It
monday, October 22, 1979
dsity nebresken
Edell performance displays style variety
By Jerry Fairbanks
Feminist folk singer Therese Edell said
she created a recording company when she
couldn't find one to record her first album.
"What we wanted to do first is have a
record," she said. But, according to Edell,
it became apparent that no established
record company was willing to record her.
'Then it became apparent that all you
had to do was get stationery and you had a
recording company,' Edell said. So she and
Teresa Boykin, sound and lights engineer
on the current tour, began Sea Friends
Records out of their Cincinnati home and
recorded Edell's first album, From
Women's Faces.
The names Sea Friends comes from
Edell's and Boykin's sympathy with sea
mammals-whales and dolphins-and their
efforts to preserve them.
Edell said the album had already sold
out its first press of 5,000 copies and that
current sales were close to 8,000. The
album is distributed by the Women's Inde
pendent Label Distributor's Network.
Edell said she met Betsy Lippitt, who
accompanies Edell on violin and vocals, in
a production of Godspell in 1972. Lippitt
also played and sang on From Women's
Faces.
PERFORMING FOR a crowd of about
100 at the Unitarian Church Friday night,
Edell and Lippitt showed a variety of
. musical styles and drew material from
several sources. The crowd, mostly women,
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Hot Heacfe
Photo by R. K. Hahn
David Bysine, lead singer of the
Talking Heads, performs under the
hot lights of Omaha's Music Box.
The group was in Omaha Saturday
night.
was enthusiastic and the applause was loud
and sustained.
Edell sings with a throaty, breathy voice
while Lippitt's is lighter and more melodic.
Several times during the program both
women's voices became rough, probably
the result of their long tour. Edell said they
had been on the road since Sept. 26 and
had sung in Iowa City, Kansas City, Dallas,
Houston and Phoenix before appearing in
Lincoln.
There were a few flaws in playing their
instruments, mostly attempts at guitar
picking, but all the songs were written with
clarity and had imaginative chord changes.
The lyrics ranged from, feminist political
statements, such as in a medley of "Jesse,"
"Freest Fancy" and "A Woman's Love" to
semi-surrealistic poetry of "Blue Night
Focus," which , Lippitt wrote and per
formed.
h w 15 sineine and playing accordion
for social clubs and fraternal organizations
in her home town of Sharon, Pa.
t4I WASNT PAID for that "Edell said.
"But 1 did receive this little silver bracelet
with all the places I played engraved on it."
She learned to play the guitar as a teen
ager and gave her first concert at Baldwin
Wallace College in 1967.
"I've been playing coffeehouse stuff
since 1968," Edell said, "and feminist
music since 75 ."".She said her style
changed when a mutual friend introduced
her to Meg Christian, another feminist
singer.
Besides her own material, Edell said she
"picks up songs that speak to me ."
. . Edell also lists herself as a comedienne.
"I've always been able to talk from the
stage, but it s real recent telling things in
Edell said she began performing when story form," she said.
Band merges blues, rock
audience receptive to style
n.. l l iir a. v: ,.,i,:u
By Michael Wiest
' Few emerging white rhythm-and-blues
bands have received the critical acclaim and
universal reception accorded the
Nighthawks.
Interestingly enough, this Washington
D.C. based band has earned its reputation
among both traditional blues and rock fans
not only for their ability to play each, but
al.so for their successful merger of these
two styles in what some critics have termed
"Blue Wave" music. - ...
FGUC3UJ
What "Blue Wave" has in common with
the more familiar "New Wave" movement
is a return to basics in rhythm . and
harmonic structure, but most of all, an
energy. This was evident in the
Nighthawksl performance at the Zoo Bar
Thursday night.
Playing to a sell-out crowd, the
Nighthawks quickly won their audience
with music ranging from classic blues to
Chuck Berry-style get-down .boogie rock.
By closing time the crowd was on its feet
and the 'floor shook.
. The band featured the lead guitar and
vocals of Jim Thackery, joined by Mark
Wenner on chromatic and straight blues
harmonica, and vocals, also, displaying
diverse musical influences. Backing them
was the tight bass drums combination of
Jan Zukowski and Peter Ragusa. Zukowski
also shared in the vocals.
The Nighthawks spent several years
playing clubs in and around the
Washington, D.C. area, earning a reputation
for showmanship and a strong following of
fans. In 1978, they cut an album with
members of Muddy Waters' and James
Cottons' back-up bands titled, Jacks and
Kings, which earned them a number 10
rating in the Boston Globe's list of 15 best
pop albums of 1978. They were, also
mentioned in Down Beat magazine's
International Jazz Critic's Poll in both
1977 and 1978.
Witlf Jacks and Kings, the Nighthawks
pay homage to the classic blues which are
the roots of their mucic. They have proven
themselves in this area, sharing gigs with
such legendary bluesmen as Muddy Waters
and B.B. King, but have gone on to show
their range of talent by writing their own
material and performing with artists such
as Bonnie Raitt and Gregg Allman. Allman,
it is said, offered the Nighthawks a job as
his back-up band, but they turned it down.
Midway into the last set. of their
performance Thursday, evening, the
Nighthawks were joined onstage by Sean
Benjamin ; and Madison Slim of the
Heartmurmurs. Benjamin, playing
Thackery's flying-arrow Gibson, showed
himself to be well within the range of the
Nighthawks with his classic blues guitar
style, and delivered perhaps the best vocal
performances of the evening. Slim, playing
blues harp, was slightly circumscribed by
the material and had less opportunity to
show his talent, but sounded right on par.
It is a credit to the Zoo Bar as one of
the live music institutions of the Midwest
to have booked a band of the caliber and
popularity of the Nighthawks. It is also a
credit that its stage, which has seen so
much blues talent in recent years, can be
used as a measuring stick of classic blues
style. :.
Seen in this context, it seems unlikely
that the Nighthawks will ever break the
blues race barrier, primarily because of
their vocals. But the Nighthawks have their
own direction, and their own style, and
judging from the popularity cf what this
produced Thursday night, "Blue Wave"
may be a musical movement to contend
with in the future.
'The Dead Zone' confuses as well as frightens reader
By Scott Kleager
Good novels and bad novels sit upon the bookshelves
these days. Then there are books that one can't really pass
judgment on; you know the kind that leaves you luke
warm at the end. One of those is The Dead Zone ,a new
horror story by Stephen King that is confusing, yet at the
same time, interesting.
It is confusing because it will sell like wildfire and it
shouldn't be that popular. Anyone who has read the likes
of Kurt Vonnegut will agree. And in a way, King is similar
to John Irving (The World According to Garp) in that
both seem to prey on passing fancies, although admitted
ly, both represent the phobias of our times quite well.
Irving, currently changing sexual roles; King, the current
occult craze.
One finds it curious to see a book so popular-are
Americans searching for something to scare them?
The novel is interesting, though, because the author
makes it so authentic. It begins in 1970 and ends in 1979.
The characters are surrounded by an environment that
hits home to all college-age folks. The main character
attends a country fair at the beginning of the story, for
instance, and King's description nearly paints a picture of
a county fair in western Nebraska:
"You parked your car in a dirt parking lot and paid
your two bucks at the gate, and when you were barely in
sire the fairgrounds you could smell hot dogs, frying
peppers and onions, bacon, cotton candy, sawdust, and
sweet aromatic horseshit. You heard the heavy, chain
driven rumble of the baby roller coaster, the one they
called The White Mouse. You heard the popping of .22s in
the shooting galleries, . . Remind you of home? .
This seems to be King's strong point. Logically so, be.
cause if one were to tell a story to scare one's friends
while camping around a fire, the most important thing to
do is to make it acceptable.
, Tne authtr not only appeals to our timorousness, but
he consistantly jumps at the chance to comment on
American society in the 70s. During Christmas, as an
example, Johnny observes his family tree: "There were
only a few things you could hang onto. A few books,
maybe, or a lucky coin, or a stamp collection that, had
been preserved and improved upon. Add to that the
Christmas tree ornaments in your parents' house."
All of King's works feature the same theme of good
against evil. Vie Dead Zone Is not unusual in this respect.
In one way or another, he always deals with this and he
can be respected for it. Too often in literaturt today no
Shit Ll$Vnd ?? T -ls wron8- not th case in
nis book, hrom the beginning, characters exemplify by
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