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Black
Ink - Peter Black In The News
Foster's
Daily Democrat - Showcase Magazine - November 1, 2001
Seacoast
Songwriters Showcase
"What’s
up with the buzz about ‘Texas Songwriters’ anyway?...New
England has as many good songwriters as Texas (or anywhere), whether
you count them by the square mile or by the head," Harvey Reid
proclaims confidently. "There are hundreds of very skilled
and seasoned musicians choosing to work in this circuit rather than
moving to Nashville or New York."
To prove his point, The First Seacoast Songwriters Showcase, a Reid
project, takes place at the Portsmouth Unitarian Church on Sunday,
Nov. 11, 7 p.m. This celebration of local talent will also serve
as the release party for the Seacoast Guitar Society’s sampler
CD, Seacoast Songwriters Volume 1, featuring Cormac McCarthy, Joyce
Andersen, Peter Black, Heidi Batchelder, Craig Werth, Kate Redgate,
and Tom Richter.
It was an idea "Harvey hatched a while back," says Redgate,
who calls it a "Class A project" with Reid’s "professionalism
stamped all over it."
At the concert, each singer will perform four selections; on the
CD, each did two. Some will perform both songs from the CD, some
only one, and some are undecided. Cormac McCarthy plans to play
four entirely different songs. Reid generally remixed songs from
the performers’ own CDs for the Sampler, but, in Redgate’s
case, recorded the tracks at his studio.
If you like the CD, and you will, it is being sold at the concert,
in local music stores, and from the Seacoast Guitar Society Web
site. The concert is a must, however, because, as noted, much
of
the music will be different. You might purchase the disc for the
artwork alone, but the music is even "more better."
York, Maine’s Reid has been a part of the local music circuit
for almost 25 years, earning an international reputation as musician
and songwriter, and still finding time to run his own record label,
found the Seacoast Guitar Society, and champion the local "blue
collar" folk circuit.
Seacoast Songwriters Volume 1 is his idea and his production. He
claims the songs are not in any particular style, but he has assembled
a collection with a symmetry and flow that is rare in a sampler.
He finds the artists’ humility and lack of pompousness t
o be
refreshing. They do not feel superior to working people, he boasts.
That may be because they themselves are working people, with an
unquenchable passion for the music they create and perform. Heidi
Batchelder, for example, is an editor and technical writer for a
Cambridge, Mass., firm. In addition to writing and playing music,
Craig Werth has a family, has worked at UNH for 18 years as a teacher/administrator,
and dabbles in community theater. Tom Richter works for the City
of Portsmouth. The list goes on.
To a man and woman, they appreciate what Reid is doing for them,
in putting their names and wares before the public. Since he has
at least another 60 names in his Rolodex for future samplers, they
are flattered to be included on the first one. There is an even
better human interest side to the undertaking. Aside from Reid,
Joyce Andersen, and Heidi Batchelder, few of the seven performers
had heard the music of, or met, their colleagues.
Many of the individual names will be familiar to local acoustic
fans but few to the general public. One or two bring national credentials,
some are just emerging on the national scene, and others are, undeservedly,
still only local names. All are the seasoned and skilled artists
Reid boasts about.
Eliot, Maine’s Cormac McCarthy is probably the best known of
the artists on the Sampler, although he modestly says, "like
everything, it’s subject to change." His singing on his
father’s radio show at age 3, preceded a 20 year
hiatus from
public performance. His subsequent career was first inspired by
Dylan, Baez, and Eric Anderson recordings his sister brought home
from college; later, by college roommate Bill Morrissey, a folk
luminary in his own right.
McCarthy has three CDs of his own, is working on another, and plans
to reissue his first self-titled, self-produced release. Reid is
effusive in his praise of McCarthy’s last album from Green
Linnet, agreeing with the liner notes.
"Picture Gallery Blues is the product of a mature writer, musician...performer,
humorist, and family man. No quality is lost on this album and it
is clear that the art comes from the life of a man who has turned
a kind heart and a keen eye towards the life around him and shared
it with us all...."
McCarthy blends a literature background and rural roots in New Hampshire
towns he describes as places "where the economies teetered
on marginal sustenance from logging, and paper, and woolen mills."
A long forgotten reviewer from The Austin Chronicle described him
as having a knack for penning a great
line. McCarthy says Reid’s
current project is great because local talent is often "overlooked,
or taken for granted." He describes Reid as an "astounding"
musician in his own right.
York, Maine’s Joyce Andersen, a Durham native, is represented
on the CD by two songs, one from her own stunning debut album, The
Girl I Left Behind, and the other from her collaboration with Reid,
The Great Sad River. "Dizzy with the View" is a folk pop
tune with Carole King sensibility but a better voice. Beautifully
rendered, "Stand Clear" is another show stopper by a woman
on the verge of becoming a national treasure. Blues-folk legend
and social activist Barbara Dane, who still performs at age 73,
describes her as "very talented," with a "wonderful
voice."
Peter Black of Sanford, Maine, is a local favorite, having spent
more than 20 years performing in most of the local food and drink
establishments, with his own "adult contemporary acoustic"
sound. He tested the songwriting waters with great success in early
2000, plumbing the depths o
f his own experiences. A part-time masseur,
(who has performed his finger magic on the Presidential Bushes,
father and son), he recently played bass on Reid and Andersen’s
The Great Sad River.
McCarthy echoes praise for Black’s "rich and resonant...
seasoned, strong and refreshing" voice, guitar skills, and
newly discovered songwriting abilities. The combination could lift
Black into the spotlight of the concert and coffeehouse world. Both
songs on the Sampler are from Black’s debut album, When Trouble
Comes. The title cut from that album is a look at love and relationships;
"When You Call Me" resonates with an almost gospel-like
fervor, while the song itself is without overt religious overtones.
Heidi Batchelder’s debut CD, Wash It Away, pulls you in and
does not let you go. The two songs on the sampler are representative
of that album, which showcases Batchelder’s smooth, lucid lyrics,
frequently melancholy and searching, occasionally witty, always
understated. The production values mesh beautifully with the mood
and the music and a reviewer called it "one of the best local
releases in years."
The Hampton resident was born in the Seacoast area and has lived
here "a good chunk" of her life. A technical writer and
editor with a graduate degree in literature, she shows off her talents
in her songwriting. While focused and talented, she also has a delusional
side, actually claiming to enjoy the daily drive to Cambridge for
work. It gives her time to write songs, she maintains.
Batchelder is unusual in another respect: she has heard all the
people on the Sampler and knows their work. "It’s a pretty
small community and I’ve heard everyone in various incarnations."
She knows Redgate from "way back" although she has no
idea where they met. She did a gig at UNH with Craig Werth about
five years ago.
"Craig’s a really great writer and I’m really enthused
to be working with him again." She admires Reid’s ability
to coordinate the different styles and bring the project together.
Personally, she is mixing another CD to be out this year. If her
past work is any guide, it will be "one of the best local releases
in years."
New Durham’s Craig Werth has been performing at New Hampshire
coffeehouses, festivals, conferences, concert halls and schools
for more than 20 years. A multi-talented instrumentalist, he is
also the 1998 winner of the Prescott Arts Acoustic Songwriter contest,
"a sort of coming out party for me." Aside from writing,
performing, parenting, working, etc., he and his wife, Liz Westover
Werth, built Medieval and Renaissance period music instruments.
After a decade away from the craft, they plan to return to building
instruments with mountain dulcimers. That is "in the near future."
For a two-year period, he was a regular at the Peterborough, "Folkway."
He, too, is flattered by being put on the first Sampler, since he
knows all about the "marvelous talent around here." It’s
not just talent, either. They are "wonderful people, as well,"
he says. He had heard all the names before but only met a few in
person before the photo shoot for this article. "It’s
like a blind date."
Werth has written almost 100 songs and 15 of them are on Loose Gems,
a 1999 release. The rest of his life limits performing to about
once a month, but he makes the most of the infrequent appearances,
as he will demonstrate Nov. 11.
The photo shoot was an opportunity to meet and greet for Kate Redgate
of Newburyport, Mass. Unfortunately, she had another gig and missed
it. The concert is like a "festival," for her, an opportunity
to share with the Seacoast music community. Raised in southern Illinois,
she moved to Montana, before coming to New England about seven years
ago. Once here, she "spent a lot of years just having my babies."
About 18 months ago when she returned to making music "and
kind of went crazy." For Redgate and the brood to survive,
she teaches music.
Bubbling, she opines it is "a real treat to be a part of such
a great musical community here.... Although I’ve been playing
a long time, I feel like I’m just getting started in many ways"
with a "solid focus" that was previously missing. She’s
never felt so strongly before and &
quot;the energy is right."
As for the Sampler, she is "honored and overjoyed" to
be included.
Redgate has played the Press Room (and thinks an open mic there
is where Reid first heard her) and the Stone Church in Newmarket
and is working on her first full-length CD. She has also set up
a monthly folk music series at Middle Street Foods in Newburyport,
Mass. that is going "phenomenally well with regional acts."
It usually meets the last Friday of the month.
Tom Richter came to the Seacoast about 20 years ago after being
a mainstay on the New York State folk scene. To support a family,
he works for the City of Portsmouth, performing occasionally in
the area. He released several CDs in the 1980’s and another
in 1990. His 2000 release was described in one review as an "original
classic."
His music combines contemporary folk with Delta blues and Appalachian
folk tunes and ballads. A banjo and guitar player, he filters his
"old-time sensibilities" through the influences of Dylan,
Bruce Cockburn, Tom Waits, Gordon Lightfoot, and Woody Guthrie.
Richter has met Peter Black only once, and Redgate, Werth, and Batchelder,
not at all. For him the CD, the concert, and the resulting exposure,
both to the public and the other artists, is exciting and a "great
idea." Cormac McCarthy, "very familiar with Richter’s
work," says Richter is a "tremendous songwriter, the kind
who, when an event happens, can write about it a week later."
The talent is prodigious and the good will is contagious. Harvey
Reid, and Joyce Andersen, have done a tremendous job and rendered
a tremendous service to the Seacoast community. The Seacoast Songwriters’
project has been professionally conceived and executed, leaving
nothing to chance. This is more than a good cause; it’s a musical
treat for performers and public alike.
Clear the decks for 7 p.m., Nov. 11. This reporter can honestly
say he would postpone his own funeral to be present. Even more dramatic,
he would skip his 50th anniversary for the concert. The funeral
would take place soon after, but the guest of honor would have a
smile on his face.
Chuck
Ginsberg
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