Performers share the spirit of the past
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By Craig Harris
Special to Reminder Publications
Richard Thompson April 19, The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, Great Barrington and April 20, Latchis Theater, Brattleboro, Vt.;
Gandalf Murphy and The Slambovian Circus Of Dreams
April 19, Unitarian Society of Northampton and Florence, 220 Main St., Northampton
British guitarist/vocalist Richard Thompson and Cold Springs, N.Y.-based band Gandalf Murphy and the Slambovian Circus of Dreams share a reverence for the past.
"I don't fear not being original," said Gandalf Murphy and the Slambovian Circus of Dreams' lead singer, songwriter, guitarist and harmonica player Joziah Longo via telephone. "The more you try to be derivative, the more your originality shows. We steal from any realm past, present or future anything that we love and incorporate it into what we're doing. It's not done in a way that's definable. We try to have the flavor, or the spirit, of the past."
With a repertoire that spans from twelfth century balladry to more modern original tunes and revamped versions of everything from the Who's "Pinball Wizard" to Britney Spears' "Oops! I Did It Again," Thompson will be performing solo shows at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington, Mass., on April 19, and the Latchis Theater, in Brattleboro, Vt., the following night.
As a founding member of Fairport Convention in 1967, Thompson helped to lay the foundations of British folk-rock, culminating in the groundbreaking album "Full House" shortly before leaving the band in 1970. In the nearly four decades since, Thompson has grown into one of contemporary music's most highly respected practitioners.
Thompson's ability to blend centuries-old influences with modern sensibilities was put to the test by a questionnaire from "Playboy" magazine that he received in 1999, asking him to contribute to a list of the "top 10 songs of the millennium." Accepting the challenge, he conducted research, recorded an album and created a stage show, "1,000 Years In Music," that toured in 2007.
With songs abounding with musical and lyrical references to the Beatles, Pink Floyd, the Who, King Crimson, Jethro Tull and Bob Dylan, Gandalf Murphy and the Slambovian Circus of Dreams take most of their cues from Sixties rock 'n' roll. But a knack for fusing a variety of genres has given them their own sound.
"We try to paint with the things that we love," explained Longo, "and build out of that vocabulary. You've got to dance free to all the different styles and see and appreciate the good in all of it."
Longo's roots in the country, folk and Mummers music that he played with his father, and the rock 'n' roll that he loved as a youngster, are expanded by his classically trained wife Tink Lloyd (accordion, cello, flute, theramin), Sharky McEwen (guitars, mandolin and background vocals) and drummer Tony Zuzelo.
"Sharkey has an incredible depth as a musician," Longo said. "He plays like Hendrix and Jimmy Page together. Tony's the same way. He's like having John Bonham and Keith Moon mixed together. He has that Bonham heavy end and he keeps the groove. But he does these insane fills."
Lloyd and Longo have played together since the 1980s when they recorded three progressive rock albums as the Ancestors. "We recorded with players who were friends," recalled Longo, "people from Black Rock Coalition, like Vernon Reid and Trey Gunn from King Crimson."
Although he joined in time to play on the Ancestors' third album, "Brigadoon," McEwen's tenure with the group didn't last long. Shortly after the album's release, the Ancestors disbanded. Frustrated by the music industry, Longo and Lloyd weren't eager to return to the corporate world of major record labels. "I took myself out of the whole music industry," said Longo. "I didn't care if I ever did music again."
Although he and Lloyd returned to school to study art, graphic design and video production, Longo didn't stray far from music. "I wrote four hundred songs in a couple of years," he said, "but it was totally free. If something sounded a little like something, I didn't have a fear of it. I let it flow into the music."
The recent addition of Longo and Lloyd's twin sons Chen (bass guitar) and Orien Longo (cowbell, synthesizer and background vocals) has given Gandalf Murphy and the Slambovian Circus of Dreams new textural possibilities. "It's a big sound," Longo said, "but it still has the stripped-down, raw feeling."
Celebrating the release of their sixth album, "The Great Unravel," Gandalf Murphy and the Slambovian Circus of Dreams will be performing at the Unitarian Society of Northampton and Florence in Northampton on April 19.
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