Janis Ian, Karla Bonoff deliver stirring concert
Published in Berkshire Eagle, 4/20/10
By Jeremy D. Goodwin
PITTSFIELD—It wasn't a barrel of laughs, but Janis Ian and Karla Bonoff’s show at the Colonial Theatre this weekend featured some highly memorable performances of stirring material, cutting like a knife through the artifice that so frequently composes show biz product.
The double bill, turgidly described as "Songs of a Generation," featured appearances by the handful of touchstone songs for which each artist is known, augmented in one case by grim-toned storytelling and in the other by a bit of stiff awkwardness.
Ian took the stage with a frown, and frequently acknowledged applause with that apologetic half-smile people use to greet each other with at funerals. At one point, the Saturday night audience tried to find unintended humor in Ian's remark that it's hard to picture how "angry and divided" the nation was way back in the late-60's, but she quickly swatted away the unscheduled chuckle by referencing lynchings (just in general).
The approach underlined, however, Ian's commitment to her material: razor sharp vignettes of a white teen turning away her black boyfriend at the door due to social pressure ("Society's Child"), staying home on a Friday night "inventing lovers on the phone" ("At Seventeen"), and awaiting the unlikely return of a departed lover ("Jessie.") These greatest hits of the iconoclastic artist, such as they are, were all delivered in searing, intimate renditions that could have each served as definitive.
"Jessie" was particularly special, with Ian returning for an encore by sitting upon a monitor at the front of the stage and performing the song un-amplified. I'm not sure how well her voice and guitar reached the back of the second balcony, but for those who could hear it, it was a priceless moment.
Ian drew one of the largest rounds of applause for her introduction to “Married in London,” the hilarious but highly barbed reflection on the shifting legal status of her (same sex) marriage, depending on what country she’s in. Recounting anecdotal shows of support from the Toronto hotel staff when she and her partner were readying to wed, she said she had told herself the marriage was “just a piece of paper” but was surprised to find herself bursting into joyful tears when the deed was done.
“All week long, people kept treating us as if we were completely normal. It was so weird,” she recalled. “For the first time in our lives we felt like we had the weight of an entire country behind us…and then we came home.”
Bonoff, a songwriter who’s known, through the vicissitudes of the music business, more for other artists’ takes on her material than her own, delivered a lugubrious set of adult contemporary pop circa the early ‘80’s. Alternating between acoustic guitar and the Colonial’s gorgeous Steinway, Bonoff was joined by Kenny Edwards (on acoustic guitar, bass and mandolin) and electric guitarist Nina Gerber.
Though Gerber provided the airy, studio pop sound Bonoff apparently prefers, she also stole the set with a series of flowing, whammy bar-aided solos that did more than anything else to inject a bit of energy into the foot-dragging set.
Bonoff appeared less than comfortable onstage, particularly when trying to fill her guitar tuning breaks, and twice remarked on the audience’s between-song stillness. She was most assured when positioned at the piano, such as on “Isn’t It Always Love” and “All My Life,” a song which won Linda Rondstat and Aaron Neville a Grammy for their cover version in 1990.
Following Ian’s unplugged performance of “Jesse,” the evening reached a transcendent moment with an utterly gorgeous, all-hands interpretation of the folk favorite “The Water Is Wide,” featuring Ian plus Bonoff and her band. (The song is a Bonoff signature; coincidentally, singer-songwriter Garrison Starr cited Bonoff’s version of this chestnut as inspiration before playing it in her set opening for Shawn Colvin at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center the evening before.)
Ian played piano and traded verses with Bonoff, as Edwards provided tasteful accompaniment and Gerber waited for just the right moment to break in with some emotive electric guitar lines. For those who caught the previous evening’s performance at the Mahaiwe, this was the finale of four sets by guitar playing, female singer-songwriters, and it just may have been the high point.
Though Gerber provided the airy, studio pop sound Bonoff apparently prefers, she also stole the set with a series of flowing, whammy bar-aided solos that did more than anything else to inject a bit of energy into the foot-dragging set.
Bonoff appeared less than comfortable onstage, particularly when trying to fill her guitar tuning breaks, and twice remarked on the audience’s between-song stillness. She was most assured when positioned at the piano, such as on “Isn’t It Always Love” and “All My Life,” a song which won Linda Rondstat and Aaron Neville a Grammy for their cover version in 1990.
Following Ian’s unplugged performance of “Jesse,” the evening reached a transcendent moment with an utterly gorgeous, all-hands interpretation of the folk favorite “The Water Is Wide,” featuring Ian plus Bonoff and her band. (The song is a Bonoff signature; coincidentally, singer-songwriter Garrison Starr cited Bonoff’s version of this chestnut as inspiration before playing it in her set opening for Shawn Colvin at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center the evening before.)
Ian played piano and traded verses with Bonoff, as Edwards provided tasteful accompaniment and Gerber waited for just the right moment to break in with some emotive electric guitar lines. For those who caught the previous evening’s performance at the Mahaiwe, this was the finale of four sets by guitar playing, female singer-songwriters, and it just may have been the high point.
