Roger McGuinn Concert 9/8/07

 Roger McGuinn & me.

Well sorta...                                                                                                  

 

                                                               Roger's Instruments

 

 On July 3 '05 we celebrated our 31st wedding anniversary with another blast from the past. We got front row seats to see Donovan and Roger McGuinn from The Byrds. I will write about that special night before and they too proved they were as good as ever. Roger McGuinn was playing in Massachusetts on Sept 8 and we wanted to see him again. After The Byrds broke up in the 70's he went solo with several albums and returned to his folk roots. You can learn about him on:  www.mcguinn.com  Go to the 'Woodsongs Video' section and watch him perform and talk about his career. It's an hour long show and almost like seeing him live. Take the time to be entertained and also  get an education on music and the music industry.

    The Byrds were a folk rock group that were big in the 60's. Before they broke up in the 70's, they went into country music and their classic 'Sweetheart of the Rodeo' was influential in bringing country music into the mainstream. McGuinn has done well on his own and is famous for his use of the twelve string guitar. He's considered THE Master of it and Martin Guitar created a special guitar  for him with a seventh string to replicate the sound of one. You can hear about it on that link.  He's been playing professionally for fifty years and is highly respected among his peers. He played a few folk songs on banjo which he loves.  His singing voice is sweet too. The Byrds were also known for their harmonies; David Crosby was an original member  and you can hear the influence on CS&N recordings.

    The day started with a bang...  literally     As I was backing out of the garage, I forgot my son's car was at the bottom of the driveway and hit it. I put a dent in his bumper that our mechanic's son who does bodywork later popped out and I put some scratches and chips on my bumper that I later buffed out and fixed OK with touch up paint. Of course the neighborhood heard me screaming & cussing after the fender-bender... lol 

 

    Then we drove north to the entrance to the Mass Pike, a toll highway that goes east/west between New York and  Boston. I missed the turn for it because of construction and backtracked to it.  That took about ten minutes. When we approached our entrance to the toll booths, traffic was backed up and it took us twenty minutes to get the ticket. I thought there was an accident but only two of the five lanes were open and created a jam. About 400 we reached the exit for Natick Mass. There's an earlier exit toll we use to go to Portsmouth, New Hampshire and that one too was backed up around the curve.  Dunno why all the heavy traffic that day. That area has lots of colleges so maybe students were returning to start the fall semester.

   It was an easy drive to downtown Natick and we found a spot in front of the theater. The Arts Center was a fire house converted into a small theater that holds 280 people. We got seventh row seats ahead of time since there was a 'Sold Out' sign as we arrived to pick up our tix. Downtown Natick is very small with some stores, restaurants, coffee shops, etc.  There's a huge shopping mall a few miles away but we had enough shopping in Portsmouth two weeks earlier on vacation.  We found a CD shop with used stuff but didn't buy anything. I did ask for the Mitch Ryder CD but with no luck. There was a concert on the green but was over when we arrived.

   When I ordered out tix over the phone, I asked about what was near the theater for stores and restaurants. They recommended a good seafood place called The Dolphin a block away. As we approached the place, there was a banner: Twin Lobster Dinner $24.95.   Since I was still upset about hitting my son's car, we said..  WTF...  We need to treat ourselves.. Let's go for broke.   The place was very nice inside.  Two choices of sides with the lobster. A bottle of wine, key lime pie & coffee... all served by a cute young waitress...  With the delicious dinner, wine, and eye candy, I finally mellowed out.  lol 

   We still had time to kill before the show and we hung around in a coffee shop till about 730. We went inside the theater to see if any CDs or tee shirts were being sold. McGuinn has this four CD set of 100 folk songs that we wanted(it's offered and explained on his website and the 'Woodsongs Video' section). Now here's where it's gets interesting....

   There were two woman selling McGuinn's CDs and they were autographed ahead of time. Since it was a small crowd, I asked if he was gonna come out after the show to sign autographs or pose for pics; we brought our camera and took pics of us in front of the 'Sold Out' sign. One woman was a pretty brunette with long dark hair and very friendly... about/maybe early 50's. She told me no because he's usually tired after his one man show. We bought the folk song set and she asked me if I wanted his live CD. I told her I already got it from his website but bought some (autographed too) as gifts for Martha's guitar teacher and others who play. We talked about his other CDs for sale and she knew we knew his work and kept talking to us. If we were bothering her, I'm sure she would have brushed us off.

    We told her how Martha bought his instructional DVD on how to play the twelve string guitar and she was impressed. We told her how we saw him and Donovan two years ago and she told us how that was a good show... She kept saying 'we' to our answers.

  Then it dawned on me.  I said:  "Wait a sec...   Uh... Are you Camilla McGuinn??"  She laughed, said yes, and asked how I knew about her. Yes it was Roger's wife!  I told her I read about her and seen her pic on his website, and seen her name on his CDs. She works with him on everything: songwriting, producing, publicity, etc.

   We must have talked to her for ten minutes and she asked us where we drove from...   how long a drive and I told her almost two hours. She asked us where we were staying overnight and I told here we would drive home since his show started at 8:00 and would probably be over at 9:30. She told us that he's starting at 8:45 because of an unannounced opening act. She seems truly concerned when she asked us if we would be OK driving home that distance so late. I told her we would stop for coffee and take our time. Martha wanted to ask her if would could sleep in their tour bus.  lol  I asked her a lot of questions which she graciously answered because she knew we were hardcore fans.  When more people arrived to purchase CDs, we  shook her hand, thanked for talking to us, and went to our seats..

     Before the show, I went to the rest room downstairs. There was an opening marked 'do not enter' and I could hear McGuinn warming up. I was soooo tempted to walk in.... 'Ooops I got lost.....  Hey aren't you Roger Mc....'   lol    The show started at 8:00 with a gal named Mieka Pauly, a folksinger from Boston who won a Starbucks New Performer competition. She played & sang her own songs for a half hour. She reminded me of Jewel but with a lil hostility. She sang a song about a failed relationship... a cappella style and used her fist to pound on her guitar like a drum instead of playing it. Martha imagined she was doing it to her former lover's head.  lol    She was good and has a CD coming out. Martha liked her Ovation guitar.

 

   After a short intermission, we heard a guitar playing a Byrds song and Roger entered playing. He stopped the song to say his guitar was out of tune and picked up another from his five different ones onstage. Later he explained how air conditioning is bad for guitars because it makes them go out of tune...  either too sharp or too flat.. and need constant tuning  He added with he does loves A/C and it was a humid day and greatly appreciated.  My wife says the same thing about how our A/C affects her guitars.

 

 Like his previous show, he was his charming self as he talked between songs about how they were written, his stories about show biz, and why he would use a certain guitar for certain songs. He makes you sing & clap along during some songs and you feel good when you leave. If you watch that 'Woodsongs' link, it gives you a good idea of seeing him live or hearing his live CD. He seems to follow the format of his live CD but changed some songs and added new ones, including a sequel to 'Chestmare Mare,' a Byrds song I sent to some.  

      He played for over an hour and ended his show... or so we thought and returned for four more songs. No show would finish without 'Eight Miles High. This guy has fingers of lightning....  If he plays in your area, treat yourself to a wonderful evening.

      We left the theater at 10:15 and got home two hours later. We stopped for coffee & rest rooms that were needed because I drank enough coffee before and after the show to prep fro the ride home. Another great evening...   Sunday afternoon I wrote to Camilla explaining that we made it home safely, how nice she was to us, how great was Roger's show, etc.

     Well I didn't expect to hear from her...   Then a few days later I received this reply: 

   

 Dear Martha and John,
Thank you for letting me know you got home okay. Roger and I were both
concerned about you. And thank you for being such loyal fans! It is people
like you that will keep the music alive!
I hope to see you again.
God Bless You
Camilla

 

So tell me that didn't knock us over?   They appreciated that we traveled far to see them. What a team!  What a lovely person who took the time to talk with us and reply to me.  Martha's next purchase is Roger's instructional DVD for playing folk songs.  Next thing happening will be wifey writing hostile songs about me.. .most definitely using my head as a drum. lol