Another River Review on MUSIC The River Reporter Part of the Growing....
I'm heading into my third winter here full-time. Before Moving up north I lived in Atlanta and then in New York City, where I was associated (by marriage) with network television and professional people who made quite good livings in this medium. I am used to being entertained. Little did I ever imagine that my buying land in the backwoods would offer the fringe benefit of an ordinary community full of talented folks. Almost as amazing to me are the venues created to allow this talent to emerge. Not the least of these places is the Bandbox in Callicoon. Maureen Neville had a dream of owning her own club and in August 1994, brought her dream to fruition. The original PA system was not great and has subsequently been improved and she couldn't hire a decorator to make it look like a "club". What she did was gather her friends and family --to paint, scrub, rewire and rework her little store-front space on the main street in Callicoon and, voila, the Bandbox was born. Later she introduced a simple menu served (on tablecloths sewn herself) by familiar, smiling faces who always seem to remember me.
However, I hadn't really thought about the Bandbox as the backwoods equivalent of off-Broadway until I saw Angela Page and her friend Kathleen Devine do their version of a homespun two-woman, off-Broadway show. Maybe it's this fertile river valley, but it seems to be a common story that this area fosters the development of latent talent. It's happened to lots of folks I know, who come here doing one thing or imagining finding themselves one way, not realizing they had talent and finding themselves writing blurbs for a local paper (even books in some cases), taking wonderful photographs, painting, or performing their own songs. Performing original material is only part of what Page and Devine did last Friday night at the Bandbox show. Devine has an infectious good humor and is a natural-born gospel singer. Deep, soulful, and full of rhythm. I'm not entirely sure though, if Page is a better songwriter or comedian. Anyone who saw her in Noises Off at the Tusten Theater knows she has a comedic bend and inherent in that is a great sense of timing that translates very well to working an audience in an intimate space such as the Bandbox provides.
She and Devine met in the late 70's while at college in Oneonta. They began the show relating the calamitous beginning of their friendship, segued into "If I Could Stand a Little Rain" by Lynn Miles, and cleverly worked in everything from "White Collar Holler" by Nigel Russell, to a couple of Page's tunes, "Close Your Eyes" and "One Step"; to a funny singalong song called "Dog Dreams" by Jonatha Brook. Several songs were sung a capella, several accompanied by guitar (which they both played), tambourine, snaps and claps. At one point, film canisters with rice inside were passed around for audience rhythm participation. Folds did not find them hokey and picked them up whenever the spirit moved.
The program wasn't limited to songs and clever chit-chat, however. Page, in a Yorkshire brogue, recited a couple of verses of a comic poem, "Albert and the Lion" by Stanley Hollaway, and sang to her prerecorded voice on tape, an actual recipe in song familiar to all parents who have not, since their children were born, had an uninterrupted telephone conversation. From poignant to funny, from rollicking to absorbed, Page and Devine entertained us last Friday night at the Bandbox in Callicoon.
Was it a flawless performance? No. Nor was Page shy about admitting her apprehension about certain pieces. Is the act ready yet for the Great White Way? Probably not. But in a selfish way, I'm glad. Page is doing what folks do here. She is growing her talent and her life, a life that includes three children, at full-time job as librarian at the Liberty Middle School in Liberty, and volunteer work at public radio station WJFF. In fact, she'll be performing both at WJFF's Holiday Cabaret at the Bradstand on December 9 and at the Bandbox Holiday Show on December 16.
I, for one, am delighted to have found myself in a place where things grow. Radio stations, corn, nightclubs, sheep--community. A receptive, supportive audience. Farmers, published authors, contractors, nursing school students all clapping because people like Maureen Neville and Angela Page are willing to do imperfectly what they do so the rest of
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