LOCATION: School Kids Records In Exile, Ann Arbor, MI
LINEUP: Karin, Linford, Jason Dennie
REVIEW BY: Burrill
i like this in-store appearance thing. enough to write about it, even. the list: all i need is everything the seahorse it's never quite what it seems orphan girl faithfully dangerous lucy poughkeepsie i painted my name schoolkids is a small, low-ceilinged place in the basement of another (rather non-musical) store. it fit the performance, i think. the setup was karin and linford, each with an acoustic guitar to call his own. they were dressed casually. (karin was wearing an indian motorcycle company shirt. linford had no such distinctive markings.) i arrived not too long into all i need. i assume it was the first song, since karin referred to it as a soundcheck, and i was close enough to noon that i don't think there wouldn't have been time for a song before that. (of course, i could well be horribly wrong.) if i had to guess, i'd say there were fifteen or at the most twenty people there. this was a highly informal event. there were a few people piled on the couch and a few others standing or sitting around that same couch. l&k appeared to be partially making it up as they went along. a couple of times i heard one or the other say something along the lines of "hey, you wanna do [song]?" there was something of a surprise attached to it's never quite. linford pulled out an accordian and informed us that this would be the first time he'd played it in public. his accordian debut, he said. he also gave the history of that accordion. apparently a "missionary lady" gave it to him when they were on tour with vol. (he referred only to "a band from athens, georgia." i'm guessing that band was vol.) anyway, he played it for it's never quite and for orphan girl. to my ears it sure sounded good. oh, and this was my first time hearing it's never quite. boy, that's a good song. one request was made, and that was granted. the song requested was poughkeepsie. i heard sounds of approval from parts of the audience after the request was made. in the middle of the show, jason dennie showed up. in fact, i think it was right when linford was strapping on his accordion. linford introduced him to the crowd. jason stayed for a couple songs. if i remember correctly, linford didn't advertise jason's music until after he left. he gave a fairly glowing advertisement. for the last song, linford said something about playing an old song. that song turned out to be i painted my name. (he never did give the title of the song, but the title quickly became evident.) karin predicted that she would mess up, and her prediction came true. she got it right until she hit "i put it up high above the rocks below." she didn't take too long to recover, though, and the rest of the song went smoothly. after the show, i was (finally) able to meet k&l. and i think i'm done.