Peter Blegvad (& friends) - Brooklyn Heights, NY 1992 (FM)

 Here's a gem of a concert by a friend of Chris, Peter and Syd Straw. 

If you've never heard of Peter Blegvad, you're in for a New Music Find treat. 

To my ears, he's something like an American version of Robyn Hitchcock crossed with 
a more melodically-minded Bob Dylan. 
I think this is one of the coolest shows I've shared here so far. 
Leave a comment to let me know what you think of it...
  

with Peter Holsapple & Syd Straw

St. Ann’s Church

Brooklyn Heights, NY

March 14, 1992

FM broadcast (sound quality Ex-; off-air recording, 1^st generation tape)

 

St. Ann's, Brooklyn Heights: Church? Concert hall? Both! 
photo by shehasnostrings via Flickr

BIG HEAPIN' THANKS to the taper who kindly shared his master cassette with me. Embarrassed to say I've lost your name after a trashed email cache, but you know who you are...

01 Powers In the Air

02 The Incinerator (aka "Perfect Strangers")

03 Animated Doll

04 How Beautiful You Are

05 Real Slap In the Face

06 Meteor

07 Chicken

08 Driver's Seat

09 Meet the Rain*

10 Last Man*

11 Meantime

12 Swim
 

13 (thank-you's, etc.)

14 Stranger to Myself

15 Karen*

16 Shirt and Comb (at end of song, had to do fade out & fade in b/c of abrupt cut)

17 Northern Lights*

18 King Strut

19 On Obsession (duet with PH)

20 Gold

21 (Something Else Is) Working Harder

MP3@320

Alt. Link (Disc 1)
Alt. Link (Disc 2)

Peter Blegvad is a musician, illustrator & cartoonist  
photo by blacque_jacques via Flickr

Lineup:

Peter Blegvad - vocals, guitar

Dave Hofstra - bass

Dave Schramm - guitar

Peter Holsapple – guitar, squeezebox, mandolin (?), keyboard, vocals

*Syd Straw - vocals

MORE ABOUT PETER BLEGVAD

More info about Peter Blegvad's music can be found at AllMusic and John Relph's beautifully-detailed discography. I heard about him because of the Chris & Peter connection, and I've since bought several of his excellent albums, such as:

Chris Stamey produced this one & Peter H plays on many tracks

I get the feeling Peter Blegvad has been friends with Chris and Peter H for some time, but I don't know how they met, etc. Chris produced Peter B's wonderful King Strut & Other Stories album (mentioned in the above concert since many of the songs come from this album). Peter H did his multi-instrumentalist thing on several of its tracks. Sadly, King Strut is now difficult to find at a reasonable price in any format. Some benevolent music label honcho: please get this one back in print for the discerning music lovers of the world!

 

Peter & The Drifters - Sandy Denny Tribute 1998

Listen, Listen: The Music of Sandy Denny
Peter stages a tribute concert (with a little help from his friends)

St. Ann's Church, Brooklyn Heights, NY

November 21, 1998

recording & broadcast by WFUV-FM, NYC

Cover art for Set 1 (art for both sets included in download). Levent Varlik

web stream (quality Ex--; this recording has some of the usual anomalies of a web capture plus a very occasional computer-generated volume adjustment beep tone)

Highlights: Multiple, but I was especially knocked out by the contributions of Susan Cowsill, Susan McKeown, Marti Jones & Don Dixon.

BIG THANKS to the taper and ALL PRAISE to Levent Varlik of the Sandy Denny fan forum at Yahoo for the generous share (sent to me all the way from Turkey)!

CLICK highlighted names below for a link to learn more about the artist’s music.
 

SET 1

01  intro - Meg Griffin (WFUV announcer)

02  Come All Ye - Katell Keineg

03  Listen, Listen - Vicki Peterson
04  Next Time Around – Sloan Wainwright  
05  One Way Donkey Ride* - Deni Bonet 

06  Banks of the Nile  - Michael Steele   
07  Blackwaterside – Darius Rucker

08  Tam Lin - Susan McKeown

09  It Suits Me Well - Mike Mills

10  Autopsy - Dana (and Karen?) Kletter

11  Gold Dust - Don Dixon

12  At the End of the Day* - Susan Cowsill

13  outro

 
*Indicates tracks with very occasional beep tones from the computer’s volume adjustment control. Let this be a lesson to you young, budding tapers out there: mute that sucker before you try to record a webcast or web stream!

The Continental Drifters served as the house band for the show. 

(That’s Peter on the right, sittin’ and strummin’…)

SET 2 

01  intro

02  The Northstar Grassman and the Ravens - Michael Steele

03  John the Gun - John Crooke

04  A Sailor's Life - Amanda Thorpe

05  Take Me Away - Marti Jones

06  Stranger to Himself - Dana Kletter

07  Solo - Susan McKeown

08  I'm a Dreamer - Susan Cowsill

09  Matty Groves - Robyn Hitchcock

10  Who Knows Where the Time Goes? - Katell Keineg

11  Peace In the End* – Don Dixon & Marti Jones

12  Meet On the Ledge – Susan Cowsill & The Continental Drifters, et al

Other versions of this show list two additional tracks, absent here: an encore, “Farewell, Farewell” (sung by Amanda Thorpe), followed by the final outro.

MP3@320

Disc 1

Disc 2  

MF linx

Disc 1 

Disc 2

Musicians (in addition to the vocalists listed above, some of whom also played on some tracks):

Peter Holsapple (musical director for the show)

Russ Broussard

Robert Maché

Mark Walton

For a handful of years in the 1990s, Peter had the enviable job of organizing tributes to some of the great, lesser-known artists of popular music. This one (like the 1997 show at the same venue performed in honor/memory of Nick Drake's music) is a beauty. It was part of a short-lived, but extraordinary, program called Arts at St. Ann’s.

YOU CAN STILL BUY the most excellent album Listen Listen by The Continental Drifters directly from Blue Rose Records in Germany. It features the Drifters’ versions of several Sandy Denny classics as well as Richard Thompson compositions. (AllMusic gave it a 4-star review.) I’ve ordered from Blue Rose and can vouch for their great service — even for non-German speakers.
 

 

GO HERE for a video of John Crooke singing a good chunk of “John the Gun” from this show.   
GO HERE for a video of Darius Rocker singing “Blackwaterside” from this show (and see Peter play the squeezebox for a few exciting seconds).
  
THANKS to kinskilee for the uploads!