Wrist: broken. Heart: warmed. Breath: taken away.

[captainsblog]

Last night. A historic venue in the village, a crowd of folkies (including, to my not too much surprise, another bankruptcy lawyer who's always been an overall nice guy in my dealings with him), and two amazing vocalists making beautiful music- far more together than they might have expected to when this gig was booked.

It was sheer coincidence we even knew about this show. The News has been posting a short and sweet entertainment listing on its home page, and it's been very egalitarian, putting even small-venue acts in the spotlight. So when I saw Lucy Kaplansky's name there the other day, I knew we had to be there.  She's a one-time coffee house bud of Shawn Colvin, has performed in groups with Dar Williams (once) and Eliza Gilkyson (now), and we've been fans since around the time she recorded an album called Ten Year Night. She explained that title- it was written on the 11th anniversary of meeting her husband. Yeah- ten does scan better:)  They're now in their 25th year together (as are we here::smooches::), they have an amazing and very talented now eight-year-old daughter (very into the Beatles and wrapping both parents around her fingers;), and while Lucy's touring sometimes keeps them apart, that also lends itself to some soul-searching and soulful-sounding songwriting. One of those, a new piece she did called "Mother's Day," was about being away from Molly for a gig on that special day.

As with most of the repertoire that she played on herself, she did that one on the piano. It's not her usual forte, and this particular one looked, not like a Steinway on the stage of Kleinhans, but more like the one Rowlf the Dog played in The Muppet Movie. Still, she more than made do, even though Lucy was down much of a paw for most of the night; she came in with a brace on her wrist (okay, it might not have been broken- it's just a flesh wound!) and couldn't play her usual guitar. Nonetheless, she soared above it all, using a combination of that old pi-yanna, some awesome a cappella numbers, and the just as awesome help of her opening act.

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I hadn't heard of Antje Duvekot before this show, but wow. She's another to come from the Dar Williams line of gorgeous words, expert musicianship and the production values of Dar's longtime collaborator, Richard Shindell. Her second album, The Near Demise of the High Wire Dancer, is simply beautiful, and we got to hear several tracks from it live, including "Vertigo" and "Merry Go Round," the latter an older composition that came back to life a few years back when Bank of America requisitioned it for, of all things, a Super Bowl commercial.

Lucy came up for Antje's last number, who then sat down while the headliner kept us in suspense- telling us "she'll be back later," and then getting her opening note from the piano before going into her first a cappella number. That's when Lucy wrevealed the wrist and brought Antje back for the first of many happy returns.

Both of them made in-between storytelling a part of the show, which I've always adored with the likes of Dar and Girlyman. Antje told of driving off from a gig in Iowa, leaving her whole stash of back-table CDs in a box in the parking lot. When she discovered this oops 900 miles later, the promoter drove back to the venue, found the box and returned it safely to her. The box, he told her, had been opened, but none taken.

As for Lucy, when she finished covering Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" (Antje had earlier done a simply lovely version of his "Famous Blue Raincoat" with Lucy singing harmony), she somewhat sheepishly admitted to thinking of it now, first and foremost, as "the Shrek song."  She put "Manhattan Moon" into an even more beautiful context than its words convey.  She prefaced one piece - "Don't Mind Me"- by explaining she, her husband and Dar Williams had been commissioned to write a piece together for a movie. Ultimately, Dar went to a separate room (and "I Won't Be Your Yoko Ono" resulted from the effort), while their contribution was the song she did for us. The movie never got made, depriving us of the director's promise to use her in the film as "Miss Kaplansky- folk singer."

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Toward the end of the night, though, Lucy got to some bittersweet tales of family.

Her father was (and on Wikipedia, still is) a "noted mathemetician," but one with a song on his chalkboard along with the formulas and dust.  She sang two of his songs- one, a parody of a tacky "alphabet love song" (I think this one). Being from Toronto originally, he went from A to Zed tearing that song into little pieces, her favourite line in it being "'I' hope you're i-onized."  Her most requested song at gigs, she said, is another of his, simply called "pi," which is something Tom Lehrer would be just as proud of as we were hearing him belting it out through her.  She then asked us if we'd be interested in an EP of his music. HELL, YEAH! was the vote from Williamsville;)

Dad died a few years ago, but her mom, just within the last few months. Her encore consisted of two numbers about that: one, not even named and possibly not even finished, was a tribute to her in her final days. The other was a singalong of "Let it Be." No further encore was needed after that; she'd plainly left every piece of her heart on the stage by then.

Yet both mixed the sad with the fun and the kickass before that. It was fun, in a slightly-schadenfreudian way, seeing them whisper cues to each other for songs that Lucy usually does solo on her own guitar, and apologizing for missed lyrics on even songs she's been singing for 20 years (muscle memory must be a part of remembering words when you're used to playing an instrument with them). Lucy also asked forgiveness for her eyesight diminishing along with her memory- she's a recent 50-year old, three months younger than me in fact, and turning 51 on Wednesday- HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRRL!!!!. (She asked us to Friend her on Facebook, so she might even see this:)

They ended the main set with a kickass cover of Nanci Griffith's "Ford Econoline"- a track Lucy said she should remember, since she sang backup on Nanci's original recording of it. That was in 1987; our CD of it is so old it still needed the "DDD" codes in the corner. They did just as powerful a rendition all these years later.

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For reasons yet to be explained, by joining the sponsoring Buffalo Friends of Folk Music at the door, we wound up as members for the rest of the season without owing them any more beyond the non-member price I'd prepaid. In fact, they said, they owed me two bucks, which I left as a donation, which I will report on my 2011 return as "not nearly enough for a beautiful night well spent."