Summer sneak preview; Burns Sisters; Dave's True Story
By Seth Rogovoy

(GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass., May 1, 200) - Although getting any kind of detailed information is like pulling teeth, apparently the Guthrie Center is once again planning to present weekend folk concerts, beginning Memorial Day Weekend with the return of singer-songwriter Cliff Eberhardt - who opened the Guthrie series last year -- on Friday, May 25.

Eberhardt will be followed in "The Troubadour Series," as it is being called this year, by back-to-back performances by RIG, the second- and third-generation folk group featuring Tao Rodriguez-Seeger, Sarah Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion, on May 26 and 27.

Subsequent shows at the Guthrie Center over the next month and a half will include a mix of encore performances from last year's series, including Vance Gilbert (June 1), Lynn Miles (June 22), Christine Lavin (June 23) and Lucy Kaplansky (July 8), as well as such folk royalty as Oscar Brand (June 9), Josh White Jr. (June 15) and Robin and Linda Williams (June 16).

Oh, yes, the Guthrie Center's website www.guthriecenter.org also says that some guy named Arlo will be performing two "spring benefit concerts" on May 18 and 19.

The Guthrie Center is expected to present shows throughout the summer months. We will do our best to unlock the mystery of the Guthrie Center's summer plans, but for now it's the best kept secret in town.

Speaking of summer concerts, there's still no word on whether or not there will be a pop series at Tanglewood this summer. You'd think that the Paul Simon/Brian Wilson double bill (coming to SPAC in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., on July 15) would be ideal for Tanglewood and its over-55 demographic target. But who knows, maybe Simon's African-influenced folk-pop is a little too rhythmic or "ethnic" for the Tanglewood types.

There are, however, a slew of shows scheduled at Club Helsinki throughout the summer, with more to follow. This month's schedule includes Robby Baier's new band Genepool doing a live video shoot next Tuesday, Spouse and Belladonna (May 10), Cuban group Sabor de Cuba (May 11), Freelance Bishops (May 17), Mike Plume Band (May 18), Kudu (May 19), Boston rocker Dennis Brennan (May 24), Munjoy Hill Society (May 25), and jazz saxophonist Hamiet Bluiett (May 26).

Highlights of coming months at Club Helsinki include blues-folk singer-songwriter Chris Smither (June 1), Percy Hill (June 8), Berkshire singer-songwriter Meg Hutchinston (June 14), folk-rocker Mark Erelli (June 15), blues guitarist Jeff Lang (June 22), the return of Jess Klein (June 23), jazz-funk guitarist John Scofield (June 27), blues guitarist Debbie Davies (June 29), Professor Louie and the Crowmatix (July 13), pop singer-songwriter Sally Taylor (July 13), Anson Funderburgh and the Rockets (July 20), singer-songwriter Erin McKeown (July 26), bluesman Carey Bell (August 4), Bluiett again (August 10-11), zydeco artist Rosie Ledet (August 16), blues belter Toni Lynn Washington (August 17), r&b vocalist E.C. Scott (August 23), and neo-swing star Big Sandy (August 31).

Upstate New York's Burns Sisters perform at Helsinki tonight. The trio of sisters are three of a dozen siblings in all, and Marie Burns says they have been singing together their whole lives.

"Things were very musical around the house," said Burns in a recent phone interview. "Our mother sang at church and at weddings around Binghamton, where we grew up. And she had all of us learn to sing like the Andrews Sisters."

Along with Marie, sisters Annie and Jeannie are siblings number seven, eight and nine, and Marie said they have figured out how to get along. "We've worked together for years, and we even hang out together when we're not working."

Marie says that she definitely thinks there is a genetic factor in the organic way the sisters' voices blend with each other.

"It's something in the vibrato of the voices, they match," said Burns. "I was just listening to Shelby Lynne and her sister, and their voices sound a lot alike. And if you tape our brother's voice and speed it up, it sounds just like Jeannie."

In addition to their most recent Burns Sisters album, last year's "Out of the Blue" (Philo) - a mostly original mixture of Bonnie Raitt-like blues, country-rock, mainstream country-pop and Irish folk -- each sister has her own solo album. On "Free Little Bird," Marie, who writes a lot of her own material, tends to sing more traditional-flavored, country-inspired ballads, while Jeannie favors the more rock-influenced, alt-country sound on her solo album, "Coming Up Close," which includes versions of songs by Fred Eaglesmith, Aimee Mann, Steve Earle and Cliff Eberhardt.

Tomorrow night, Helsinki hosts one of the oddest duos in modern music. If you didn't listen too closely to the words Kelly Flint sings, you'd think that Dave's True Story - as the jazzy duo of Flint and guitarist/songwriter Dave Cantor is known - you'd think they were just another retro-cabaret act.

But on closer examination, Flint and Cantor are updating the so-called Great American Songbook for the 21st century. On the surface, "Can't Get You Out of My System," for example, seems to be a nod to Cole Porter's "I've Got You Under My Skin." But with lines like "That little love bug you planted within/Covered by no amount of health insurance" and "I'm changing my blood every five or six weeks/I can't get you out of my system," emotional obsession takes on new and frightening implications. Think of Dave's True Story as neo-cabaret's David Lynch.

[This column originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on May 4, 2001. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 2001. All rights reserved.]