When I got the assignment from the Tulsa Performing Arts Center’s Intermission magazine (that fantastic glossy book your program comes in when you attend events at the PAC) to cover GrooveLily’s concert on Friday, I had no idea what the heck a GrooveLily was.
I took the opportunity to peruse the band’s Web site and download some tunes, and I ended up spending all day listening to mp3s and watching their videos on YouTube.
The band combines Broadway-inspired tunes with jazz, folk and rock music to create a sound that is completely unlike anything I’ve heard before and is so magical, soothing and inspiring that I wanted to get on Amazon.com as quick as possible and snatch up all the CDs I could find.
GrooveLily is Valerie Vigoda, vocals and electric violin; Brendan Milburn, vocals, keyboard and, it just so happens, Valerie’s husband; and Gene Lewin, drums.
Vigoda is a classically trained violinist who, while pursuing a career as a folk singer, met Milburn in 1994 in a New York City coffee shop. They began to meet regularly, first to discuss music, then began writing music together and, eventually, dating. Later that year they met Lewin, whose background is in jazz and rock.
The really beautiful thing about GrooveLily’s music is that, though lovely melodies and rhythms, the band tells marvelous stories. A large portion of the band’s repertoire is its rock musicals, which turn age-old moral tales on their heads, giving them a new spin, to tell smart, humorous, creative stories.
And even those songs that aren’t part of the rock musicals seem to have a story to tell – an imaginative, intellectual story.
If what I’m writing can’t convey it well enough to convince you that this is a show you want to see, then listen for yourself.
GrooveLily plays the Williams Theater of the Tulsa PAC, 110 E. Second St., Friday, Sept. 25 at 7:30pm. Tickets are only $28, but five – FIVE – lucky winners will get a pair right here for free. Just leave a comment with your favorite fable or moral story, and I’ll select the winner at random tomorrow morning. You have until 8 a.m. tomorrow to enter. I’ll choose the winner tomorrow at 9 a.m.
Good luck, and happy listening!
9.24.2009
Get Your Groove On: A Giveaway
Posted by Holly Wall at 12:44 PM
Labels: Giveaway, GrooveLily, Tulsa Performing Arts Center
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
My all-time fave for "moral" stories is the story of the frog and the scorpion.
A scorpion wanted to cross a river, so he asked the frog to carry him. The frog refused because the scorpion would sting him. That would not be logical, explained the scorpion, because if he stung the frog they would both drown. So the frog agreed to carry the scorpion. Half way across, the frog felt a terrible pain -the scorpion had stung him. There is no logic in this, exclaimed the frog. I know, replied the scorpion, but I cannot help it - it is my character.
Now where are my tickets? :)
The Monkey and the Fish
A well-meaning monkey sees a fish struggling in the water after a typhoon. Having a kind heart, the monkey - with considerable risk to himself - reaches down precariously from a limb of a tree to save the fish, snatching him up from the water. The monkey lays the fish on dry land. For a few minutes the fish shows excitement but soon it settles into a peaceful sleep.
Sometimes our attempts at help are well-intentioned, but dead wrong.
Groovelily!!
The Fisherman and the Little Fish
A FISHERMAN who lived on the produce of his nets, one day caught
a single small Fish as the result of his day's labor. The Fish,
panting convulsively, thus entreated for his life: "O Sir, what good can I be to you, and how little am I worth? I am not yet
come to my full size. Pray spare my life, and put me back into
the sea. I shall soon become a large fish fit for the tables of
the rich, and then you can catch me again, and make a handsome
profit of me." The Fisherman replied, "I should indeed be a very
simple fellow if, for the chance of a greater uncertain profit, I
were to forego my present certain gain."
BTW, Jeff Martin's fable is AWFUL! That bad little scorpion! Punish that scorpion by not picking Jeff Martin for tickets. :)
My favorite fable is from the movie Ran, the Akira Kurosawa classic. In it the father wants to leave his kingdom to his three sons, at first giving them each an arrow to break - with each son breaking the arrow easily. The father then gives the boys a bunch of three arrows, and the first two sons cannot break it. The third son thinks the message is foolish and breaks the bunch of arrows using his leg, instead of just his arms as the challenge requested. Um, I'm not sure what the moral of that one is and I don't want to give away the ending of the movie or anything but still...it was worth a shot.
My favorite fable is of the tortoise and the hare. The hare ridicules the slow-moving tortoise. So, the tortoise challenges the hare to a race. The hare very quickly races ahead and leaves the tortoise behind. He is so confident of winning he takes a nap halfway through the race. When he finally wakes up he finds the tortoise had won by crawling slowly and steadily. I feel the moral is important "Slow and steady wins the race."
I would love to here GrooveLily this weekend!
Post a Comment