Folk at the Library

The Gloversville Public Library hosted a great little concert last night, featuring Dana and Susan Robinson, a touring duo from Asheville, N.C. They played a solid hourlong set of traditional music in the old-timey Americana vein and several clever original songs. I particularly enjoyed their version of "Waterbound" as recorded by Dirk Powell, one of the modern-day heroes of old-timey music.

They also did some nice instrumental work -- Susan mostly on clawhammer banjo and Dana on guitar and fiddle. One wouldn't expect great acoustics in a library, but every note came across sweet and clear without electronic amplificiation.

Dana Robinson showed off his songwriting chops with an original inspired by the architecture of Troy, N.Y., with a tip of the hat to the anciet city-state of Homerian legend. Several folks in the audience sang along on the chorus of "What Would Woody Do?" -- an ode to the great Dust Bowl balladeer that rings with an activistic optimism lacking from Bob Dylan's better-known Guthrie homage.

I hope we can get these folks to revisit our neck of the woods for another performance sometime soon.

I managed to capture one halfway decent video of the performance (see below), though I must apologize for the excessive cranial interference -- I didn't have a good place to position my camera without getting some listeners' noddin' noggins in the frame.