Chris & Meredith Thompson 11/21/08 Belmont MA

[mad baggins]

The 499 Weekend finds me taking in 3 duos -- Chris & Meredith Thompson
Friday at Second Friday Coffeehouse in Belmont MA, Katryna Nields &
Dave Chalfant Saturday at the Living Room in NYC, and Jeni Hankins &
Billy Kemp Sunday at Rebecca Hall's parents' place in Boston.

Here's what Chris & Meredith played --

Wildest Sea
Autumn Leaves
Lines of Longitude
Wayfaring Stranger
Harvest Moon
Tanglewood Tree
Children
I'm a Body Symphony (Soundscience)
Old Man of the Mountain
The Mountain
Come Back Baby
Prove It To Ya
Lift Up Your Voice & Sing
Let Freedom Ring
Clearwater

Copy Repair Man
Edelweiss

"Copy Repair Man" was shouted out from the back of the room just as
C&M took the stage for the encore. I'd only heard them do it once
before, and that time it was shouted out as a request too. Needless
to say, I'm amazed that they can even remember this song from their
first album well enough to do it, flying by the seat of their pants,
with no rehearsal.

This is the second straight C&M show where they did a song from their
Soundscience repertoire for children. Last time it was "No Matter How
You Twist It, It's Still a Horn," this time it was "I'm a Body
Symphony."

The rarely played blues standard "Come Back Baby" got a good response
from the audience. Chris & Meredith really need to record another
album sometime, to follow up their 2004 CD, because they play so many
songs that remain unreleased at the date of this writing, and so many
good ones at that.

This show constituted the C&M duo premiere of Chris' new Obama song,
"Let Freedom Ring," first played by Chris solo Monday night at TCAN in
Natick. By the second verse, wunderkind Meredith had picked it up
without any rehearsal.

Chris has given me permission to post the lyrics for "Let Freedom
Ring," after she's tidied them up a bit. Stay tuned for that.

The Zoe duo opened the show, doing mostly bossa nova numbers on vocals
and acoustic guitar.

I don't see Chris & Meredith again till next year, and I won't see
Chris again until the Strangelings play VT on December 13.

Next up (Elsewhere - BP) - Duo 2 - Katryna & the Dave in New York, the
show that puts the "499" in the weekend.