Musical Mayhem to Reign at Branford Folk April 8
Musical mayhem will fill the air when Lou and Peter Berryman, two of the most humorous and creative songwriters in today’s world of folk and acoustic music, invade the Branford Folk Music Society on Saturday, April 8 for the society’s monthly coffeehouse concert.
The show will take place at 8 p.m. in the auditorium of the First Congregational Church of Branford, 1009 Main Street, on the Branford Town Green. Admission is $20 for non-members, $17 for members, and $5 for children age 12 and under. For more information, call 203-488-7715 or visit www.branfordfolk.org.
This may be one of the last times to see and hear the Berrymans on the Eastern Seaboard as they announced recently that they plan to stop touring nationally after almost four decades on the folk circuit.
Frequent comparisons to Tom Lehrer, Flanders and Swann, and Gilbert and Sullivan notwithstanding, Lou and Peter Berryman are originals, blending Midwestern culture with intelligent observation in a whimsical and wonderfully accessible performance.
Hailing from Wisconsin, Lou and Peter—whose “friendship survived a brief marriage,” as they put it—have delighted audiences across the country for more than 35 years post-marriage. They have produced 18 albums and four songbooks of their original and hilarious yet oddly profound songs. Berryman songs are being sung around the world, by a legion of professional musicians from Peggy Seeger to Garrison Keillor to a recent “all Berryman” album by Vermont’s Cindy Mangsen and Steve Gillette, as well as shower singers everywhere.
Their songwriting takes life’s mundane moments and turns them into musical magic. Subject matter ranges from the Thanksgiving grace of a politically correct uncle to a service industry for older people that specializes in forgetting things. The late Pete Seeger characterized their classic, hit song, “A Chat with Your Mother” (a.k.a. “The F-Word Song”) as “one of the great American folksongs of the 20th century.”
The Berrymans began their musical partnership in high school in Appleton, Wisconsin, in the 1960s. By the late 1970s, they had established themselves as a prominent feature of the songwriting subculture of Wisconsin’s capital, playing their original material every week for almost 10 years in the run-down but trendy music room of Madison’s Club de Wash. Gradually expanding their circuit, they began crisscrossing the continent and gaining national attention with appearances on such programs as A Prairie Home Companion and National Public Radio’s Weekend Edition.
The Branford Folk Music Society is a 43 year-old all-volunteer, non-profit educational group dedicated to preserving and encouraging the growth and appreciation of traditional folk music and song in southern Connecticut. The society’s concluding concert for the current season is scheduled for Saturday, May 20 and will feature Tom Lewis, one of North America’s foremost exponents of contemporary sea songs.