It’s sold out, but figure out a way to get in. Last night was so crushingly crowded that you could barely move in your seat—if you were lucky enough to find one. Standing room was several rows deep. A total stranger from Norman, Oklahoma, told me that he pleaded and wheedled until he was told yes, you can come in.
What’s this all about? It’s “Other Voices New York City,” an extraordinary, maybe once-in-a-lifetime club showcase—sponsored by Culture Ireland (CEO Eugene Downes is an indefatigable marvel) and one of its many laudable initiatives, Imagine Ireland—of Irish and non-Irish musical and literary talents on Oct. 27 and 28 at Le Poisson Rouge in Greenwich Village. The October 27 concert that I attended as a journalist-critic started at 7:15 and ended at 10:45 p.m. There were no breaks. Forget your loins. Gird your bladder. You won’t want to hit the restrooms during most of these performances.
The cause was mighty: “Fighting Words.” It’s a creative-writing center and program co-founded in 2009 in Dublin, Ireland, by Roddy Doyle and Sean Love. Their mission is to help “students of all ages to develop their writing skills and to explore their love of writing. We provide storytelling field trips for primary-school groups, creative-writing workshops for secondary students, and seminars, workshops, and tutoring for adults. All tutoring is free.” The idea is to get people to discover the writer already lurking inside them. They see their words on screen or, in some cases, eventually in books. With the assistance and participation of “Fighting Words,” Ireland broke the Guinness Book of World Records for “most people to write a story”: 953. Now that’s co-authorship! Visit the website to learn more about this fresh, fun, and effective approach to inculcating a love of writing: www.fightingwords.ie. Spread the word about “Fighting Words.”
Masterminds behind the “Other Voices New York City” event were Philip King (he’s the creative force of the ten-year-old “Other Voices” music series filmed in St. James Church in Dingle, County Kerry, Ireland, and made available globally), Glen Hansard (known for the Irish rock band the Frames, he is the co-star of the movie Once and co-winner of an Oscar for best song from that movie), and Thomas Bartlett (a/k/a Doveman, he’s a brilliant pianist, composer, and arranger).
Besides those three, who performed on harmonica (King), guitar, piano, and vocals (Hansard), and acoustic and electric keyboards and vocals (Bartlett), there were singer, songwriter, guitarist, fiddler, and banjoist Sam Amidon, singer and guitarist Martha Wainwright (daughter of Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle, who died from cancer in January 2010), and, from Ireland, The National (Aaron and Bryce Dessner), Bell X1, the Lost Brothers, Jape, virtuosic traditional fiddlers Martin Hayes and Caoimhin O Raghallaigh, and sean-nos (old-style) singer nonpareil Iarla O Lionaird (he sang in Irish with a full band last night).
Every poetic and other literary reading on stage was spellbinding. From Horse Latitudes, his 2006 volume of verse, Armagh-born poet Paul Muldoon read “Bob Dylan at Princeton, November 2000,” which was followed by Bob Dylan’s song “When I Paint My Masterpiece” blisteringly performed by Hansard and band. From handheld, shuffling pages, the night’s co-compere Gabriel Byrne read a hilarious account of his early years as a struggling actor in Dublin. Dublin-born Colum McCann, author of the acclaimed novel Let the Great World Spin, read a passage from James Joyce’s Ulysses with comic insight and then a selection from his own work. Dublin-born Joseph O’Connor, author of the novel Redemption Falls, read compellingly as well. And Dublin-born, “Fighting Words” co-founder Roddy Doyle, whose several novels include Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha and who is the co-screenwriter of the hit movie The Commitments (featuring Hansard as an actor), had the audience convulsed in laughter by the irreverent humor in his reading.
Further musical highlights included Sam Amidon and Martha Wainwright together singing “(Talk to Me of) Mendocino,” a song Martha’s late mother, Montreal-born Kate McGarrigle, wrote and then recorded with sister Anna. I sat and watched misty-eyed as Sam and Martha performed, casting me back to my own personal encounter with Kate and Anna McGarrigle, who sang in English and French and were unquestionably one of the best folk/roots music tandems in North American history. I had the privilege of co-hosting a special concert at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., where Kate and Anna McGarrigle performed beautifully on a bill that included Garnet Rogers and Greg Brown. Kate and Anna could not have been more gracious or giving, backstage or onstage. After last night’s “Other Voices” concert at Le Poisson Rouge, Sam Amidon reminded me of a world peace festival featuring him and his brother Stefan that I co-emceed in Amenia, N.Y. Sam Amidon and Thomas “Doveman” Bartlett first came to my attention as a music critic when they were part of the little-known band Popcorn Behavior in Vermont more than a decade ago. Both are highly proficient players of Irish traditional tunes, as they demonstrated last night.
Other songs performed at Le Poisson Rouge, which is just a taxi ride away from Zuccotti Park, included protest: “Talkin’ ’Bout a Revolution,” composed by Tracy Chapman, and an excoriating version of “Patriot’s Heart,” composed by Mark Eitzel (of the band American Music Club). The politicians and media (broadcast and print, the latter of which I’m a member) still don’t get that the Occupy Wall Street movement is not just a stand against rampant joblessness, whopping income disparity, and other tragic outcomes of greed. As I heard at times last night at Le Poisson Rouge, there's a simmering, increasingly less subtle anger about a standing system that tolerates or condones rampant joblessness, whopping income disparity, and other tragic outcomes of greed. (See Margin Call, a superb new movie, for possibly the best fictional depiction of how the U.S. got into its financial quagmire and who put us there.)
Last night was unforgettable, a pinch-me experience that all too seldom comes around. Well, it is around—and takes place one last time tonight, October 28. Yes, it’s already sold out, but figure out a way to get in, even if you have to plead and wheedle like that resourceful Oklahoman I met there. (Note: Laurie Anderson should be among tonight's performers.) Doors open at 6 p.m. Concert starts at 7 p.m. Le Poisson Rouge is at 158 Bleecker Street, New York, NY 10012. Visit www.lepoissonrouge.com.
Here are the lyrics of the late Kate McGarrigle’s song “(Talk to Me of) Mendocino,” still reverberating in my head. Long ago I wore out my vinyl copy of Kate & Anna McGarrigle, their 1976 album containing this song as well as the equally poignant “Heart Like a Wheel.” Get the CD. It may comfort you if you’re rebuffed at Le Poisson Rouge tonight.
I bid farewell to the state of old New York
My home away from home
In the state of New York I came of age
When first I started roaming
And the trees grow high in New York State
And they shine like gold in autumn
Never had the blues whence I came
But in New York State I caught ’em
Talk to me of Mendocino
Closing my eyes, I hear the sea
Must I wait, must I follow?
Won’t you say, “Come with me”?
And it’s on to South Bend, Indiana,
Flat out on the Western plains
Rise up over the Rockies and down on into California
Out to where but the rocks remain
And let the sun set on the ocean
I will watch it from the shore
Let the sun rise over the redwoods
I’ll rise with it ’till I rise no more
Talk to me of Mendocino
Closing my eyes, I hear the sea
Must I wait, must I follow?
Won’t you say, “Come with me”?
