Fresh from her March 24th Fitzgerald Theater “Heroes” concert with our own piano player Dan Chouinard, singer-songwriter guitarist Ann Reed returned to SJA’s concert series stage on Sunday April 22nd to close another sensational season of music and story telling. She last appeared with her own sold-out concert at SJA in April 2005. Along with the ever engaging Chouinard on piano and accordion, Reed’s superb bass player Joan Griffith also accompanied. This trio delivered a generous itinerary—21 tunes— that included Reed’s timely compositions and a few endearing chestnuts to a well received 500 strong audience attendance.
If you haven’t been to one of Ann Reed’s concerts, you are missing a truly charismatic singer-songwriter whose heart and wit will lock into your senses and just make you feel mighty fine. Reed opened with a fun, loosely improvised version of “Old Time Religion” with her pointed lyrics “If you’re tired of baloney, And all that’s phony, Head up to St. Joanie’s.” Following with the ballad “Too Much Trouble,” she deeply cut to the core with the couplet “Too much grief, Makes me want to beg for relief.” Just before her third song, Reed offered some dry comments about her music stand with its numerous clipped-on notes: “More like creating a map holder that goes on the hood of your car.” Chouinard switched to accordion to lend a melancholy tone to the tune “No Time Like the Present.”
Reed ventured into some ripe musings about getting older like how eye sight changes so rapidly and what’s really a crisis and what’s not. She then replied, “For those of us who did drugs, you don’t really need them anymore because if you get up real fast, it’s the same effect.” A prolific songwriter herself, Reed lamented the terrible fate of listening to awful sing-a-longs when one moves into a nursing home. “We’re going to have our own songbook,” she insisted, “so start collecting them now because we don’t want “You Are My Sunshine.” Reed performed her alternative, The Beatles’ “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away” to emphatic crowd approval and response.
Reed ably applied some sly Lyle Lovett like phrasing to Mel Leven’s “Cruella DeVil.” Chouinard accompanied with some honky-tonk style fingering on the piano. Reed’s zippy and thumping little ditty “Walk With You” followed with Chouinard on accordion and back on piano for Reed’s poignant reflective compositions “Holiday Lake” and “Cassiopeia.”
Reed closed the first act of her concert with her songs “My Minnesota State Fair” and “Somewhere At the Fair,” the former exploring the droll dark side of the fair (“If the pig wins, It’s some winner’s luck, If she loses, She’s next year’s pronto pup”) and the latter, various items one loses at the fair which also offered some smoking sounding flamenco-styled piano playing from Chouinard.
After a 25 minute intermission of fun filled hospitality replete with wine and snacks offered by St. Joan’s bustling volunteer staff, Reed kicked off the second half by singing three solos and playing her guitar without the combo. The brief “Hard Times (Come Again No More)” was followed by some ruminations about prayer. Basically, said Reed, “I asked to be a better listener. Two weeks later I was called for jury duty. You know, if you’re gonna do this, you really need to be specific,” she concluded. Her humble tune “My Grateful Heart” followed. Reed then defined the origins of her 2000 tune “Carolyn’s Party,” about a Winter Solstice celebration where invited guests were requested to bring lights, some brought Bud Light, she recalled. Ultimately, the song is about communal friendships.
Chouinard returned to the stage with his accordion and Griffith, her bass, to accompany Reed and surprise veteran Twin Cities’ guest singer Leslie Ball for an emotively charged rendition of the folk song “Joan of Arc.” A palpable chemistry developed between the two who vocally harmonize beautifully together. Griffith on bass and Reed on vocals and guitar came together for the witty ode to the roach, Reed’s 1992 track “Styrofoam.”
Adjusting to her 12-string guitar, Reed observed, “There are not that many 12-string jokes, just 12-string realities.” Returning to the piano, Chouinard joined Reed and Griffith for a musical examination on the dangers of complacency. Written with brilliantly powerful aphorisms like “If you don’t stand up, You’re gonna stay that way” and “Blessed are the ones who get involved” and arranged with an irresistibly catchy melody line, Reed’s sublimely penned tune “Stay That Way,” ranks as one of her finest compositions.
Speaking of exams, actual that is, Reed professed, “We need an entrance exam for running for President.” A tongue lashing aimed at the blunders of George Bush, Reed, along with our own Peace and Justice coordinator Julie Madden, wrote “Goodbye George,” Ann’s latest single. Paraphrasing the lyrics of Hank Williams classic “Jambalaya (On the Bayou,” the two came up with this dandy collaboration:
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