Just in time for
the presidential election, AMERICAN CLASSICS paid tribute to those pesky SWING STATES (AND THE OTHERS) this
past weekend. The great American songbook contains a wealth of material about,
or inspired by, the places we come from---or go to, in the case of California. Ben Sears,
Brad Conner and company introduced us to some songs we didn’t know (“When It’s
Cactus Time in Arizona”) and regaled us with favorites like “Carolina in the
Morning,” performed to easy, Southern perfection by Peter Miller accompanying
himself on ukulele. (Miller niftily proved the old adage that sometimes
simplicity is best: A man, his uke and a fabulous lyric: We hung on every word,
hungered for another chorus and felt like we would perish when it was too soon
over.)
Now Tennessee, it turns out,
has eight state songs. One of the loveliest with the sweetest chorus is “Rocky
Top,” sung ‘mountain style’ by Tennessee
native Joei Marshall Perry, Miller (banjo and vocals) and Buffie Groves
(guitar and vocals). Later in the show, Perry brought home the gorgeous Hoagy
Carmichael/Stuart Gorrell “Georgia on My Mind.”.
Perry and Eric
Bronner were droll wind-up figures from a diorama about Romney’s adopted
states. Host Peter A. Carey ran to the rescue when Utah
(Perry) and Massachusetts
(Bronner) needed rewinding. President Obama got his due in a spoofy “My Little
Grass Shack in Kealakekua, Hawaii” (which brought back memories for me
of Arthur Godfrey’s old radio show). Later on in the program, Bronner’s soft,
lilting lullaby, “Kentucky Babe” took our breath away.
Cynthia Mork
delivered the heavenly “Stars Fell on Alabama”
and made pleasant harmony with Sears in “An Old Fashioned Home in New Hampshire.” Caroline
Musica, who hails from the pine tree state, sang the charming “Spending Your
Vacation in Maine”
while Conner’s piano phrasing echoed the water lapping at the shoreline. Conner
crooned the John Denver hit, “Country Roads” (which mistakenly places the Blue
Ridge Mountains in West Virginia
---but all is forgiven since it’s such a beautiful song). Sears finessed a
little Jolson on “Swanee” and the entire ensemble (plus Barry Low on accordion)
strutted “the Pennsylvania Polka.”
What would an evening
about the states be without the rousing anthem from “Oklahoma?” The ensemble made the Rogers
& Hammerstein showstopper sound like a stage crowded full of territory folk
celebrating their brand new state. It takes two elements to make a good show: a
great idea and skillful execution. American Classics has both the innovative
ideas and the best people to carry them off.
