Intro to “O Mary Don´t You Weep”
´´Good evening….(says in German that he´s happy to be here and hopes everyone will have a fun evening)….that´s all I know, that´s all my German right there (chuckles)….´´
Intro to “John Henry”
´´Oh yeah….alright, a true story of man versus machine….occured during the building of the eastern railroads in the United States in the late 19th century….alright, let me see if I get the tempo right….´´
Intro to “Eyes on the Prize”
´´This is a song, uh….was originally a gospel, a gospel hymn called ´Hands on the Plow,´ was rewritten in the ´50s as a Civil Rights´, a Civil Rights´ song, this is called ´Eyes on the Prize´….´´
Intro to “Erie Canal”
´´Thank you….this is, uh….a great work song, this is probably the only song, at least that I know of, uh, that is a love song written to a mule….mules were pretty important at the time, they were used to haul freight and goods to the market up and down the Erie Canal through the 1800s, uh….this was written in 1905 by a guy named Thomas Allen, called, originally called ´Low Bridge, Everybody Down,´ ´Erie Canal´….´´
Intro to “My Oklahoma Home”
´´Thank you….woo!….this was, uh….this was a song written, uh….it was, uh….a great natural, natural disaster in the United States was the Oklahoma dustbowl where families were picked up off their land and scattered across the country with, all, the only thing that they had was what they could carry with ´em….and we thought we´d never see anything like that again but we did….so this was written by Agnes ´Sis´ Cunningham…..where is my Oklahoma home? it´s blown away….´´
Intro to “Mrs MgGrath”
´´Oh yeah….this is a great, Irish anti-war ballad….first published in 1815, ´Mrs MgGrath´….´´
Intro to “How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times And Live?”
´´Thank you, we were, uh….we did our first show in, uh, at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, it´s hard to, uh, explain what New Orleans is like right now but it´s lost half of its population and, uh, 80 percent of the city is damaged and destroyed, waterlines on the buildings are up to here and there´s a block after block after block after block of, of completely ruined homes, homes ripped off their foundations, cars still sitting there nine months later, it was, uh, if you´re a musician, it´s the, it´s the mother city of, of American music, it´s where everything that became rock and roll and jazz and blues and soul, it came from over here to over there and got mixed….but, uh, just a tremendous loss and tragedy and, uh, uh, this was a song by a fellow named Blind Alfred Reed, who, uh, wrote this in the beginning of the Great Depression in the 30´s, I kept the first verse and I rewrote the last three, uh, in honor of our President´s trip to New Orleans where he managed to, uh, gut the only agency that assists American citizens at times of crisis and need, where he put his, uh ….political cronies and playing politics with people´s lives, this is called ´How Can a Poor Man…How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times And Live?´….´´
Intro to “Jacob´s Ladder”
´´Thank you….alright, we are all climbing Jacob´s ladder…a rung by rung by rung….Jacob was, uh, sort of always fucking up in God´s eyes (chuckles) so God kept giving him tasks upon tasks and he got to climb that ladder rung by rung by rung by rung….here we go….come on, kids, one, two, one, two, three, four….´´
Intro to “We Shall Overcome”
´´Danke….thank you….this was, uh….this is, I guess, the most, uh, probably the most important political protest song of all time, it´s sung all around the world wherever people are struggling…this is ´We Shall Overcome´….´´
Intro to “When the Saints Go Marching In”
´´Thank you….woo! thank you for a lovely evening (?)….oh, fantastisch, yes….woo!….you came very prepared, the audience was very prepared tonight (chuckles)….I wanna thank you, I wanna thank you for coming out to this show and, uh, always giving us such a warm welcome when we come to Frankfurt and Germany….I also wanna thank you, uh, for your faith and your trust when we do something new, thank you….yes (crowd ´Bruuces´) thank you (crowd cheers very loudly) good Lord….thank you….we have a, uh, a regular lovefest going on here, that´s, uh (chuckles) this is a song, it´s kind of the theme city, uh, the theme song of the city of New Orleans and, uh, there are few verses that I hadn´t heard before that sort of explain a little bit about what our project is up here tonight and, uh, I wanna do this tonight as a prayer for the city of New Orleans and for you and, uh….´´
Intro to “Buffalo Gals”
´´Thank you….let´s hear it….for Marc Thompson….Curt Ramm….Eddie Manion on saxophone….(?) on trombone….Art Baron on the tuba…..Larry Eagle on the drums….Lisa Lowell on vocals, Curtis King, Cindy Mizelle….Charlie Giordano….Marty Rifkin on the steel….Jeremy Chatzky on the bass….Greg Liszt on the banjo….Sam Bardfeld on the violin ….Frank Bruno on the guitar….Soozie….on fiddle….Soozie Tyrell….alright, a visit to Germany is not complete without my good friend Wolfgang Niedecken….I told Wolf, I told Wolfgang that in America this song is like, uh, uh, ´Yankee Doodle Dandy,´ everybody knows it, but I´m not sure everybody knows it here, uh, we´ll find out, huh? (chuckles)….´´
| Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi. |
