Saturday, February 4, 2017

MUSIC: Old-time music in Newark

I've come to expect bad jokes from the performers at old-time music concerts, but the ones at Friday night's show in Newark, Del., were truly awful.
Examples:
-- What happens if you don't pay your exorcist? You get repossessed.
-- What happens if your clock is hungry? It goes back 4 seconds.
-- Musician A: Did you bring your potato clock?
    Musician B: What's a potato clock?
    Musician A: Oh, you don't know what a potato clock is? I get a potato clock every morning!
I didn't "get" that last one for several seconds; when I did [say the last few words slowly] I let out a loud groan. The guy behind me asked me to explain it to him, and then he, in turn, groaned.
Oh, and the music? It was terrific and very cheerful, again as we've come to expect from the Brandywine Friends of Old-Time Music concerts. 
Uncle Henry's Favorites, a quartet from Charlottesville, Virginia, performed for the first hour. After intermission the Orpheus Supertones took the stage, comprising Pete Peterson and Kellie Allen from Oxford; fiddlers Clare Milliner and Walt Koken from Pocopson; and Hilary Dirlam on bass.
For the grand finale the two bands joined up and played a couple of songs together, closing with a rousing sing-along of "Down by the Riverside." At one point on stage there were two upright bass players, three fiddlers, two mandolin players, a banjo player, two guitar players and a guy on the harmonica.

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