TalkAwhile - The Folk Corporation Forum

From Beesweb.

"World-renowned double bassist and long time RT colleague and friend
Danny Thompson will be a featured artist at the International Society
of Bassists 2009 convention in State College, Pennsylvania.

In honor of the occasion, Richard Thompson has composed a song cycle
featuring the double bass.

On the afternoon of June 10, 2009, at Penn State University’s Schwab
Auditorium, Richard and Danny will be joined on stage by Harry
Shearer, Judith Owen, Debra Dobkin, and string and vocal ensembles to
debut Cabaret of Souls, a musical chronicle of a talent contest set in
Hell.

The ISB is a non-profit organization, and in order to raise funds for
this undertaking, they have just launched a “Friends of Richard
Thompson and Danny Thompson” pledge drive, offering wonderful premiums
in exchange for your tax-deductible donations.

Please visit http://www.isbworldoffice.com/convention/Comm_Music_Commission.htm
for all of the details.

And yes, a limited number of tickets will be available to the public
for this one-time performance. Contact Madeleine Crouch at info@isbworldoffice.com
to purchase.

Support the arts!"

Harry Shearer too. "Exxxcelent"

Sounds like fun. I'm sure it would make a fine Friday night at Cropredy. ;)

It would indeed. Failing that, we can always hope for a DVD.

No DVD, but if you follow the link, you can sign up to various levels of 'Friends of RT & DT' - the third level ($101 & upwards) get you your name in the programme, a t-shirt & an audio recording of the gig.

The International Society of Bassists is a charity & hence all subs are tax-deductible in the USA. Sadly not in the UK though.

Mrs. John from Austin and I will be there in State College, PA Wednesday night.

I'll post a post-mortem here.

For those unfamiliar with U.S. geography, State College is a million miles away from all points of the compass.

With thanks to Barbara (from another place) for posting this, a review:

http://tinyurl.com/lkp2th

Mrs. John From Austin and I just got back to Austin after our odyssey in Central Pennsylvania.  Here's my thumbnail review:

Cabaret of Souls is an hour-long song cycle/morality tale. Danny T. was heavily featured, augmented by a string section, Debra Dobkin, Pete Zorn, Harry Shearer, Judith Owen and the composer. RT and Judith alternated lead vocals. Individual songs are linked by musical commentary, narrated primarily by Harry Shearer. Judith brought the house down a couple of times.  

The performance was filmed, so hopefully you will all get to see it on Memorex, if not live, at some point. It would be a crime if this were the only performance.

Keep your eyes peeled for future developments with this piece. It's funny, bitingly satirical and genre-defying. Musically, it may be the most challenging thing I've heard from RT. This stretches farther than 1,000 YOPM.

From "RT's Cabaret of Souls" FB page:

"A studio recording of Richard Thompson's folk oratorio 'Cabaret of Souls' will be available later this year on CD. The recording features the Idyllwild Arts Academy Orchestra (conducted by Peter Askim), Judith Owen, Harry Shearer, Pete Zorn, Debra Dobkin, and David Piltch."

Hooray!  :)

Fantastic - can't wait.

Another tease from Beesweb:


CABARET OF SOULS

A studio recording of Richard Thompson's folk oratorio 'Cabaret of
Souls' will soon be available on CD.
The recording features the Idyllwild Arts Academy Orchestra (conducted
by Peter Askim), Judith Owen, Harry Shearer,
Pete Zorn, Debra Dobkin, and David Piltch.

Performance history:
www.richardthompson-music.com/catch_of_the_day.asp?id=1328

www.facebook.com/pages/Richard-Thompsons-Cabaret-of-Souls/156536271034933

Video clips:
www.richardthompson-music.com/catch_of_the_day.asp?id=1455

Having finally got this a couple of days ago, I can only say it is very, very special.

Some of the character songs are up there with RTs best IMO.