Play Nice.

[captainsblog]

Among the many benefits of eclectic musical taste is that you get to become friends with some of the artists whose music you love.  I've been blessed with a few here, and a few more on Facebook, who are in close-enough circles to actually share comments and thanks for performances with them.   One of those is a folk performer we've loved for years, named Lucy Kaplansky. We went to one of her Buffalo shows in 2011, and I became friends with her through that.  Earlier this year, Lucy posted a picture of a sign outside a Minnesota venue where she was performing. I can't find the picture, but I've tracked it down to the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis, and I've found references to the shows from this past February. The sign listed the following:

FEB 27  STANLEY CLARKE
MAR 8   LUCY KAPLANSKY
MAR 8   LAKE STREET DIVE

Snarky me had to note Lucy's place in the order of things, so I commented with something along the lines of, No shame in being billed under Stanley Clarke. At least you're ahead of Lake Street Dive.

Because what did I know? I figured it was a local band with not much of a following, and which was lucky to get a gig.

What did I know, it turns out? Not much at all.

----

In the months since, I've come to learn a lot about this rather amazing foursome. They've been playing since 2004, mostly around Boston where they attended the New England Conservatory; the name, though, is a homage to the dive bars in the very Minneapolis where I saw that sign. (Their guitarist/trumpet player is Minnesotan.)

It was an almost random Youtube of a streetcorner performance of "I Want You Back" that got them viral attention in 2012-

Watch on YouTube

This was probably the first music of theirs I heard, in a re-creation on World Cafe sometime earlier this year. I just missed them playing in Rochester, and just picked up their Bad Self Portraits album which they've been touring to support (to mostly sold-out audiences).

So the moral is... don't make fun of the bands on the marquee. You may wind up being rather in love with them.

Comments

[puppy-ciao.livejournal.com]

I used to listen to Lucy Kaplansky a lot, saw her a couple of times back in the day (high school days.) Nice!

[captainsblog.livejournal.com]

She is so nice and down-to-earth in addition to being incredibly talented. The night we saw her here in 2011, she'd just sprained her guitar-chord-playing wrist, so her set was done part a cappella, part with her guitar parts done on piano (which she could still play), and part with Antje Duvekot, her opening act, doing the guitar parts for her. All on one night's notice. It wound up being one of the most amazing shows we've ever seen:)