Word: harps
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...outset, John Morris's harp chords and sustained flute convey an ominous mood appropriate for the 16th-century Vienna where "quite athwart goes all decorum." Michael Kahn has added a brief prologue that introduces us to some of the unsavory people in the city--including a blind beggar, a pickpocket, a legless cripple. There is no point in trying to avoid the play's prevailingly rancid taste. Kahn has abridged the text a little, so that the show has a running-time of two and a half hours...
...Richardson, an estimable actor back here for the fourth consecutive season, takes a valiant fling at the part. His "sword of heaven" soliloquy is neatly spoken, discreetly underlined by one horn, then a second horn, harp, and flute. But Richardson is most effective in finding humorous aspects in the role, such as when, on donning a monk's disguise, he mimies Friar Peter's rolling of the hands. (Shakespeare had already used the ruler-in-disguise device in Henry V, when the king wanders incognito among his troops just before the Battle of Agincourt...
...even better in live performance) and comes up with enjoyable arrangements. The drummer, Christopher Parker, is perfect in his blues discipline, delivering a steady, unadorned beat. He and bassist Billy Rich make up a solid, healthy rhythm section. Then we come to Butterfield himself, still belting out those sonatized harp solos, remaining one of the few white musician-singers around today doing a capable job with the blues...
...update of Robert Johnson's "Walkin' Blues." The band performs this number with personality and style, a most welcome change from the intentional mimicking of black music by many white blues bands. This cut features Butterfield on vocals, playing electric piano and all the while wailing away on mean harp. This Delta blues classic exhibits a tasteful modern interpretation somewhere in between the traditional and contemporary blues settings. "Broke My Baby's Heart" features organist Ronnie Barron on vocals and is one of the two tracks featuring a horn section reminiscent of early Butterfield. Here Barron conveys a feeling...
...Williams's "Baby Please Don't Go." The tune is very well mixed, so if you listen through headphones you can hear Muldaur's glassy slide guitar on the left channel and Amos Garrett's lead guitar on the right, both in conversation with Paul's biting harp way up in the mix. Muldaur and Butterfield grind out the vocals una voce and, in the company of Maria Muldaur's (Geoff's wife) restrained fiddle, the band displays one of the best personal interpretations of Delta blues that has come out in a long time...