting distance, I didn't spit. I got
spat upon, though, however inadvertently. And I didn't really have cue
cards, honestly.


Subject: [RTLIST] (1) McGuinn; (2) new thread

First off, I want to take back my "one-trick pony" comment on McGuinn's
guitar playing after sitting just a few feet from him last night. I was
especially impressed by the zeal with which he attacked "Eight Miles
High." But he's no slouch at banjo, blues guitar, and other un-Byrdsy
instrumental genres.

Driving to and from Harrisburg last night, I listened to Hejira and Perspex
Island back to back. I hit the CD "repeat" button a lot. Listening to
Robyn Hitchcock, I thought about covers. You know how Elvis Costello did
"Withered and Died" and RT did "Pump It Up"? I wondered about "song swaps"
(temporary, of course) that RT and other musicians could do.

I'd give Robyn a go at "She Steers By Lightning" (though maybe it's too
obviously Hitchcockian), and RT his best effort at "Child of the Universe."

Others?