High Sierra Music Festival, June 29 - July 2, 2006 : Music Review

People at High Sierra actually sit and listen to the quiet music. What a
concept! Musicians can whisper, tentatively bringing their soul out into the
light and mountain air, and audiences hush up. It's strikingly different
than most festivals and speaks to the abiding love of music that fills this
place.

My "quiet moment" was a Sunday-morning service from the Tom Freund Trio.
Completely unfamiliar with Freund, I heard a more honeyed version of Steve
Earle's voice telling me to take my troubles and drop them in the deep blue
sea. On stage, they blended acoustic guitar, hand percussion, stand-up bass,
and surprisingly melodic harmonica. Addressing a crowd spread out lazily on
the grass, Freund said, "I'm gonna play stuff to help me wake up, too. Y'all
look pretty worked." By the fourth day of recreational chemistry and near
non-stop stimulation, his music was a balm to the spirit.

By the third song, I realized that Freund is a treasure trove to be mined
for emotionally satisfying gems, a future staple of mix CDs and lonely, late
nights. Only afterwards did I discover Freund is a longtime collaborator of
Ben Harper and Victoria Williams, a man that Graham Parker calls "the best
singer-songwriter operating today." The songs speak for themselves: quality
heaped upon quality, small worlds vibrating with all the good and bad stuff
that fills a day. Call it vibrant verisimilitude or, more crudely, mighty
real shit. His lyrics are the kind you write down because a part of you
realizes you've just heard the truth. A couple favorites were: "I'm not
going to show you where I keep my sanctuaries/Because you'll come in with
your tractors and put up your shopping malls" and "I'm gonna lay down my
weary blues like a barnstorming plane to your bedroom."

Aided by blues marvel David Jacobs-Strain for much of the set, Freund
offered up tunes that the wind or rain might write -- natural and graceful,
filled with organic fury and non-homogenized love. In reaction to the police
shakedowns that occurred throughout the weekend, he delivered a pointed,
oh-too-timely cover of Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth" that
snarled far more than any of the recent high ticket priced CSNY reunions.
You can place Freund in the stellar company of John David Souther, Michael
Martin Murphey, David Wilcox, John Gorka, and Neal Casal -- songwriter's
songwriters who help us process the daily grind in ways that leave us
guardedly hopeful about what lies ahead.

by Dennis Cook (Pop MAtters)

Tom i love your music!
Body: i wrote this review of the show in claremont for puddlegum magazine.

SUNDAY, June 5, 2005
ParkinSong Benefit Concert Series (..1)
http://parkinsong.com
The Folk Music Center
Claremont, CA

Veteran carpooler and swamp fairy, Victoria Williams, and this era's answer to Paul Simon, Tom Freund, brought us into the spiritual realm on Sunday night at The Folk Music Center for their ParkinSong Benefit Concert Series (..1). Williams and Freund, who did a double bill at McCabe's earlier this year, did what everyone wanted them to do. They were brilliantly themselves and they complemented each other on several of each other's songs (Freund mostly on bass and on guitar for a couple of Victoria songs, including an understated (and actually the best version I have heard in 15 years of live shows) version of "I Can't Cry Hard Enough". Victoria led with a streak of blues songs, wearing her heart on her sleeve, singing honestly, as she always does. It felt very private, but it also felt like Victoria and I could feel the healing going on in the room and the catharsis that helped her as it did us.

It had been a while since I had heard such a bare-bones Victoria (mostly just her on a Spanish guitar). This brought out her musical genius and some striking subtleties. Victoria is a dynamic performer. Riveting. Like digging up the dead in order to raise them. Highlights included her amazing "Harry went to Heaven", the amazing Flannery O'Connorish "Crazy Mary" and her anthem of late, "Century Plant". I love her approach to music and the crowd was just beaming. She mentioned that she had been gardening a lot lately with all of the rains. She had harvested a great many apricots and had been canning them diligently. "Sorry I didn't bring any for you," she piped to the small, but enraptured crowd. Victoria, who has Multiple Sclerosis, touched on the Parkinson's focus of the fundraiser concert and mentioned how there are more and more things in modern life that are assaulting the nerves. Jokingly, she included the microphone she was singing through as a prime example.

After her set, I was across the street looking for a bathroom and one of the people from the show was just gushing about how moved she was by Victoria's set. It is the charm, the music, the revelations, and the truth. And all of this just wakes you up.

Freund, a New Yorker who spent his college days in Claremont jamming in the folk music center after hours with Ben Harper, was impressive enough that I bought 3 of his cd's after the show (I already have Victoria's cd's). He writes with great range and he's musically fresh. When you hear his timing and phrasing, you just want him to keep going. Love his affected, smoky, twang-tinged vocals and his dexterous, but always rooted upright bass playing. Even without a piano tonight, (he's a great pianist, too) he was stupefying. After a few listens, I would have to agree that his obscure "L.A. Fundamentalist Music" is the kind of classic we all want to hear loopingly. There is nothing like an album like this that carries sparseness and a rhythm that moves the whole body. If you don't own it, do seek it out. None of the latter rerecorded songs sound as tranquil, spiritual, and full of great overtones as these do. We all need doses of singers like these, who remind us who we are, where we come from and where we are going.

-john r. williamson