Wednesday, February 16, 2005
Sonorous 'Southern Accent' charms Outer Banks Forum
The Outer Banks Forum for the Lively Arts presented "Pardon My Southern Accent: An Evening with Jim Wann and Friends" at the First Flight High School Saturday evening.
Those expecting a low-key evening of Southern reminiscences "including music and the spoken word," as the press releases had it, were treated to a full-blown revue.
Wann's "friends" numbered seven in a rollicking concert-as-radio-show, featuring the music of Savannah, Georgia's Johnny Mercer.
Jim Wann, author of Broadway's Pump Boys and Dinettes and King Mackerel & the Blues are Running, took the stage nattily attired in a tan suit and acoustic guitar.
On his heels were his "friends," heavyweights Don Dixon (R.E.M. producer and King Mackerel co-author) on bass, the amazing Beth Chorneau on vocals, Jim Brock (Joe Cocker et al.) on drums, Tim Gordon (Four Tops road musical director) on horns and flute, Mark Stallings on keyboards, Jamie Hoover on lead guitar, and Patricia Miller (Vanities) as the Skylark, the late-night southern disc jockey announcing the show.
Wann began by reminiscing about his youth in Chattanooga, listening to "Night Train" on the radio. He wasn't alone -- in Miami, Atlanta, Kitty Hawk and Washington they listened, too.
"There was a lovers' compartment on the Night Train. That's where I was gonna ride, with a co-o-ol woman I had yet to meet. Someday, maybe I'd hear her voice -- on the radio."
Cue Patricia Miller, sitting at a mic on a wooden desk at stage-left, as the "Skylark": "Thank you for listening to me on the radio ... we'll revisit songs that invoke the sound and feel of the South."
Wann strummed a few chords and began the introduction to Mercer's "Pardon My Southern Accent," his voice a pleasant informal tenor not unlike Willie Nelson's. His phrasing and delivery were easy and natural-sounding, and at the first verse, the band joined in.
The musicians were soft-shoe casual on this number; subsequently they were able to handle hard rock and progressive jazz with equal aplomb, in the service of the remarkably diverse Mercer songbook.
The Skylark, "on the radio," said, "When I think of Johnny Mercer, I think of Tybee Island, Savannah, Georgia ... and Tiffany's."
This was the cue for a fine acoustic-guitar and piano version of Henry Mancini and Mercer's "Moon River," from the movie Breakfast at Tiffany's. Those in the audience who had seen it coming weren't disappointed. Stallings, and Hoover on electric guitar, took tasteful solos betwixt the vocal verses.
And so it went. Wann shared vocals with Dixon, a baritone blues-shouter, and Chorneau, a highly talented jazz chanteuse. These last two shared a comedic pairing of songs: Dixon sang the ridiculously sublime "King of the Food Chain" from King Mackerel, which included the Motown-style choruses, "Food chain, food chain/he's the king of the food chain" and "Chain-chain-cha-a-a-ain/chain of food."
This segued into an idiosyncratic shuffle version of Don Covey's "Chain of Fools" sung by Chorneau. She also sang a salsa-flavored "Sentimental Journey" and scatted mightily, evoking Ella Fitzgerald.
The Skylark recounted a tale of her youth in the 1950's, when her mother took her across the country from Georgia to Disneyland. There, the tour guide on a river-trip ride teased the ladies that glittering objects could cause the "wild animals" to attack.
Her mama whipped her earrings and necklace into her purse while the others on the ride stared at her. The "wild animals" were Disney animatrons.
Then Wann said his next song dealt with "love over 40," and the Skylark replied, "And I thought I had left fantasyland!"
Wann said, "You might want to take your earrings off."
"Watch out, now!" said the Skylark.
Dixon had a touching, rocking number that began with the chorus from the late Otis Redding's "Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song)" and had as its own chorus, "I was singing a sad song, baby, on the night/that Otis died."
The Skylark told of a pilgrimage she and Wann took to Mercer's gravesite in Savannah's Bonaventure Cemetery and an encounter with some serious cemetery tourists and a bottle of Glenfiddich.
Wann had wanted to pour Mercer a drink, but under the glittering disapproval of the cemetery tourists, had hesitated. Finally they told him, "Y'all carry on with yer weird ritual!"
Wann and Chorneau performed "The Angels Sing," a Mercer lyric that was also his epitaph.
Besides entertaining the tar out of the audience, Wann and his troupe performed a rare service in collecting these songs of Mercer, who as a lyricist worked with many composers, and whose work therefore is scattered hither and yon.
And while his haunts included Hollywood and New York, Mercer's work generally reflected his roots, his home, our beloved corner of the Union, the South.
©2005 Womack Newspapers Inc.
Those expecting a low-key evening of Southern reminiscences "including music and the spoken word," as the press releases had it, were treated to a full-blown revue.
Wann's "friends" numbered seven in a rollicking concert-as-radio-show, featuring the music of Savannah, Georgia's Johnny Mercer.
Jim Wann, author of Broadway's Pump Boys and Dinettes and King Mackerel & the Blues are Running, took the stage nattily attired in a tan suit and acoustic guitar.
On his heels were his "friends," heavyweights Don Dixon (R.E.M. producer and King Mackerel co-author) on bass, the amazing Beth Chorneau on vocals, Jim Brock (Joe Cocker et al.) on drums, Tim Gordon (Four Tops road musical director) on horns and flute, Mark Stallings on keyboards, Jamie Hoover on lead guitar, and Patricia Miller (Vanities) as the Skylark, the late-night southern disc jockey announcing the show.
Wann began by reminiscing about his youth in Chattanooga, listening to "Night Train" on the radio. He wasn't alone -- in Miami, Atlanta, Kitty Hawk and Washington they listened, too.
"There was a lovers' compartment on the Night Train. That's where I was gonna ride, with a co-o-ol woman I had yet to meet. Someday, maybe I'd hear her voice -- on the radio."
Cue Patricia Miller, sitting at a mic on a wooden desk at stage-left, as the "Skylark": "Thank you for listening to me on the radio ... we'll revisit songs that invoke the sound and feel of the South."
Wann strummed a few chords and began the introduction to Mercer's "Pardon My Southern Accent," his voice a pleasant informal tenor not unlike Willie Nelson's. His phrasing and delivery were easy and natural-sounding, and at the first verse, the band joined in.
The musicians were soft-shoe casual on this number; subsequently they were able to handle hard rock and progressive jazz with equal aplomb, in the service of the remarkably diverse Mercer songbook.
The Skylark, "on the radio," said, "When I think of Johnny Mercer, I think of Tybee Island, Savannah, Georgia ... and Tiffany's."
This was the cue for a fine acoustic-guitar and piano version of Henry Mancini and Mercer's "Moon River," from the movie Breakfast at Tiffany's. Those in the audience who had seen it coming weren't disappointed. Stallings, and Hoover on electric guitar, took tasteful solos betwixt the vocal verses.
And so it went. Wann shared vocals with Dixon, a baritone blues-shouter, and Chorneau, a highly talented jazz chanteuse. These last two shared a comedic pairing of songs: Dixon sang the ridiculously sublime "King of the Food Chain" from King Mackerel, which included the Motown-style choruses, "Food chain, food chain/he's the king of the food chain" and "Chain-chain-cha-a-a-ain/chain of food."
This segued into an idiosyncratic shuffle version of Don Covey's "Chain of Fools" sung by Chorneau. She also sang a salsa-flavored "Sentimental Journey" and scatted mightily, evoking Ella Fitzgerald.
The Skylark recounted a tale of her youth in the 1950's, when her mother took her across the country from Georgia to Disneyland. There, the tour guide on a river-trip ride teased the ladies that glittering objects could cause the "wild animals" to attack.
Her mama whipped her earrings and necklace into her purse while the others on the ride stared at her. The "wild animals" were Disney animatrons.
Then Wann said his next song dealt with "love over 40," and the Skylark replied, "And I thought I had left fantasyland!"
Wann said, "You might want to take your earrings off."
"Watch out, now!" said the Skylark.
Dixon had a touching, rocking number that began with the chorus from the late Otis Redding's "Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song)" and had as its own chorus, "I was singing a sad song, baby, on the night/that Otis died."
The Skylark told of a pilgrimage she and Wann took to Mercer's gravesite in Savannah's Bonaventure Cemetery and an encounter with some serious cemetery tourists and a bottle of Glenfiddich.
Wann had wanted to pour Mercer a drink, but under the glittering disapproval of the cemetery tourists, had hesitated. Finally they told him, "Y'all carry on with yer weird ritual!"
Wann and Chorneau performed "The Angels Sing," a Mercer lyric that was also his epitaph.
Besides entertaining the tar out of the audience, Wann and his troupe performed a rare service in collecting these songs of Mercer, who as a lyricist worked with many composers, and whose work therefore is scattered hither and yon.
And while his haunts included Hollywood and New York, Mercer's work generally reflected his roots, his home, our beloved corner of the Union, the South.
©2005 Womack Newspapers Inc.
