Music: Kinky Friedman and Van Dyke Parks

Artbar

30 June, 2011

Kinky Friedman has built a long, singular career out of quirky country and western tunes sung in his surprisingly gentle Texan brogue, a distinctive take on life and his absolutely hilarious skills as a raconteur and quip merchant.

He had the Artbar crowd rocking with laughter and roaring their approval at his good ol’ dirty jokes, scurrilous opinions and twisted world view.

The edgy, mercurial Van Dyke Parks pounded his piano through a set of miraculous songs, pausing occasionally mid-stream to exclaim “God damn it!” or similar before sailing on again.
At its highest points — a mighty, elegiac dance by bluegrass master John Hartford called Delta Queen Waltz and his own magnificent On the Wings of a Dove (listen below) — his performance showed why many believe Parks occupies a place in American music shared only by the other contemporary inheritors of the legacy of Stephen Foster and George Gershwin, his friends and collaborators Brian Wilson and Randy Newman.

Link here to the complete review in The West Australian

Music: All American Heroes

Jimmy Webb 

The Fly by Night Club

June 28

Kinky Friedman and Van Dyke Parks 

Artbar

June 30

What an incredible privilege to have three of the very greatest contemporary American songwriters performing in Perth within the space of two days, and in such great, intimate venues. It's my first chance to see any of them perform (although I did get to be Kinky's chaperone one memorable night when he was here for the Writer's Festival some years back). 

The connections they bring with them, whether it's through immortal songs like Heroes and Villains, Good Vibrations, Galveston, The Moon's a Harsh Mistress, Sold American and The Ballad of Charles Whitman, or their work with some of the very best American artists of this or any era, run very deep for me and many others.

I'll say no more, other than to sincerely urge you to get to the Fly or Artbar to enjoy them. 

There are links to booking sites in the June listings to the right. In the meantime, have a look at Michael O'Dwyer's chat with Kinky and Van Dyke in the West link here , and let me get you started on some preparatory You Tube browsing: