the brown girl

npr wrote a lovely piece about the 78 project, which seeks to record that old-timey sound with 78 rpm acetate discs. one of my favs, dawn landes sings "the brown girl" amongst the greenery of the ny botanical gardens.

dawn landes at mercury lounge

belated solo debut: dawn landes at mercury lounge. shar's admired dawn since hearing her on daytrotter. she had me at her rendition of "tous les garcons et les filles". she played it tonight, and i must say the french has improved.

dawn came with hay in tow, but merc wouldn't let her scatter around the floor to create the right ambiance for her latest album sweet heart rodeo. it didn't stop her from having a proper hoedown. she rollicked in with tunes from the album, starting with "wandering eye" and "rodeo". all good stuff. she had lots of friends join in, even birthday gal erin who hula hooped.

anne joins in

josh

she had some troubles with her electric guitar and asked if we believed in electricity. we did! it worked. no more feedback. dawn was a gem and so glad to see her in her own element. i'd only seen her previously providing backup to one thomas bartlett (aka doveman). p.s. you might meet a special usher at his kitchen gig on march 18.

notable tunes played to shar's best recollection:
wandering eye
romeo
sweet heart rodeo
tous les garcons et les filles
straight lines
bodyguard
love songs (margo guryan cover)
working girls
dance area
twilight
young girl
kids in a play

doveman @ joe's pub

best live reimagining of an 80's soundtrack: doveman at joe's pub. i discovered this cover album in september when it was highlighted on npr. it was touching to have gabe introduced thomas (aka doveman) with a background about how the concept of the album came about. also, gabe pointed out that thomas' haircut is surprisingly similar to kevin bacon's. it was meant to be i suppose. funny that thomas had never seen the film or flashdance. he was unknowing of the clips being shown as he played.

i was amazed to see dawn landes grace the stage. i wasn't even aware she was part of the doveman crew. i feel in love with her when i heard her cover "tous les garcons et les filles" on daytrotter.

definitely a night to remember as it was the first and only new york performance of footloose. an audience member described thomas as "sensual", but i still think he sounds like jason lyttle of grandaddy.