August 19, 2004
BY MAC RANDALL
SPECIAL TO THE NEWS
It's too bad they don't allow campfires in Central Park. A big roaring fire would have been the perfect thing for the Sweet Harmony Traveling Revue's members to sit around during their thoroughly down-home concert at SummerStage last night.
Featuring country legend Emmylou Harris, respected singer-songwriter Patty Griffin, alt-country duo Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, and Nashville veteran Buddy Miller, the Revue was an easygoing affair. For more than two hours, the musicians swapped songs and instruments, teaming up in multiple configurations, heading on and off stage as if the crowd were merely incidental.
It was part mutual admiration society meeting, part musical relay race - with an acoustic guitar taking the part of the baton.
"We don't know exactly what we're doing," Harris said near the show's start. "We've changed the set every night on this tour. But we're glad you're along for the ride."
Actually, there was a pattern of sorts to the concert. All concerned joined in on the first couple of numbers, including a spine-tingling arrangement of "To Know Him Is to Love Him" in five-part harmony. Considering the talent of the singers involved, the name Sweet Harmony Traveling Revue is something of an understatement.
From there, each artist performed a solo segment, backed in varying degrees by the others. Harris went first, taking on mostly quiet, plaintive songs like "Red Dirt Girl" and "My Baby Needs a Shepherd." A touch of roughness in her upper register only added depth to her tender, unmistakable singing.
Miller followed Harris with a miniset that tastefully walked the line between country and soul. His duet with Griffin on "The Dark End of the Street" was a chilling highlight.
The only member of the Revue to play with a full band, Griffin put her formidable pipes to work on the slow-building ballad "Top of the World" and a funky cover of Bessie Smith's "Backwater Blues."
Welch and Rawlings provided the show's peak moments. Rawlings' bluegrass-inflected guitar playing enlivened "Revelator," while Welch's solo rendition of "One Little Song" was an understated gem.
At the end, everyone returned for a fitting closer: Robbie Robertson's enduring ode to teamwork, "The Weight."