music
'Balloon full of pain'
Michael Hedges uses his music as an escape. Sunday, he will make his escape in Lawrence.
By Delin Cormeny Kansan staff writer
Photo Courtesy of Windham Hill Records
perhaps the only things one can predict about Michael Hedges' music are the when and the where. "I try to make it so"
ferent every time," he said. "It's like making love. It's a very intimate way of communicating and I always thought that's what music was. If you have an interesting lover, it's different every time."
Hedges and his self-styled acoustic harp guitar, a unique bass-guitar hybrid, have traveled through what he calls his "heavy mental," "violent acoustic," "savage myth" and "wacka wacka" styles but have always made a stop in Lawrence.
Michael Hedges will perform 8 p.m. Sunday at Liberty Hall, 642 Massachusetts St.
This Sunday, Hedges will bring his earthy acoustic talents to Liberty Hall, 642 Massachusetts St., for one show only, starting at 8 p.m.
"It's always been nice to come to Lawrence," he said, estimating that this will be the fifth consecutive year that he has performed at Liberty Hall.
The stop is part of a 19-city tour that falls on the heels of a 50-city summer tour with Crosby, Stills and Nash.
Known first and foremost as a guitar wizard, Hedges has become somewhat of a cult figure among musicians, drawing an ever-royal, yet ever-expanding base of musicians, partly organic and partly astonishing performances.
His at-ease manner and philosophical silliness charm audiences and creep into his music at times.
"I'm trying to approach life a little more lighthearted," he said. "I think I'm in it too heavy. It doesn't pay to be serious all the time. I'm in a big balloon full of pain and music is the release valve."
If music is the release, then his concerts are the conduit.
He continually amazes audiences and stuns guitarists, eliciting jealous sighs and comments from them like, "Just how many fingers does this guy have?"
Unlike most guitarists, who reserve the picking, tapping, strumming and plucking techniques exclusively for the right hand while the left hand holds down the chords, both of Hedges' hands simultaneously jump and dance around the instrument.
"It's not being ambidextrous," said the south paw.
"It's more being mixed up. I just wish with how it is."
His contorted fingers look frantic and confused, but his music elicits a clear tranquility that simply contradicts the Medusa-hand image.
Hedges relaxed, free-flow approach to music is similar to his approach to his musical career. He said he never actually decided to be a recording artist, it just happened.
He started playing piano at age four and by the time he had reached high school, he was experimenting with the cello, clarinet and flute.
He studied flute and composition at Phillips University in Enid, Okla., and earned a degree in composition from Baltimore's prestigious Peabody Conservatory.
But despite the rigid, disciplined training, his music seems to flow naturally and instinctively.
"I like to think of music as something free and beautiful," he said. "It changes according to what you want."
In 1981, Hedges was discovered by the Windham hill lab and since then has become known as the parapetalum.
His sound does not fit into what he called the "wind chime" category, nor does one hear it in elevators. It is exciting and stimulating, innovative and funny, unlike most sleeve Windham Hill recordings.
His first and second ventures, "Breakfast in the Field" and the grummy-nominated "Aerial Boundaries," established him as an innovative musician, a technician and one of the young label's star artists.
But he broke out of the label's instrumental mold
when he added vocals to his third album, "Watching My Life Go By."
His fourth, "Live on the Double Planet," gave listeners a taste of the Michael Hedges concert experience. From a remake of the Beatles "Come Together," to his own "I Carry Your Heart." Hedges tapped into his dry wit as much as he tapped his fingers on his guitar.
His most recent release, "Taproot," was a return to instrumentation, but he added everything from whis-
"It went more to color land," he said. "Like when Dorothy lands in Oz. It goes into color."
His next album will be similar to "Taproot" instrumentally but will have vocals. He said it would be due for release as soon as he could make it.
"It's all written, it's just not orchestrated yet," he said. "It's like I've got the coloring book; I just haven't had time to color."
He promised that the album would be a departure from his "wacka wacka" period and would plunge reflectively into the past.
"I'm 38 now, and I thought, why not make remembering part of your life as well?" he said. "You're going backwards and going forwards at the same time. That's why my new album will be called 'Road to Return.'"
He was quick to point out that reflection is not regression.
"When you go backward, you never do it the same way," he said. "Maybe I'll do it standing on my head." And he just might.
Woody Allen documents intensely personal look at relationships
reviews
By M. Olsen
By M. Olsen Special to the Kansan
From the center of a media fire storm, Woody Allen has created his most intensely personal and stylistically sophisticated film to date. Without question, "Husbands and Wives" marks another milestone in Allen's development as a film maker
The film, essentially scenes from two marriages, opens with a dizzying quasi-documentary sequence shot with a handheld camera in a single, extended take.
Jack (Sydney Pollack) and Sally (Judy Davis) cheerfully tell their friends Gabe (Woody Allen) and Judy (Mia Farrow) they are getting a divorce. Both Gabe and Judy were between stoic calm and manic hysteria. The rest of the film follows Jack and Sally's eventual reconciliation while Judy maintains his relationship painfully disintegrates.
Allen is never constricted, however, by his documentary conceits. He breaks free of his own conventions to capture private moments no film crew would ever be allowed to see. The film's main players all turn in stellar, riveting performances. Judy Davis nearly walks off with many of her scenes as the impossibly perfectist Sally. Her frantic phone calls to her estranged husband are, at once, hysterically comic and painfully terrifying.
The film continues with its documentary form throughout. Scenes are sometimes shot from passing cars, heightening the sense of realism as the viewer seems to secretly view the action. The characters are interviewed on screen by an unseen voice, assumed to be the documentary director.
Noody Allen in "Husbands and Wives."
Easily overlooked, however, are the performances turned in by Juliette Lewis and Allen, himself. Lewis could have merely reprised her role as a naive coquette from "Cape Fear," but instead she gives her character claws, portraying the aspiring writer Rita as a self-possessed woman with an odd penchant for much older men. In turn, Allen tones down the mannered nervousness of many of his previous roles, creating a more natural character.
In light of the recent media circus surrounding the personal life of the very private Allen, portions of "Husbands and Wives" make the viewer cringe. At times the film seems so open and obviously drawn from real events that, were it not such an outstanding film, it could be difficult to watch.
"Husbands and Wives" is an example of personal film making virtually unparalleled in cinema. Woody Allen's growth as a film maker is astonishing. Regardless of his off-screen actions, on-screen he captures the small moments and gestures from which memories are formed.
Zoom shatters musical barriers with trademark style
By M. Olsen Special to the Kansan
When Zoom opened for the Poster Children last spring, the two bands struck a friendship and stayed in contact. So when Zoom members were looking for a producer, they asked the Poster Children for some advice and were pointed in the direction of Brad Wood.
The result of that session is an eight-song cassette available as the flagship release of Lawrence's own independent label, Lotus Pool Records. The label also will feature other local acts such as Truck Stop Love and Roach Factory. Zoom plans to release a seven-inch single on Lotus Pool later this fall.
During the summer, Zoom traveled to Chicago to record with Wood at Idful Studios. The group pounded out the basic tracks in a day, recording all first takes.
"He knew how to throw the reins on that stuff and control it," said bassist Jeremy (being such friendly guys, Zoom prefers to simply go by first names). "He was responsible for all the good sounds we got."
This do-it-yourself attitude comes through in all aspects of the band's existence, from self-produced fliers and tape covers to booking its own tours.
"Everything we do, we do it all ourselves," Jeremy said. "That's the way it's going."
In Tempe, Ariz, the band met Greg sage, leader of the legendary band the Witchery.
Even though he was the only person in the bar that night, Sage was impressed to express an interest in recording Zoom for his new label, Zeno Records.
"He's really hip on doing something," said vocalist/guitarist Mark "We dig his music, and he digs our music."
The members of Zoom, (left to right),
Jeremy, Chris, Steve and Mark. Zoom will
perform Oct. 8 at the Bottleneck, 737
New Hampshire St., and Oct. 9 at
Hassinger Hall.
Zoom is a self-proclaimed punk-rock band with punk-rock ideals that surface in the early '90s.
"No solos." Jeremy stated bluntly.
"They just isn't cool."
“It’s stupid,” Mard said. “Steve (Zoom) other guitarist) and I definitely try to dispel the myth of lead and rhythm guitar. There’s just more interesting things to do than solo. We leave that to Pearl Jam.”
Zoom continues to grow, change and evolve because it isn't afraid of subverting people's expectations. The group ignores all musical barriers, taking anything that ever possessed the form, content, or spirit of rock'n'roll and claiming it as its own.
"It always sounds like Zoom," Jeremy said. "It's got that Zoom thing going on, but in just a different way."
OCTOBER 1,1992
PAGE 7
Real KU Life begins on the weekend.
calendar
Nightlife
Benchwarmer's
1601 W. 23rd St.
Tonight - Common Ground
Friday-Fuzz Box
Saturday - The Gooneybirds
Wednesday - Jeff n-Jeff
The Bottleneck
The Bottlehead
737 New Hampshire St.
Tonight - Paladins
Friday - Shockra
Saturday - Millions
Sunday - Groove Alley
Monday - Open mike
Wednesday- Three Merrv Widows
Brass Apple Sports Bar & Restaurant
3300 W. 15th St.
*Features 10 TV's with satellite dish & Monday Night Football
Congo Bar
Congo Bash
520 N. 3rd St.
Friday - Billy Spears
Dos Hombres
815 New Hampshire St.
Tonight, Tuesday, and Wednesday-Karaoke
Down & Under
801 New Hampshire St.
Tonight - Purple Indians, Tenspot
Friday - Scarecrow, Senator O'Brien
Saturday - Wayback machine with Seeyeeds
Gusto's
925 ibs St.
Tonight - Karaoke
Friday - Trademark
Saturday - Aeros, Wedge
Henry T's
Henry T's
3520 W. 6th St.
*Karaoke every Thursday night
Hockenbury Tavern
1016 Massachusetts St.
Tonight - Duke Ellison and his Orchestra
Friday - New Ridgim
Saturday - John Dillon and the Robroys
Sunday - Acoustic open mike
Jazzhaus
926 1/2 Massachusetts St.
Tonight - Jimmy Thackery
Friday Soul Shakers
Tuesday - Cow Jaw Bone
Just A Playhouse 806 W.24th St.
Continued on Page 8.