GREENSBORO – Four excellent local singers and musicians came together for a concert at the Highland Center for the Arts in Greensboro Saturday evening with a program of some two dozen beautiful melodies that continuously entranced the full capacity house. They were singer, dancer and choreographer Taryn Noelle, singer, songwriter, acoustic guitarist and flutist Patti Casey, electric guitarist Dono Schabner and singer and electric bass guitarist David Rowell, who blended their talents in an impressive ensemble performing primarily love songs from a variety of sources. Their voices were particularly fine, with feeling and expressiveness for the lyrics, warm color in their tone and clarity in their pronunciation. They were really enjoying playing music together and connected well to the audience.
The first number was an original by Casey, “You Belong Among the Wildflowers,” about how the person loved was incomparable and that through love they could get “far away from your troubled world.” Noelle was next with an enthusiastic rendition of a tune celebrating “boys, boys, boys, boys.” Here and in most of the selections, Schabner was featured in imaginative improvisations upon the theme. “Dandelion” was another Casey composition, counseling a young child in poetic images of nature to “live our life like a dandelion.” Rowell then sang a ballad about a son gone wrong despite his mom’s very best efforts to make him better, a curious mixture of humor and sadness. Casey and Rowell harmonized in a Lubin Brothers tune with the refrain, “How’s the World Treating You?,” as a man bemoans a relationship gone south.
Noelle returned with a very amusing piece about a doctor describing what he’s found in an x-ray film to a patient, with wonderfully absurd lyrics, starting in French and then continuing in English, with puns on “bon” and “bone.” “The Way You Look Tonight” (Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields) was given an engaging performance by Casey on flute and Rowell singing, a classic of the American Song Book. Casey then sang and accompanied herself on guitar to another original song about a person being “afraid of changes because I’ve built my life around you.”
An Irish number by Emeld May was sung by Noelle, about not being able to “shake this feeling away,” an uncomfortable sixth sense about a relationship and the future of their love. Schabner soloed in an Elliott Smith piece about a man encouraging his partner to “stay up all night,” “look at the stars,” “forget the pressures of the day” and any depression, to be alive together. “Stardust Melody” was finely sung by Rowell with its evocative reminiscences of nightingales, gardens and a past romance.
Noelle gave a poignant song about the roller coaster of love, “I’m drowning in a river of my tears,” but “I need you at the end of the day.” A Fats Waller work, “Ain’t Misbehavin’”, rounded out the first half of the program, Casey singing while Noelle tap danced to that delightful melody.
Following the intermission, Rowell performed the hilarious favorite, “I’m My Own Grandpa,” which traces some ridiculously convoluted family relationships leading to an upside down conclusion. Casey next sang another classic, starting with the phrase, “I’d like to get you on a slow boat to China,” a predictable fantasy. A second number in French and English by Noelle, with Casey on flute, had the former moving around the stage, bringing her closer, closer to the audience like a diva. A lively piece was a Quebecois reel, with Casey on flute while clogging with her feet to the contagious dance rhythms. Rowell did a Tony Washburn song about a person who had “built a wall around myself” after the hurt of failed love, but he still had “a crack in my wall” for love to come through.
“I Wonder” by Leroy Preston got Noelle singing about the uncertainties of love by someone who had been disillusioned in the past. Vermont’s legendary Pete Sutherland was a prolific song writer and inspiring musician, and Casey wrote a piece about him after he died recently, with a lot of feeling in the lyrics and many questions, but ending in the words which beautifully summarized the power of music, that “now that you’re everywhere, you’ll always be here with me.”
A Christmas song by Joni Mitchell, complete with snow, reindeer and cutting trees, was given by Casey, with two solos by Schabner. Rowell’s voice combined with Noelle dancing in a song about being homeward bound. A Jackson Browne work had a basic message: “everyone needs a human touch,” as Rowell sang.
After a standing ovation from the very appreciative audience, the group gave an encore, an original song by Casey more relevant than ever in these ominous times, with the moving lyrics of hope to counter those who are spreading hatred: “We are strong, we are kinder than that, we are not going back, love is stronger than that, we will not yield to hatred, we are moving forward, tear down the walls.” The second last number was a Leroy Preston piece, in the boogie-woogie style, with all performers joining in.
David K. Rodgers
David K. Rodgers is a writer, mason and card carrying dilettante, who dabbles and babbles in art. He has lived in East Craftsbury for the past 40 years.
