nightmayer

“Family Affair” was a #1 single for Sly & The Family Stone in 1971. Yet “musical families” take different forms, as illustrated by two recent concerts.

In December, there were the Wainwright/McGarrigle family holiday concerts (one at Town Hall NYC, and one I saw at Brooklyn’s Murmrr; there had been others in Canada). A flow chart or family tree would be helpful if you don’t know the players, what with almost everyone on stage being related. When Loudon Wainwright III came out to open the shows, he swept his arm across to indicate the other performers seated on benches along the rear and sides of the stage, and said, “If it weren’t for me, none of you would be here.”

OK, Emmy Lou Harris is an honorary member of the family and she was part of the show. Yet with Wainwright siblings Rufus and Martha Wainwright leading the festivities honoring their late mother/Loudon’s first wife Kate McGarrigle, it was reminiscent of the annual holiday shows where sisters Kate and Anna brought out their kids to sing. I remember Rufus and Martha on those shows as pre-teens and teens. Now it’s their kids they bring out. Then there is Suzzy Roche, whose daughter (by Loudon), is Lucy Wainwright Roche, with both Suzzy and Lucy participating. Then there was Loudon’s sister Sloan Wainwright, and, well a host of others. The concert, as in the past, was enchantingly bedraggled and professional all at once.

Early February’s “musical family” was of a different sort. The Jim Kweskin Extravaganza, as it was billed at the Regent Theatre in Arlington, MA, brought together an array of musicians who’ve performed with Kweskin over the years, notably Geoff Muldaur and Maria Muldaur, who were part of the original Jim Kweskin Jug Band and who participated in a jug band segment to close the show (each had also performed duets with Jim earlier in the program). Jim and Geoff started performing together in 1963, with Maria joining not too much later.

The “direct” family on stage for the Extravaganza were two of Kweskin’s three children (the third was in the audience), his granddaughter, who sang “What Does the Deep Sea Say?” which her grandmother — Jim’s first wife, also in the audience — wrote.

The “extended family” was the Fort Hill community in Roxbury, MA founded by the late Mel Lyman, who played banjo and harmonica in the original Jug Band. Kweskin was a charter member of Fort Hill, which you and I might think of as a commune (it’s MUCH more complicated than that; see below) in 1967. Kweskin still lives in one of the community’s homes there.

Kweskin projected a picture of the kids he used to teach songs to in Fort Hill in the 1960s and ‘70s — and then brought 16 of them on stage to sing a few of those numbers with him. Those “kids,” of course, are now mostly north of 50. One of the songs Kweskin taught them way back, which they sang with a wink and a nod on this afternoon: “I Am My Own Grandpa.” Some of those people also performed duets with him, as did others who may or may not have been part of Fort Hill growing up (ditto for some of the 15 band members).

If you don’t know Kweskin, he’s a polymath in his musical tastes and he offered a generous three-plus hour sampling: Irving Berlin, New Orleans jazz, classic blues, Woody Guthrie, Bing Crosby (by way of Jimmy Van Heusen and Johnny Burke), straight-ahead jazz and, of course, jug band.

Kweskin was in good voice — sounding more and more like Willie Nelson except that while Kweskin is seven years younger than Nelson, Kweskin was performing as a singer for about 10 years before Nelson (Nelson was already a well-established songwriter when he embarked on his performing career).

The Extravaganza — the term being a little tongue-in-cheek, but only a little — was live-streamed, and Kewskin said they’d “figure out how to make it available.” In the meantime, there’s a new Kweskin album, “Never Too Late: Duets With My Friends.” Bought a copy (along with Maria’s latest), so haven’t heard it yet but most of the songs were included in the concert with the same duet partners. And an updated Kweskin/Maria Muldaur “Sheik of Araby”…well, who wouldn’t want that in their collection? It’s all in the family, after all.

[If you’re not familiar with Lyman’s story it’s not as gruesome as Charles Manson’s cult of a couple of years prior, but it was strange and cult-like as well — essentially an anti-hippie commune but with very traditional male/female roles, plenty of disciplinary action, and all activity focused on providing for Lyman’s personal sexual and other needs in order to facilitate his music-making, writing, and filmmaking. Lyman’s death in 1978 is still shrouded in mystery and wasn’t revealed by the Fort Hill community for six years. To learn more, start with the Wikipedia entry; it offers links to additional resources including David Felton’s Rolling Stone Fort Hill expose from 1971 and other material from an archive devoted to Lyman.]

P.S. If you’re reading this, Mike and Catherine — sorry the others you bought tickets for couldn’t make it, but thanks for selling them to Riva and me minutes before showtime. Delighted to be your seatmates!