Janis Ian and Karla Bonoff at the Colonial

The Colonial Theatre

Pittsfield, Mass.

Songs of a Generation: Janis Ian and Karla Bonoff

April 17, 2010

 

Reviewed by Lesley Ann Beck

 

(PITTSFIELD, Mass.) In Saturday night’s concert at the Colonial Theatre, billed as “Songs of a Generation,” singer/songwriters Karla Bonoff and Janis Ian delivered two solid sets of tunes that, for the most part, have been around for a couple of decades, but still resonated for the audience, making it a very fine evening indeed.

 

 

Karla Bonoff, in a black velvet skirt, black top, and black boots, her dark hair straight and flowing over her shoulders, performed first, launching right into one of her familiar songs, “I Can’t Hold On,” her mid-1970s hit, and then into the country-tinged “Home,” which was also recorded by Bonnie Raitt. Bonoff is a phenomenal songwriter; many of her tunes have been recorded by, and been major hits for, other artists including Linda Ronstadt and Wynonna Judd. But Bonoff does a fine job of performing her own work, singing in a rich, easy alto and accompanying herself on guitar and on the grand piano. She brought her long-time musical associate Kenny Edwards, an accomplished musician who provided back-up vocals, guitar, bass, and mandolin; and Nina Gerber, who is an extraordinary guitarist. The threesome filled the Colonial with rich, beautiful sound and really delivered the goods.  Edwards took the lead singing one of his own songs, and he was terrific; and Gerber, in a very unassuming way, made guitar magic.

 

 

There is something about Karla Bonoff songs that makes them memorable; I know most of the songs they performed and they brought up a wonderful feeling of nostalgia, but even more than the memories, there was a sense that the music is current and relevant and thoroughly enjoyable.

   

 

After the intermission, Janis Ian came out: she is tiny but mighty in her stage presence, dressed in black slacks and a simple black shirt, playing a black guitar, her spiky white hair a sharp contrast. She shared her unusual history quite briefly; first hit at age 15, a has-been shortly thereafter, a comeback in her twenties … she has quite a sense of humor about it.

 

 

Hearing Janis Ian sing “Society’s Child” again after so many years made me realize two things. First, that it is remarkable that she wrote such a complex and insightful song at the age of fifteen. And second, that the song holds up today, as many hits from the 1960s do not. She reminded us on Saturday night just how controversial the song was in the mid-1960s; a radio station in Atlanta was burned down, disc jockeys got fired. At one concert she was giving, a protester in the audience stood up and started chanting “n----- lover,” and was joined by more and more people, until she left the stage in tears. The producer found her in the bathroom and insisted she return to the stage. As she related the story, one she must have told hundreds of times, she told us that she found the courage to go back on stage by saying to herself, “I’m Jewish, and I was raised to be a Maccabee,” and so she went back and started singing again.

 

 

Ian is a big presence on stage, and, very much at ease, she is generous with her stories and reminiscences between songs.

 

 

Ian played the songs that we remember—“At Seventeen” and “Jesse”—but it was not a nostalgia show; she is very much of today. And she is a very, very good guitar player. On “Bright Lights and Promises,” she stepped forward onto the apron of the stage in the middle of the song, a blues ballad with a dark wit to the lyrics, and slammed across a sizzling blues guitar solo; it was terrific. 

 

 

Another bright spot was her rendition of “Married in London,” a song she introduced by sharing how she and her (female) partner of fifteen years got married recently in Toronto. Ironically, as soon as they were back home in New York, they were single again. The song is humorous, but it certainly makes its point.

 

 

She talked about being a songwriter, and how she feels that she reaches out and gathers people’s dreams and then gives them back in song form. She was wise and charming and the music was great.

 

 

Bonoff and Ian came out together and finished with “The Water is Wide,” with Ian on piano, Bonoff on guitar, and Edwards and Gerber back on stage, and it was a fitting end to a satisfying evening.