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April 23, 2009
Elliott Murphy, Jann Klose at FTC
Two very talented singer-songwriters performed at StageOne Wednesday night. Unfortunately, only about 20 people turned out for the show.
It was their loss as the concert featuring opening act Jann Klose and headliner Elliott Murphy was easily worth the $22 ticket fee. Certainly not a lot of money in a world where people pay 10 times that amount to watch Britney Spears lip-synch for 90 minutes.
Neither is a household name, so I didn't expect a full house. But 20 people? I felt embarrassed for the artists and the people that run the Fairfield Theatre Company.
Well, the people that did show up on a cold, rainy Wednesday night were treated to two solid performances and, as an added bonus, a Q&A session moderated by the Connecticut Post's Joe Meyers.
Klose's music is a little too pretty for my taste, but the young man obviously has talent. His tunes were strong, his singing impeccable and his standup bass player, Chris Marolf, chipped in with some solid harmony vocals.
After Klose's set, Meyers asked the two performers a handful of questions that were definitely not the usual ones asked of musicians. We learned of Murphy's small role in the Fellini film "Roma" and about the connection of his latest album title, "Notes from the Underground," to the classic Dostoevsky work. Interesting stuff.
Murphy and his band were tremendous. His music would definitely appeal to fans of other literate singer-songwriters, such as Bob Dylan, Graham Parker, etc.
Murphy's band, The Normandy All Stars, was top-notch, especially guitarist Olivier Durand. His guitar work was mesmerizing throughout the set, always augmenting the songs perfectly without overwhelming them.
Meyers touched on it, but I never really grasped the cinematic qualities of Murphy's music until I got to see him perform live. I had only become familiar with his new album while researching Murphy for the feature story that ran in the April 16 edition of Go.
I'm glad I did that story because I'm sure that I'll be looking to pick up a few of Murphy's older albums now that I've been exposed to the quality of his songs.
Too bad more people weren't exposed to his music Wednesday night.
Posted by Sean on April 23, 2009 5:26 PM
