WYEP Music Blog

Sophisticated.  Elegant.  Grace under pressure even when she makes a mistake.  Vienna Teng is not just another singer-songwriter.  Club Café hosted the Vienna Teng Trio:  Vienna Teng, vocals and keyboards.  Ward Williams plays the cello and electric guitar. Alex Wong is a multi-instrumentalist, who co-produced Teng’s new release “Inland Territory”.  Teng talked about spending Easter in Pittsburgh and taking a ride on the Mon Incline before segueing into “In Another Life”.  She highlighted many songs from “Inland Territory”, which I’ve already added to my personal list of the best of 2009.  “The Last Snowfall”, “White Light”, “Antebellum”, “Kansas”, “Grandmother Song” and “St. Stephen’s Cross” were among the songs she performed from “Inland Territory”.  From “Dreaming Through The Noise” Teng did “Whatever You Want” and the fun “1BR/1BA”.  Teng’s expressions and delicate movements with her hands, shows that she’s really feeling the music.  Teng’s set was over 90-minutes, including a 2-song encore.

When Ari Hest was at Club Café last month, we discussed the Cayamo cruise.  He asked me if we saw Vienna Teng.  I had to confess that we did not see enough of her performances.  The venues were overflowing with people and we only caught Teng’s shows in passing.  When Teng returns to Cayamo-2010, she will be on our must-see list.

He’s from Lexington, KY.  He sings.  He writes songs.  He plays the cello exquisitely.  Ben Sollee did a too short 35-minute set.  Club Café was briefly transformed into a symphonic concert hall when the classically trained Sollee played his cello.  You could see the audience trying to be quiet and leaning forward to hear all the notes.  Sollee was joined by Alex Wong on “It’s Not Impossible”, a song he got to perform on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”.  Also, from his debut full length release, “Learning To Bend”, he did the amusing “Bury Me With My Car”.  I’d like to hear Sollee with a backing band, perhaps, in the future when Sollee headlines his own tour.  Sollee may return to the area in August.

Barb S. – Sunday Mix Host

k.d. lang brought her dancing shoes and a brand new five-piece band to the Benedum Center for the WYEP 35^th Anniversary concert.  Sometimes lang played the guitar and even attempted playing the banjo, but it was her voice that was her most used instrument throughout the almost 90-minute set, which featured several encores.  The large stage was set up with lighting and a projection screen in the back, with the band near the middle; allowing lang plenty of space to dance and interact with her band and audience.  Some of the band members were multi-instrumentalists.  Despite pleas from the audience, lang did not remove her shoes (she apparently usually performs without them) and she proved she’s very light on her feet.  An early highlight was lang’s version of Neil Young’s “Helpless”.  The first standing ovation came after she did a song from “Hymns of the 49^th Parallel”, the Leonard Cohen penned “Hallelujah” in which lang showcased her extraordinary voice.  lang did vintage tracks like “Miss Chatelaine” as well as “I Dream of Spring” from her most recent release “Watershed”.  Of course lang sang “Constant Craving”, perhaps her most well known song.  During one of the encores, lang referred to Tony Bennett as her mentor.  The final song was “Lock, Stock and Teardrops” from “Shadowland”.

Fellow Canadian Meaghan Smith opened the show and this leg of the k.d. lang tour.  Smith was joined center stage by her husband Jason Mingo on guitar and harp pedal and their friend Austin Nicholsen on upright bass.  She was on stage for about 30-minutes, played seven songs and danced a little.  Smith plays guitar and also played the omnichord.  She engaged the audience using the harp pedal to accentuate what people did that day (working and laundry).  The singer song-writer reminded me of a young Linda Ronstadt.  Smith told the stories behind such songs as “Poor”, “You Got Out” and her final song about her parents sending her to bed in the summer when it was still daylight, called “Five More Minutes”.  She shared with us that she does answer her own e-mail.  Smith asked for a photo of herself from the stage with the audience in the background.  I’m sure everyone was smiling. 

Barb S. – Sunday Mix Host