Podcast #27 – John and Mary and The Valkyries
One of Buffalo’s most beloved folk-rock duos, John and Mary, play with their backing band, The Valkyries. It was sort of a public practice to prepare for their appearance the next weekend at the Great Blue Heron Festival.
They played their setlist – twice. I said it was a practice! What you hear is from the second set, when they were all warmed up (it was a hot, humid night) and loose. The first set, compared to the second was a bit rough. It all came together the second time through, so you’re hearing the best.
Recorded to four tracks at the Sportsmans Tavern, and remixed later with Cool Edit. I think it came out pretty decent.
Songs as played in the podcast. All recorded live at the Sportsmans Tavern, Buffalo NY
Opening background:
The Azalea Festival from Victory Gardens
A Brighter Day from The Pinwheel Galaxy
Beyond Love from The Pinwheel Galaxy
Lillies of the Valley from The Pinwheel Galaxy
Just As The Tide Was Flowing from The Wishing Chair
Beyond the Blue from The Earth Pressed Flat
On & On (Mersey Song) from The Earth Pressed Flat
Clare’s Scarf from The Pinwheel Galaxy, John & Mary and Their Band Live
Cotton Alley from The Wishing Chair
Love Among The Ruins from Love Among The Ruins
Can’t Ignore The Train from The Wishing Chair, John & Mary and Their Band Live
Closing background:
Rainy Day from Love Among The Ruins
John and Mary have been a part of the Internationally known group, 10,000 Maniacs. John was an original member of the band, left, started playing with Mary, a classically-trained viola player, brought her along when he re-joined the Maniacs. Mary succeeded Natalie Merchant as singer for the band, but John and Mary eventually left the band again.
Two CDs with the Maniacs and four as a duo, John and Mary have a pretty full catalog of material and are still going strong. Their desire to work with a full band led them to form the Valkyries to back them up. Here’s the 2006 lineup:
Rob Lynch – http://www.myspace.com/welcometosound – http://welcometosound.com/ – http://www.buffaloartsstudio.org/RobLynch.html
Kent Weber – http://kentweberbass.com/
Nelson Starr – http://www.nelsonstarr.com/
Pat Kane – I couldn’t find any web page for Pat, so you’ll have to take my word that he’s a heck of a nice guy!
John and Mary – http://www.10kmaniacs.org/jm/ – http://johnandmary.net/
More than you ever wanted to know about the 10,000 Maniacs – http://www.10kmaniacs.org/ (not updated past 2004 or so)
The official 10,000 Maniacs site – http://www.maniacs.com/
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[The audio for this podcast has been moved to Archive.org]
Celia White said,
August 10, 2006 at 9:55 pm
Doc Wu, thanks for posting this podcast; it was a show I wouldn’t normally have missed, live. Same is true of the Redheaded Stepchild show you posted a few months back. I think this work is important as archive, even if people aren’t commenting much on the pages. I subscribe via the RSS feed so I’ll always know when new shows are up.
DocWu said,
July 30, 2007 at 7:51 pm
From Rob Lynch:
the new john and mary & the valkyries record “peacebridge” has just been released!
we all remember john and mary of the 10,000 maniacs, huge in brazil and all that. in fact i’m hoping we’ll be going to brazil to support the record.
I play drums on most of the disc…one tune has percussion by the wonderfully unique victor delorenzo of the violent femms. I think that after “wipeout” and “in the air tonight”, victor penned one of the most recognizable drum fills of all time on the vf college bar favorite “blister in the sun”.
tblah tblah! tblah tblah!
listen to samples and buy one here if you would like to:
http://www.myspace.com/johnmaryandthevalkyries