CONTENTS:
Pete Morton review
Your Health
CD Review of Evergreen's "Riding Towards Life"

"You Bastard" or On the Road with Peter Morton

Lest anyone think that I have a negative opinion about the object of this review, I should explain that when you are in the company of Mr. Pete Morton for any meaningful period of time, you find yourself competing with him as to who can make who laugh the most. So I listened to his various imitations of English dialects and their uses and misuses (mostly the latter). In return, I was expected to recite for him verbatim every Monty Python skit I had ever known. Such as: "Are you embarrassed easily? I am! But it's nothing to worry about. It's all part of growing up and being British." But even more than that, every time we ran into each other, we would look at each other and say: "YOU BASTARD," quoting The Life of Brian and cracking up. I can't remember when I've had such a wonderful time helping to entertain a guest from abroad.

Peter is from Nottingham, or from Leicester, or from Sheffield, or one of them there places. He's been a folk singer for the past twenty years. Besides being totally spontaneous and outrageous, he is polished, sensitive and darn good at what he does. He ignored everyone's advice about visiting a war zone. He showed up just in time for the Tel Aviv Folk Club in the park and sang from thence until he left. He made it to all the major folk clubs and managed in addition to get a whole bunch of touring done as well.

Now for those of you who "came for the music", you got a real treat. He is a wonderful singer of traditional English and Scottish songs and frequently had the audience singing along. His voice is most pleasant, even when he bellows. He does that on various original songs such as Six Billion Eccentrics, a wonderfully whimsical piece of nonsense. But he can be serious when he wishes. He wrote a song about the current Middle East dispute. While not necessarily agreeing with the content, I found the song to be moving because it was so unpretentious. Pete is a man who tells it like it is, and we weren all enriched by his all-too-short visit. I almost forgot, he's a darn good guitar player too.

The 6th English Song Festival, under the auspices of the Israel FolkStuff Society and AACI Jerusalem will take place at the Gerard Behar Center, Jerusalem on December 26th, 2002.

But We All Knew That
Music is good for you.

"The effects of active and passive participation in musical activity on the immune system as measured by salivary immunoglobulin A (SIgA)". Kuhn, D., Journal of Music Therapy 2002 Spring;39(1):30

CD Review - Evergreen - Riding Towards Life (Green Emerald Records)

While Evergreen is able to get folks up and dancing at events like the annual Jacob's Ladder Festival, this CD allows the choice to remain seated some of the time and just enjoy its special spirit. What sparks this production is the depth of spontaneous interaction between trained (classical and beyond) musicians Gal and Michal Shahar and Eitan Hoffer, who have long played together, and added Irish rhythms to their passion.

There are musical moments that compel attention, especially when the flute or whistle (Michal) begins to interact with the fiddle or viola (Gal or Eitan).

While Abe Doron only joined the group in the last few years, he thrives on the enticing musical interplay with his bodhran-, bones-, spoons-, bongos-, and timbales-wizardry gleaned from years touring with Riverdance. His signature on this CD is clear.

This is not strictly an Irish CD, although 7 of the 12 tracks express instrumental virtuosity, playing mostly familiar jigs, reels, hornpipe and slow reels. Interspersed among these is a traditional Macedonian piece, Pravotto. Many interpretations are superimposed on the basic melody, hinting at Spanish guitar, Israeli and Irish influences. The remaining 4 cuts were written by either Gal or Michal Shachar, 2 of them predominantly sung in Hebrew with very close harmonies. The cross-cultural intonations are quite compelling in these 4 pieces.

Working with good melodic lines, haunting effects are provided by their arrange- ments of The Little Fairy, Between the Sounds, Mountain Song and King of the Fairies. The last piece (Forgiveness), written by Gal Shachar moves as a slow aire and one can feel the green as an imaginary camera pans across the Irish landscape where one is sure something sad in life is about to unfold, or has already unfolded.

Altogether, this CD is a breath of fresh, evergreen air, indeed riding the listener towards life. It is a CD that can be relistened to many times and is sure to become a standard in many libraries. The music is available for sampling or sales at www.evergreen.org.il and is distributed by Tower Records, Israel and MCI. This CD and other music of Israeli "Anglo" origin are also included in the http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/evergreen catalogue. --Judi Ganchrow

Milestones

Happy Birthday to: Sara Baron, Susan Block, Don Jennings, Jack Lecker, Richard Levine, Eli Marcus, Hadar Matmon, Arlene Strasbourger, Debora Whetstone, Hal Wrobel

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FolkNotes Staff:
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