VA - Nick Drake Tribute 1997 (FM recording)

LOSSLESS REPOST

'Bryter Later: Songs of Nick Drake'

St. Ann’s Church

Brooklyn Heights, NY

November 8, 1997

  

FM capture (sound quality: Ex-)

  

1. intro

2. I Was Made to Love Magic - Syd Straw

3. One of These Things First 
     - Sloan Wainwright

4. Joey - Terre Roche

5. Things Behind The Sun  
     - Richard Davies

6. Which Will - Duncan Sheik

7. From the Morning 
     - Dana & Karen Kletter 

8. Cello Song - Richard Barone

9. Pink Moon - Syd Straw

10. River Man - Katell Keineg

11. Poor Boy - Terre Roche

12. crowd

13. Horn - Peter Holsapple

14. Been Smoking Too Long 
      - Peter Blegvad

15. Way to Blue - Susan Cowsill

16. Time Has Told Me - Katell Keineg

17. Clothes of Sand - Peter Blegvad

18. Black Eyed Dog - Mimi Goese

19. Time of No Reply 
      - Sloan Wainwright

20. Northern Sky - Richard Barone 

21. Fly - Richard Davies

22. Hazey Jane I - Duncan Sheik

23. Fruit Tree - Rebecca Moore
  
TT: 1:33 mins.
  

ROB SEZ: No less than the New York Times called this event "a daring, iconoclastic move" — and in the end, an event to "treasure". (Read more of the NYT review below.) One glance at the list of lead vocalists, and you'll recognize how exceptional this was. BIG THANKS to WFUV-FM in New York for broadcasting the concert, thanks also to the original taper and uploader, and whoever posted this in cyberspace for me to find and share here. [Errata: the cover is inaccurate re: the venue. The concert took place at St. Ann's Church, not the warehouse.]
  
REPERCUSSION: For a few years in the late 1990s, Peter Holsapple had the enviable job of organizing tributes to some of the great, lesser-known artists of popular music. This one, performed in honor and memory of Nick Drake, is a real beauty. Peter assembled an impressive roster of artists — which is a tribute to Drake, of course, but also an implicit recognition of Peter’s influence, particularly among musicians in the greater NYC area. My only regret is that Peter's voice can only be heard at the end in brief thank-you remarks, but at least we get to hear him play on the instrumental "Horn" and as a backing musician on other songs.
  

FLAC
  

MP3@320 
Alt. Link

  

“House Band” Musicians: 

Peter Holsapple  - guitar, piano, bass (musical director)

Chris Cunningham - guitar

Michelle Kinney - cello

David Mansfield - violin, mandolin

Deni Bonet - violin

St. Ann's Church: a unique space for a concert

 

The following is part of the New York Times review of the show. (Note the reference to Peter as “Mr. Holsapple”!) You can read the whole thing here.

Spare, Poetic Songs of a Gentle Dreamer

Copyright: The New York Times

By ANN POWERS

Published: November 11, 1997

   

The word fetish is often misused in describing objects of passion, but it fits Nick Drake's body of work. Fans of the English songwriter, who died in 1974 at the age of 26, treasure the 31 songs he recorded as if they were amulets to be meditated upon privately and shared with the sympathetic few. To love Nick Drake's meditative folk-pop is to join an esoteric society. Organizing an evening in which more than a dozen singers interpret him is a daring, iconoclastic move.

  

Peter Holsapple clearly knew this when he arranged “Bryter Layter: The Songs of Nick Drake,” presented on Saturday night at the Church of St. Ann and the Holy Trinity in Brooklyn. (“Bryter Layter” was Drake's second album.) His musical direction showed great delicacy, while his selection of singers insured that the evening would not grow reverentially leaden.

  

Peter Blegvad, Terre Roche, Syd Straw, Richard Barone, Richard Davies, Mimi Goese, Susan Cowsill and Mr. Holsapple himself all know what it is like to be working artists beloved by the few while fame only teases, a situation that contributed to Drake's fatal depression. For them, his music is not frozen iconography but a code unlocking key elements of the song forms they embrace. The evening's younger artists -- Duncan Sheik, Katell Keineg, Sloan Wainwright, Dana and Karen Kletter and Rebecca Moore -- similarly used Mr. Drake's songs to explore the inner workings of pop. 

  

Nick in London; photo by Jef Aerosol