Nope. Missed mosta the boats. The 2 lost bands that linger with me (The Looters, and Freaky Executives) both disappeared immediately after I proclaimed them to the half dozen people I knew who might care.
Now, if you're talkin' first records making a splash in my own personal wading pool, I'll claim Sly's Dance to the Music, which sunk its hooks way deep. I wandered around trying to tell people how the world had just got better...
The Reduced Shakespeare Company. Saw them daily at the Renaissance Faire (St Paul's represent!) their first year ('80? '81?) and knew they were brilliant (tho did not anticipate their longitude...)
Art Blakey came to town with his new band* in 1981 or 82. Wynton & Branford were in it (Note, if you made Blakely's band you were already a star so there is no particular reason to claim I saw their spark, but since no one else I knew except my brother would have any idea what I was on about, I'll claim I was hip when it was still hep). Importantly for me, daughter (whom I barely knew) had tix, so I got in free, and Blakey came by our dinner table after for a couple minutes...
I at least saw those guys at Bay Area Faire and in a farewell show at Ft. Mason before they went off to London. Brilliant. That would have been more like 1985 than 81.
Oh, similarly, saw and fell in love with the Flying Karamazov Bros in 1977 when they were masquerade halftime entertainment at the Westercon Masquerade in BC, and again a year or two later, and wrote an ecstatic review for my apazine. Subsequently saw them several times before they went off to Broadway and the movies.
The Looters: Mat Callahan, Joe Johnson, Jim Johnson, Ahaguna Sun, Fred Cirillo
San Francisco band from the 80's. Some Sly and a little bit of DK's. I didn't find any really brilliant videos (very few at all, actually...) but the week I saw them AND the Freaky Execs AND the Cramps was better than an average year.
Meryl Streep while she was breaking out. Did a slapsticky riff in Taming of the Shrew at the New York Shakespeare Festival's FREE Shakespeare In The Park. First time she did comedy IRC -- and she was terrific. They did another production too soon after and it didn't compare.
My older sister taught Meryl in high school, and I went to a couple of the high school musicals in which she always starred (e.g., "Oklahoma"). She was remarkable even then — and despite being a popular cheerleader, was a genuinely nice person.
I grew up adjacent to a giant cornfield in Southwest Ohio. I still live there.The phrase "culturally bereft" doesn't really do the place justice. "Suckhole of ignorance" is probably more accurate. Anyone with a modicum of talent and good sense gets "the fuck out of Dodge"( as Marshall Dillon used to say) at an early age. Not a lot of hobnob and a rubbing elbows goes on around Xenia, Ohio.
One glorious weekend, well after they were famous, I saw the Dead Kennedys on a Saturday night and then on Sunday I saw Diana Ross. Each were perfect in their own special way.
And you can imagine the conspiracies: sure we all have beaucoup cavities, and severe eczema, but the Man's actually outfitting us with microscopic microchips!
Madonna certainly reinvented her image many times (and actually improved as a singer too). Her earliest video—possibly for Holiday?—looks like a low budget home aerobics video shot for VHS. Compare that to later vids like Express Yourself, or especially the surreal Bedtime Story.
I was reaching for something to communicate her Will To Power that came pounding out of that video at me. There are people that just want to Make It, and how and as what doesn't matter much, only that they become larger than life. She was definitely one of them.
Here's where living in NYC gives you an advantage. You see famous people…well, not all the time, but in addition to seeing them perform you see them on the street or in stores, etc. probably more than anywhere else except maybe L.A. And you also get to see some of their early work.
I never “discovered” anybody, but I remember going to see something, I can’t even remember the play itself but I think it was at the Public Theater, and being impressed with an actress with an unusual name. We were talking about the play and the performances afterward, and one of my friends said, “yeah, she’s in some sci-fi movie that’s coming out directed by the guy who made The Duellists.” The guy was Ridley Scott, the sci-fi movie was Alien, and the actress with the unusual name…well, you know the rest.
And all for $7 a month! Politics-nerd that I am, I immediately thought of this in that context, you could hand any aspiring pol a passage plucked at random from The Collected Speeches of Barack Obama and I doubt one in a thousand could pull it off.
If I recall correctly I saw Alice Cooper at Wright State in Dayton in 1969. Didn't think much of them at the time. "I'm Eighteen" came out shortly after that I think. Weird show, I thought. Most stuff from the period is somewhat hazy on the other hand. Boy did I blow that one.
I have an inverse response to this theme: I saw Ben Stiller in his first big role ("The House of Blue Leaves") at Lincoln Center with Christine Baranski and John Spencer, and Stiller *wasn't* as good in the part as Roy had been in college.
Ok rfc….who are you?. I’m an IC Drama grad, in Roy’s class, and yes….I’ll never forget Roy’s 5 minutes on stage in House Of Blue Leaves. Intensity doesn’t even come close.
I got two: saw REM in Athens at the 40 Watt Club (I think) in the early '70s, on a periodic trip there for, let's be honest, drugs: and friends drug me to see 'em: and they were great. They were the last band on the Rock stage in the Arts Festival of Atlanta in '78 (they stopped having rock acts because they brought a bad crowd, or so I was told). and they had grown. I loved the early years, and was still flogging them to folks in the Midwest when I was doing craft shows in the '80s.. the last stuff isn't my jam, but they deserve respect.
And RuPaul Charles had a rock band I saw a couple of times. before he went full drag: and, the night of an annular eclipse in 1984, after smoking a joint with the beer delivery guy on the loading dock and watching the specks of light through the scrubby alanthus there turn into tiny rings of light. decorated the 688 Club with yarn webs, black plastic, banners on 10 ft. wide carpet warp and random Chinese Characters on them for my friend Chuck's headlining band, Lübetool, RuPaul and hie entourage came in late in Chuck's set, and were allowed to do what I think was a very early drag show.
The man's talent and ambition were evident: and Chuck and I agreed that guy was going somewhere.
After the show, I went, thanked him, and kissed his hand: he simpered prettily, and hugged me.
I wonder if he remembers the lout in a leather jacket...
Does politics count? I met Marco Rubio at a fundraiser back when he was just a wee political twerp. Sat next to him at dinner and somehow got into a discussion on single-payer healthcare. I thought it would be a good thing. He said "But your taxes would go up." I told him I was already paying $12,000 a year in premiums with a $6,000 deductible, so my taxes could go up $18,000 a year and I'd still break even. He looked at me blankly for a couple of seconds, then said "Yeah, but your taxes would go up." As though taxes going up was the only thing that mattered, not how much or for what benefit.
By way of a early preview, I knew Marco was dumb as a post from that moment on. A man utterly incapable of actually thinking. And he was part of a larger circle of conservatives I was forced to be around--Florida Republicans all on the up-and-coming roster.. And each dumber than the next. I thought the problem was me in that I was only attracting the dumber clients. But, no: The problem was Republican voters who demanded politicians who were dumb and/or stupid. When I watched candidates getting kicked to the curb because they actually knew how Florida county commissions worked or understood what the function of the legislature was, I was kind of mystified.
But today, it's crystal clear that Republicans worship stupid and demand dumb. So I can say I knew them when?
Chris Christie demolished Rubio during the 2016 debates by pointing out that Rubio just robotically repeats talking points, only to have Rubio respond by repeating the very talking point Christie was using as an example. Rubio then looked bewildered when he saw the audience reaction.
I wandered into a small Tulane college bar called The Boot in New Orleans in ‘93 and heard a band that I thought was pretty good. A couple years later they were on SNL--the Dave Matthews Band
Off the top of my head, I saw Charles Durning, and Christopher Walken in Lanford Wilson’s play Lemon Sky. It was 1970 at the Old Studio Arena in Buffalo. Durning I recognized, but not Walken. He was only in his mid 20’s and so tall and skinny that when he turned sideways you could almost see him.
I performed Off Broadway with Morgan Freeman , Garret Morris, and Reggie VelJohnson. It was around 1980 at the New Federal Theater down off Delancey. Morris had already done SNL, although NYC theater knew Morgan, the rest of the world did not. He had only done bit parts in one or two movies at that point. Reggie had yet to land his dad role in the sitcom Family Matters. We had an absolute ball and I wish I could have a transcript of what went on in the dressing room. It wasn’t long after that when I walked away from it all.
I know there’s a few more ‘before they were famous’ times, but right now I can’t remember.
Oh my heavens….you’re so right Roy!! I performed with Floyd Vivino (‘Uncle Floyd’) at the theme park Gaslight Village in Lake George in summer ‘73. We entertained at the Opera House there. I went back to work there in ‘76, but Floyd wasn’t there. He was becoming known in NJ as one of their favorite sons. I would bring in his ‘kiddie’ TV show on VHF when I had my studio in Brooklyn. We did a revival performance up there somewhere around 2008. All the old comedy & vaudeville bits and the singing. All out of the past, and now it’s all in the past. We had a long phone conversation the day after Robin Williams died. He had been a friend of Floyd’s.
My father in law played Big Daddy at the Mark Taper Forum in LA. about ‘82. We flew out to see the show, and backstage & dressing rms I got into a brief conversation with the actress playing Maggie, a very young Kirstie Alley.
Fisher Stevens and I got our Equity cards together in a show at the 18th st theater. About 1980.
Yeah, we raised the money ourselves, found an author, jumped through the hoops, and found a dive to perform in. There were actually some great moments!
Remember doing the Saroyan play ‘Hello Out There?’ You had to go outside and walk around the back of the building to get from stage right to left. Hard to believe we did all that.
Reggie was probably the funniest person I ever knew in the theater. We shared a mirror in the DR and he and I would improv an ongoing wacky conversation , but we had to only look at one another in the mirror. He loved a good laugh, and who doesn’t?
Was that when they were touring for October? I saw them then in the 2000 seat Helen Foellinger auditorium at the U of I, the next time they swung through they played the football stadium. I thought they were great, but I thought anyone who would come to Urbana and play for us was great, so don't go by me.
My brother saw The Doors play at his high school when they were just another LA band. I can't match that.
For me it would be Bill James, the baseball statistician. I forget how I first saw his name, but I got on to his stuff a couple of years before he hit the big time. A few years later I actually applied for a job to be his assistant (made the first cut but not the second), and spoke to him on the phone.
I learned of Bill James when his first widely published Abstract came out, maybe 1984. I saw it at a bookstore in Yankton, South Dakota and immediately bought it because it was right up my alley.
My scientific career had real Zelig-like moments, but my nearest experience in the arts was when I was staying at a Canadian B&B long ago and this nice young woman pulled out her fiddle. I had never heard such playing. It was Natalie MacMaster.
Nope. Missed mosta the boats. The 2 lost bands that linger with me (The Looters, and Freaky Executives) both disappeared immediately after I proclaimed them to the half dozen people I knew who might care.
Now, if you're talkin' first records making a splash in my own personal wading pool, I'll claim Sly's Dance to the Music, which sunk its hooks way deep. I wandered around trying to tell people how the world had just got better...
Oh. I remember now...
The Reduced Shakespeare Company. Saw them daily at the Renaissance Faire (St Paul's represent!) their first year ('80? '81?) and knew they were brilliant (tho did not anticipate their longitude...)
Ok, I remember now Pt 2:
Art Blakey came to town with his new band* in 1981 or 82. Wynton & Branford were in it (Note, if you made Blakely's band you were already a star so there is no particular reason to claim I saw their spark, but since no one else I knew except my brother would have any idea what I was on about, I'll claim I was hip when it was still hep). Importantly for me, daughter (whom I barely knew) had tix, so I got in free, and Blakey came by our dinner table after for a couple minutes...
*They were always new. It was Blakey's thing.
I at least saw those guys at Bay Area Faire and in a farewell show at Ft. Mason before they went off to London. Brilliant. That would have been more like 1985 than 81.
Oh, similarly, saw and fell in love with the Flying Karamazov Bros in 1977 when they were masquerade halftime entertainment at the Westercon Masquerade in BC, and again a year or two later, and wrote an ecstatic review for my apazine. Subsequently saw them several times before they went off to Broadway and the movies.
My recollection of them is so vague as to amount to non-. But looking them up helps get thru a few minutes of otherwise down time. Thanks.
Now I have to look them up
Also gives me an idea for next Friday.
Great lost bands that only REBID commenters would know?
The Looters were epic. The Freaks were plain ol' fun.
The Looters?!? Have you ever seen the brilliant cult classic movie "Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains"?
Missed the movie. The band in concert was brilliant. Mat Callahan ruled the stage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHLCxm5G7tw
Paul Simonon, Paul Cook, Steve Jones and Ray Winstone
The Looters: Mat Callahan, Joe Johnson, Jim Johnson, Ahaguna Sun, Fred Cirillo
San Francisco band from the 80's. Some Sly and a little bit of DK's. I didn't find any really brilliant videos (very few at all, actually...) but the week I saw them AND the Freaky Execs AND the Cramps was better than an average year.
Meryl Streep while she was breaking out. Did a slapsticky riff in Taming of the Shrew at the New York Shakespeare Festival's FREE Shakespeare In The Park. First time she did comedy IRC -- and she was terrific. They did another production too soon after and it didn't compare.
My older sister taught Meryl in high school, and I went to a couple of the high school musicals in which she always starred (e.g., "Oklahoma"). She was remarkable even then — and despite being a popular cheerleader, was a genuinely nice person.
Well, there’s you.
My thoughts exactly —
I grew up adjacent to a giant cornfield in Southwest Ohio. I still live there.The phrase "culturally bereft" doesn't really do the place justice. "Suckhole of ignorance" is probably more accurate. Anyone with a modicum of talent and good sense gets "the fuck out of Dodge"( as Marshall Dillon used to say) at an early age. Not a lot of hobnob and a rubbing elbows goes on around Xenia, Ohio.
One glorious weekend, well after they were famous, I saw the Dead Kennedys on a Saturday night and then on Sunday I saw Diana Ross. Each were perfect in their own special way.
Xenia, Ohio always figured in the elementary school hand-writing instruction books, and it was always a pleasure making that large, elegant capital X.
Many locals pronounce it
X-zenia or X -enia.
No one really cares.
No one really cares.
is the answer to most questions on the internet.
Seriously? X-enia sounds like a skin disease.
Yeah, a delightful burg where everyone has eczema.
Yeah, it's not "Ask your doctor..." they just put the Dupixent directly into the water supply.
Let's hope it reacts well with the fluoride!
And you can imagine the conspiracies: sure we all have beaucoup cavities, and severe eczema, but the Man's actually outfitting us with microscopic microchips!
Remember Xenia, Ohio as one of the places hit in the Great Tornado Outbreak of April 1974: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1974_Xenia_tornado
Even the tornado got out as soon as it could.
Blew town at the first opportunity
My wife lived one street over from total destruction. It was crazy.
Not really, although I have to admit we were early adopters, so to speak, of Prince's music--right around 1979-1980 or so.
OTOH, I thought when I saw Madonna for the first time, "This woman has no talent whatsoever and we'll never see her again."
Madonna certainly reinvented her image many times (and actually improved as a singer too). Her earliest video—possibly for Holiday?—looks like a low budget home aerobics video shot for VHS. Compare that to later vids like Express Yourself, or especially the surreal Bedtime Story.
First time I heard of Madonna (same video) I remember thinking "that woman will eat a bus full of children if that's what it takes to become a star".
"will eat a bus full of children" is a beautiful phrase, I could see it coming in handy on many occasions.
You'd eat a bus full of children to make that phrase your own?
Nah, I'm just not than ambitious.
So, half a bus full?
I was reaching for something to communicate her Will To Power that came pounding out of that video at me. There are people that just want to Make It, and how and as what doesn't matter much, only that they become larger than life. She was definitely one of them.
Here's where living in NYC gives you an advantage. You see famous people…well, not all the time, but in addition to seeing them perform you see them on the street or in stores, etc. probably more than anywhere else except maybe L.A. And you also get to see some of their early work.
I never “discovered” anybody, but I remember going to see something, I can’t even remember the play itself but I think it was at the Public Theater, and being impressed with an actress with an unusual name. We were talking about the play and the performances afterward, and one of my friends said, “yeah, she’s in some sci-fi movie that’s coming out directed by the guy who made The Duellists.” The guy was Ridley Scott, the sci-fi movie was Alien, and the actress with the unusual name…well, you know the rest.
"A lot of theatre is about actors making elevated speech seem not ridiculous."
( Ed Roso casually tosses out fundamental truth about
Theatre like the rest of us order side dishes at Bojangles)
Clean Advice > Dirty Rice
And all for $7 a month! Politics-nerd that I am, I immediately thought of this in that context, you could hand any aspiring pol a passage plucked at random from The Collected Speeches of Barack Obama and I doubt one in a thousand could pull it off.
For proof of your thesis I give you the bargain basement Obama-inspired stylings of Peter Buttigieg.
If I recall correctly I saw Alice Cooper at Wright State in Dayton in 1969. Didn't think much of them at the time. "I'm Eighteen" came out shortly after that I think. Weird show, I thought. Most stuff from the period is somewhat hazy on the other hand. Boy did I blow that one.
People tell me in their early days Kiss did their act, makeup and all, in little clubs to crowds that booed, and I can only imagine. What balls!
I have an inverse response to this theme: I saw Ben Stiller in his first big role ("The House of Blue Leaves") at Lincoln Center with Christine Baranski and John Spencer, and Stiller *wasn't* as good in the part as Roy had been in college.
Ok rfc….who are you?. I’m an IC Drama grad, in Roy’s class, and yes….I’ll never forget Roy’s 5 minutes on stage in House Of Blue Leaves. Intensity doesn’t even come close.
How clever I was to walk away from it all!! And BJ, you know Robin.
Ha ha! Well, who could be.
I played the head nun in that one in college. I had “a touch of hoarseness” for one performance, and when I opened
my mouth to sing the first note of an ecstatic “AveMaria”* no sound emerged, just air. I was mortified, but it got a HUGE laugh.
Hey, you take ‘em where you can get ‘em.
(* after the deathless line “There’s an altar boy in here!”
It’s a wacky play.)
I got two: saw REM in Athens at the 40 Watt Club (I think) in the early '70s, on a periodic trip there for, let's be honest, drugs: and friends drug me to see 'em: and they were great. They were the last band on the Rock stage in the Arts Festival of Atlanta in '78 (they stopped having rock acts because they brought a bad crowd, or so I was told). and they had grown. I loved the early years, and was still flogging them to folks in the Midwest when I was doing craft shows in the '80s.. the last stuff isn't my jam, but they deserve respect.
And RuPaul Charles had a rock band I saw a couple of times. before he went full drag: and, the night of an annular eclipse in 1984, after smoking a joint with the beer delivery guy on the loading dock and watching the specks of light through the scrubby alanthus there turn into tiny rings of light. decorated the 688 Club with yarn webs, black plastic, banners on 10 ft. wide carpet warp and random Chinese Characters on them for my friend Chuck's headlining band, Lübetool, RuPaul and hie entourage came in late in Chuck's set, and were allowed to do what I think was a very early drag show.
The man's talent and ambition were evident: and Chuck and I agreed that guy was going somewhere.
After the show, I went, thanked him, and kissed his hand: he simpered prettily, and hugged me.
I wonder if he remembers the lout in a leather jacket...
I bet Ru does. You don't get that far without noting who liked you enough to say so, and why.
"And RuPaul Charles had a rock band I saw a couple of times..."
WEE WEE POLE !!!!
Yup! Ru always knew how to get attention...
saw REM in Athens at the 40 Watt Club (I think) in the early '70s
did you mean '80s? Most of REM were barely teenagers in the early '70s
It had to be no later than '76 for 40Watt gigs, and the last set at the Arts Festival '77-'78 at the latest: so middle, not early 70s.
And yes, they were kids.
Well, Mr Wiki says they formed in 1980: so I'm in the wrong timeline...
The falsification of memory is a sad thing.
Does politics count? I met Marco Rubio at a fundraiser back when he was just a wee political twerp. Sat next to him at dinner and somehow got into a discussion on single-payer healthcare. I thought it would be a good thing. He said "But your taxes would go up." I told him I was already paying $12,000 a year in premiums with a $6,000 deductible, so my taxes could go up $18,000 a year and I'd still break even. He looked at me blankly for a couple of seconds, then said "Yeah, but your taxes would go up." As though taxes going up was the only thing that mattered, not how much or for what benefit.
By way of a early preview, I knew Marco was dumb as a post from that moment on. A man utterly incapable of actually thinking. And he was part of a larger circle of conservatives I was forced to be around--Florida Republicans all on the up-and-coming roster.. And each dumber than the next. I thought the problem was me in that I was only attracting the dumber clients. But, no: The problem was Republican voters who demanded politicians who were dumb and/or stupid. When I watched candidates getting kicked to the curb because they actually knew how Florida county commissions worked or understood what the function of the legislature was, I was kind of mystified.
But today, it's crystal clear that Republicans worship stupid and demand dumb. So I can say I knew them when?
You sure can.
Li’l Marco’s response about taxes is the equivalent of Spinal Tap’s “but this goes to 11,” only somehow dumber.
Chris Christie demolished Rubio during the 2016 debates by pointing out that Rubio just robotically repeats talking points, only to have Rubio respond by repeating the very talking point Christie was using as an example. Rubio then looked bewildered when he saw the audience reaction.
I wandered into a small Tulane college bar called The Boot in New Orleans in ‘93 and heard a band that I thought was pretty good. A couple years later they were on SNL--the Dave Matthews Band
What were they like then?
Off the top of my head, I saw Charles Durning, and Christopher Walken in Lanford Wilson’s play Lemon Sky. It was 1970 at the Old Studio Arena in Buffalo. Durning I recognized, but not Walken. He was only in his mid 20’s and so tall and skinny that when he turned sideways you could almost see him.
I performed Off Broadway with Morgan Freeman , Garret Morris, and Reggie VelJohnson. It was around 1980 at the New Federal Theater down off Delancey. Morris had already done SNL, although NYC theater knew Morgan, the rest of the world did not. He had only done bit parts in one or two movies at that point. Reggie had yet to land his dad role in the sitcom Family Matters. We had an absolute ball and I wish I could have a transcript of what went on in the dressing room. It wasn’t long after that when I walked away from it all.
I know there’s a few more ‘before they were famous’ times, but right now I can’t remember.
How could you leave off Floyd Vivino?!
Oh my heavens….you’re so right Roy!! I performed with Floyd Vivino (‘Uncle Floyd’) at the theme park Gaslight Village in Lake George in summer ‘73. We entertained at the Opera House there. I went back to work there in ‘76, but Floyd wasn’t there. He was becoming known in NJ as one of their favorite sons. I would bring in his ‘kiddie’ TV show on VHF when I had my studio in Brooklyn. We did a revival performance up there somewhere around 2008. All the old comedy & vaudeville bits and the singing. All out of the past, and now it’s all in the past. We had a long phone conversation the day after Robin Williams died. He had been a friend of Floyd’s.
My father in law played Big Daddy at the Mark Taper Forum in LA. about ‘82. We flew out to see the show, and backstage & dressing rms I got into a brief conversation with the actress playing Maggie, a very young Kirstie Alley.
Fisher Stevens and I got our Equity cards together in a show at the 18th st theater. About 1980.
You could get Equity cards from the 18th Street Theater? I thought just ringworm.
Yeah, we raised the money ourselves, found an author, jumped through the hoops, and found a dive to perform in. There were actually some great moments!
Remember doing the Saroyan play ‘Hello Out There?’ You had to go outside and walk around the back of the building to get from stage right to left. Hard to believe we did all that.
The name VelJohnson always makes me chuckle. I wouldnt do it to his face tho
Reggie was probably the funniest person I ever knew in the theater. We shared a mirror in the DR and he and I would improv an ongoing wacky conversation , but we had to only look at one another in the mirror. He loved a good laugh, and who doesn’t?
I’m not such a big fan anymore, but I saw U2 in 1981 on their second US tour at a club in Chicago. They had what it took to be big even then.
Was that when they were touring for October? I saw them then in the 2000 seat Helen Foellinger auditorium at the U of I, the next time they swung through they played the football stadium. I thought they were great, but I thought anyone who would come to Urbana and play for us was great, so don't go by me.
Yes, it was. Next time they were at the Aragon Ballroom, and after that it was the arenas.
My brother saw The Doors play at his high school when they were just another LA band. I can't match that.
For me it would be Bill James, the baseball statistician. I forget how I first saw his name, but I got on to his stuff a couple of years before he hit the big time. A few years later I actually applied for a job to be his assistant (made the first cut but not the second), and spoke to him on the phone.
I learned of Bill James when his first widely published Abstract came out, maybe 1984. I saw it at a bookstore in Yankton, South Dakota and immediately bought it because it was right up my alley.
Yeah--I'm a certified baseball nerd, and his work hit me like a bolt of lightning.
My scientific career had real Zelig-like moments, but my nearest experience in the arts was when I was staying at a Canadian B&B long ago and this nice young woman pulled out her fiddle. I had never heard such playing. It was Natalie MacMaster.