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Intelligent, romping folk melange
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San Francisco Examiner, Intelligent, romping folk melange >>
By Philip Elwood, Examiner music critic
Malcolm Dalglish and Grey Larsen, with their sidekick Peter Sutherland, last night presented the sort of show most folk musicians couldn’t even begin to pull off. Dalglish plays hammer dulcimer, and sings. Larsen plays the guitar, anglo concertina, piano, fiddle, wooden flute and a number of other instruments. Sutherland primarily is a fiddler, but he’s a mighty impressive singer, too.
What was most appealing to me during D, L, & S’s show was their good humor, their excitement at playing and their intelligent mixing of material.
Dalglish, Larsen and Sutherland are folk singers in the broadest sense. They do, indeed, feature songs native to their boyhood stomping grounds in the Ohio-Indiana-Kentucky area – but beyond that they don’t mind sneaking in an original or two (mainly pretty funny) or some mainstream pop stuff.
Dalglish’s hammer dulcimer, played with small hammers right onto the strange instrument’s strings, is the group’s most distinctive sound. Matched, particularly against Larsen’s violin, the sound is most effective, and created a shimmering rainbow of musical colors behind the other musicians.
Larsen, shifting from keyboards to the strings, created the setting in which his pair of colleagues can romp to their hearts’ delight.
Relative newcomer Sutherland is a superb fiddler and a remarkably fine vocalist. He’s a sort of trad-folk John Denver – even looks like him.
What do they play? All manner of material, mostly strange, but all attractive. There were riverboat songs, coal-mining songs, a mélange of European folk selections, even a sing-along last night.
In the midst of all the clever tunes and musical slapstick, the trio delivered one of the prettiest ballads I’ve heard in some time – it is called “La Valse pour let Petites Juenes Filles,” and it combined, beautifully, the hammer dulcimer and the guitar.
Dalglish and Larsen have accumulated a tremendous repertoire and thus can pick and choose selections that fit their mood and that of their audience.
I like the river songs, dating from the early 19th century; sing-alongs like “On the O-hi-o, to Shawnee Town” or such superb social commentaries as those dealing with the miners in the valley, the rich folk in the “chalets on the hill,” etc.
Because Dalglish and Larsen mix their material, the traditional and the new, lively song spoofs and comedy routines blend together quite effectively.
The show opened with the great Irish accordionist, Joe Burke, who drew a fair number of people himself. He’ll be playing Harrigan’s tomorrow early in the evening and then move to the Plough & Stars for performances both tomorrow and Saturday. 05/12/83
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