The Shopkeeper – A film by Rain Perry

Mark Hallman at Congress House Studio

THE SHOPKEEPER

A film by Rain Perry

shopkeepermovie.com

rainperry.com

I first discovered singer-songwriter Rain Perry in 2003 when Tom Russell sang her beautiful song “Yosemite” on a promo EP sent out in conjunction with his Modern Art album. I believe he recorded the song during the sessions for that album at Mark Hallman’s Congress House Studio in Austin, Texas. About a decade later, I wrote about Rain’s album Men, which was also recorded at Congress House with Mark as producer, principal accompanist and occasional songwriting collaborator.

Rain Perry

Rain’s latest project is a highly interesting and engaging documentary film called The Shopkeeper which, on the surface, tells the story of Mark Hallman’s career as a musician – he was a principal in the ‘70s band Navarro and worked extensively as a sideman with Dan Fogelberg and Carole King – recording engineer and record producer, and of his Congress House Studio, by now the longest-running recording studio in Austin, one of the great American music cities.

But, more than that, the film looks at how the music business has changed over the decades of Mark’s career and at the existential issues facing artists, recording studios and record companies in an era where the public wants to consume music without paying for it.

Rain effectively uses comments and commentaries from artists – some who I know well, some whose music is familiar to me, some who I’d not heard of before – including Mark Hallman, of course, Tom Russell, Eliza Gilkyson, Ani DiFranco, Andrew Hardin, Sarah Hickman, Iain Matthews and many others. These artists lend much insight both to the stories of Congress House and to how the underlying issues of a changing music business have affected them and their careers. There are several terrific segments where singer-songwriter Jon Dee Graham uses facts and figures (with charts) to show the financial changes in the music business over the years.

Along the way we get to hear some of the great music that has been made at the Congress House over the years and bear witness to Mark’s struggle to keep the studio economically viable.

The Shopkeeper is a film that should be seen by anyone interested in understanding what it means to be an independent roots music artist in these times.

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--Mike Regenstreif

Folk Alliance International Conference

I’ve just returned from an inspiring five days in Kansas City attending the 2017 Folk Alliance International Conference from February 15 to 19.

International Folk Music Awards

Mike Regenstreif

The conference began with the International Folk Music Awards and I was deeply honored to be one of the broadcasters inducted into the Folk DJ Hall of Fame in its inaugural year. As noted in the conference program book, “The Folk DJ Hall of Fame has been established to recognize radio DJs who have made an outstanding contribution to the preservation, promotion, and preservation of Folk music, and who have demonstrated and inspired leadership in the broadcast field.”

Kris Kristofferson performs during the Awards Ceremony.

I was not only deeply honored to be one of the first Folk DJ Hall of Fame inductees but to share the honor with colleagues I’ve been privileged to know and deeply respect for many years. The late Oscar Brand hosted “Oscar Brand’s Folksong Festival” on WNYC in New York for more than 70 years (and Oscar’s Canadian TV show, “Let’s Sing Out,” was a big part of my introduction to folk music as a kid in the 1960s); the late Howard and late Roz Larmon who hosted “FolkScene” on KPFK in Los Angeles for more than four decades; Rich Warren, who already had a strong history in folk radio when he became host of “The Midnight Special” on WFMT in Chicago in 1983; and Gene Shay, whose legendary folk music shows on several radio stations in Philadelphia ran from 1962 until 2015.

David Amram

It was also particularly meaningful to me that several of the other award recipients this year were friends I’ve been honored to know since the 1970s. They included the late Malvina Reynolds, who I presented in concert in Montreal in 1973 and David Amram, the always-amazing classical-jazz-folk-world-music composer-conductor-performer who I met at the Mariposa Folk Festival in 1974, who received richly deserved Lifetime Achievement Awards (I was so pleased that I was seated next to David Amram during the ceremony.); Bruce Cockburn, who received the People’s Voice Award; and Si Kahn who received a Spirit of Folk Award.

Bruce Cockburn

Other honorees – all so richly deserving – included The Clearwater Festival, which received the inaugural Clearwater Award; and Barbara Dane, Chloe Goodyear, Michelle Conceison, Ramy Essam, and Sonia disappear fear (Sonia Rutstein) who received Spirit of Folk Awards.

Daytime programs

Daytime programs at the conference included some tremendous panel discussions and special presentations. Among the presentations I found particularly inspiring were talks by Ani DiFranco, Billy Bragg and Nora Guthrie (discussing her father, Woody Guthrie) on the intersection of folk music and activism – and the Wisdom of the Elders panel with Barbara Dane, Len Chandler and Ron Cohen.

Wisdom of the Elders (Photo: Art Menius)

Wisdom of the Elders is an annual oral history session at the conference created by the amazing Sonny Ochs to present “elders of our community in an intimate forum to share perspectives from a lifetime in folk music.” I was deeply honored to co-moderate the Wisdom of the Elders panel with Sonny this year.

Official Showcases

Each night featured multi-artist official showcase concerts in nine different locations.

Susan Werner

I got to MC one of the Thursday night concerts and introduced performances by Elle Márjá Eira from Norway; Kortchmar, Postell & Navarro (Danny Kortchmar, Steve Postell and Dan Navarro); Susan Werner; Masters of Hawaiian Music (George Kahumoku, Jr., Nathan Aweau and David “Kawika” Kahiapo); Gaby Moreno from Guatemala; and Hermitage Green from Ireland.

Some of the other official showcase artists I particularly enjoyed hearing on the nights I wasn’t MCing included Sonia disappear fear; Ellis Paul; OSOG, an eight piece folk-rock band from Israel; Plainsong; Heather Rankin; John McCutcheon; Vance Gilbert; Jimmy LaFave; and Barbara Dane. There were literally dozens of official showcases I wished I could have been at as there were more than 200 different official showcases with nine different ones happening at any given moment.

Private Showcases

Vance Gilbert

Late nights – from about 10:30 pm until 4 am – in dozens and dozens of locations there was an overwhelming number of private showcases. I didn’t stay up on Wednesday night but among my favorite performances on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights were short sets by Sonia disappear fear; Orit Shimoni; Sharon Goldman; Vance Gilbert; Carrie Elkin; The Once; Ben Caplan; David Olney; Robinlee Garber; Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer; Sussex; Maria Dunn; Eve Goldberg; Joe Newbury & April Verch; and a Local 1000 song circle that included – amongst others – John McCutcheon, Tom Paxton, Tret Fure and Joe Jencks.

And, again, there were dozens and dozens of other private showcases I wish I could have made it to.

Kansas City Folk Festival

Tribute to Woody Guthrie

After the conference, Folk Alliance International presented the Kansas City Folk Festival on multiple, simultaneous stages in the conference hotel. I got to see two inspiring presentations on the “tribute stage” before we had to checkout and head to the airport.

First was a tribute to Phil Ochs, hosted by actor-singer Zachary Stevenson who is developing a stage show based on Phil. Other participants included Billy Bragg, Sonia disappear fear, Tom Paxton, Greg Greenway, and Joe Jencks.

The other was a tribute to Woody Guthrie, with songs and readings, performed by Jimmy LaFave, Betty Soo, Ray Bonneville and Sam Baker.

It was an intense and inspiring five days at the Folk Alliance International Conference.Special thanks to Folk Alliance International Executive Director Aengus Finnan and staff members Jennifer Roe, Cindy Cogbill, Ana Miura and all the rest. 

Visit my Facebook Folk Alliance album at this link for more photos. There are also some photos in my Facebook music friends album.

Find me on Twitter. twitter.com/@mikeregenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Woody Guthrie at 100! Live at the Kennedy Center

VARIOUS ARTISTS
Woody Guthrie at 100! Live at the Kennedy Center (CD/DVD)
Legacy 
woodyguthrie.org

I posted numerous reviews in 2012 of albums celebrating the centennial of the birth of Woody Guthrie (1912-1967), the folksinger and songwriter whose work over a brief period of about 20 years from the 1930s to the early-‘50s, has inspired and informed virtually every folk-based singer and songwriter – whether directly or indirectly – ever since. Woody Guthrie at 100! Live at the Kennedy Center is a CD/DVD combination that documents a very special evening celebrating the songs, spirit and centennial of Woody Guthrie that was held in Washington, DC on October 14, 2012.

It was a truly wonderful concert that mainly included performances of some of Woody’s best known classics as well as a few of the great new songs that have been created in recent years when contemporary composers have set Woody’s previously-unknown words – from among the thousands of newly discovered song lyrics, poems, letters, etc. – to music.

The set list drew on many facets of Woody’s songs. There were fun kids’ songs like “Howdido,” performed by the Old Crow Medicine Show, and “Riding in My Car,” performed by Donovan, to such dust bowl ballads as an achingly beautiful version of “I Ain’t Got No Home” sung by Rosanne Cash, “Do Re Mi,” performed by John Mellencamp, and “So Long, It’s Been Good to Know Yuh,” given a stellar bluegrass treatment by Del McCoury and Tim O’Brien.

Other great classics included Jimmy LaFave’s terrific version of “Hard Travelin’” with Tim O’Brien on mandolin and Radoslav Lorkovic on accordion; a version of the outlaw ballad “Pretty Boy Floyd” by Rosanne Cash and guitarist John Leventhal that seemed like a tribute to both Woody and Rosanne’s father, Johnny Cash, with its boom-chicka-boom arrangement; Sweet Honey in the Rock’s glorious a cappella vocals on “I’ve Got to Know” (which they prefaced with a verse from the traditional hymn “Farther Along,” whose tune Woody used for the song); Judy Collins' equally glorious rendition of “Pastures of Plenty; and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott’s distinctive version of “1913 Massacre” that masterfully tells the story of a horrible event a century ago.

Although long considered a classic Woody Guthrie song, “Deportees,” about the 1948 crash of an airplane returning migrant farm workers from California to Mexico, was actually a poem of Woody’s set to music by Martin Hoffman in the late-1950s. It may well have been the first of many of Woody’s songs that have been brought to life by contemporary composers. Ani DiFranco does a poignant version of “Deportees” that is enhanced by some exceptional guitar playing by Ry Cooder and Dan Gellert’s fiddle.

The other new Woody Guthrie songs – all of them excellent songs – were performed by their composers and include Joel Rafael’s “Ramblin’ Reckless Hobo”; Tom Morello’s anthemic “Ease My Revolutionary Mind”; Lucinda Williams’ erotically-charged “House of Earth,” which is recorded here for the first time; and Jackson Browne and Rob Wasserman’s beautiful “You Know the Night,” performed in a version that is highly abridged from the great 15-minute original on Note of Hope.

The DVD also includes actor Jeff Daniels (who is also an accomplished singer-songwriter) performing a couple of spoken word readings from Woody’s writing and a thank you from Nora Guthrie.. 

As a great as all the performances are (and they are all great), the most special moments are when the entire cast gathers for the concert finale, hootenanny sing-along versions of “This Train is Bound for Glory” and “This Land is Your Land” that have the performers trading verses and lines and everyone in the concert hall singing along.

Woody Guthrie at 100! Live at the Kennedy Center is an inspired and inspiring concert recording and a fitting cap to the centennial celebrations.

Sadly, though, the concert recording is dedicated to the memory of Jackie Hyde Guthrie, Arlo Guthrie’s wife and a friend to many of us on the folk scene, who passed away from liver cancer on the very day of the concert.

The DVD also includes some rare bonus footage of Woody singing fragments from three songs, including one with Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee.

Pictured: Mike Regenstreif, Nora Guthrie, Kris Kristofferson and Jimmy LaFave talking about Woody Guthrie at the 2008 Ottawa Folk Festival.  

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--Mike Regenstreif