Hartford Courant from Hartford, Connecticut • Page 239

tub uPTtnor rmtDiMT. 11 ioot 2nd cd. let erJ Foxy Brown please fans a sharp entertainer De La Soul, By ANDREA COMER Courant Staff Writer Two examples of rap's diverse identity were showcased in one spot Saturday afternoon. And the crowd at the Rap Western Connecticut State University's Ives review Center in Danbury proved that De La Soul is definitely not dead, and that despite the controversy swirling around her, Foxy Brown is giving her fans exactly what they want. De La and Foxy were preceded by the Portland, Maine-based Rustic Overtones, whose bluesy-rock was the perfect intro to De La Soul's mellow rap style.

Had the crowd not been so amped to see the headlin-ers, they would've enjoyed the Overtones' set, which included "Girl Germs," "Pop Trash" and the funky "Long Division." Mase, Posdnuos and Trugoy, collectively known as De La Soul, gave Ray Davies By ROGER CATLIN Courant Rock Critic After a career in which he's performed plenty of theatrical rock shows and concept albums, Ray Davies has found that his most interesting character may be himself. Certainly, the rise Rock The Kinks, one of the great British Inva-reVieW sion groups, makes a great story. And he could scarcely have a better catalog of songs to illustrate it, from the classic riffs of "You Really Got Me" and "Set Me Free" to the elegiac "Days" and "Waterloo Sunset." "20th Century Man," Davies' one-man show, which is also known as "The Storyteller" (after the VH1 series it virtually invented), finally came to town Saturday, with a thoroughly entertaining show at the University of Hartford Lincoln Theatre. But it seemed no more set in stone than it was when it premiered off-Broadway 15 months ago. An unusual hybrid of concert and stage piece, it has an energy and spontaneity most one-man performances don't have (he an Mayall doesn't live up fans a 60-minute medley of hits from their four albums "Three Feet High and Rising," "De La Soul is Dead," "Balloon Mind State" and "Stakes is High." Concertgoers were especially responsive when De La covered their older tunes, such as "Buddy," the wax version of which had guest appearances by Q-Tip from A Tribe Called Quest and Queen Latifah, and "Me Myself and They also bounced appreciatively to "Ego Trip" and "Stakes is High," the cover track from their latest album.

The trio created a re laxed vibe with their infectious beats, thought-provoking rhymes and playful nature. But relaxed became racy as Foxy took the stage. Sporting caramel-colored suede hip-huggers, a black halter top and dark-chocolate suede trench coat, Foxy may not have been dressed for the chilly weather, but she came prepared to blow up the spot. Mick Taylor and Harvey Mandel. Buddy Whittington is Mayall's newest guitar discovery, and though he is a competent musician with a precise guitar attack, his playing is uninspiring.

Whittington's limitations onstage were in part heightened by Mayall's focus on the toothless material from his new CD, "Blues for Lost Days" at Toad's. The just-released album takes a compact approach to the blues that offers little opportunity for onstage fireworks. The band's performance of the title track was a glaring example of how blues musicians can be handcuffed by narrowly focused material. As Mayall wistfully spewed out names of long-gone blues legends, the band plowed listlessly down an unexciting musical road. Fortunately, Mayall and the Cape Cod's help.

"We gave out Cape Cod information at Grand Central Station in New York in hopes it would entice more people. Apparently it did not work," said Arthur Ratsy, assis Acoustic guitarists charm By NEAL McGARITY Special to The Courant British blues giant John Mayall's legendary musical past came back to haunt him during Friday night's performance at Toad's Place in New Haven. Though Mayall's newest edition of the Bluesbreakers are impressive blues musicians, they failed to measure up to the rich history of Bluesbreaker bands fielded by the 63-year-old Mayall over the past 30 years. Mayall is likely the BllieS greatest talent scout in the history of rock, review nurturing a young Eric Clapton prior to stardom and also discovering a series of phenomenally talented guitarists like Peter Green, Davies front room to the make-or-break recording session (for "You Really Got that did in fact make them. The second act begins with a disastrous American tour that resulted in The Kinks' being banned from the United States for three crucial years, their rediscovery of simple English pleasures and the dissolution of the original lineup.

(One segment left out Saturday involved a dust-up with the Beatles.) The Kinks still exist, second only to the Rolling Stones in longevity, but few Kinks shows would be packed with such beloved rarities as "Two Sisters" and "Village Green." Showman that he is, he was also careful to put in most of The Kinks' biggest nits, including "Lola," "Come Dancing" and "A Well Respected Man." Accompanied only by guitarist Peter Mathison, there was a varied sonic tone all night that colored the five new songs in the show, including "To the Bone," the title of the latest Kinks album. Throughout, the youthful Davies, 51, seemed to be enjoying playing Hartford so much it didn't seem like part of the act. their fans picking away at a steady speed. He never veered out of key while using this technique. "Cajun Cool" stood out as the set's strongest piece.

Here, Legg played catchy riffs while scaling up and down the fretboard. Legg began the conclusion of his set with a couple more jokes, including, "Thank you for coming. I would have felt very silly if you didn't." Still, his guitar playing left the final impression. While aggressively churning out his last song, the crowd began applauding before the finish. Although Legg proved to be the evening's showman, opening performer Preston Reed captured the audience's attention with a completely different brand of performance.

Reed's unorthodox style provided an unusual visual charisma. In addition to playing over the top of his guitar's neck, Reed employed all sorts of finger-tapping techniques and used his guitar as something of drum kit. For Reed, every song appeared to be an unusually physical endeavo While busily tending to the fretboard, Reed intermittently tapped rhythms on different parts of his guitar's body. Although he was a bit more soft-spoken than the headliner, Reed caused the audience to chuckle with a few lines of his own. After dazzling the audience with an eerie song called "Hijacker," Reed sheepishly announced, "I also play the guitar normally." swers hecklers and sometimes fulfills requests).

Unlike most concerts, the songs have a context as part of a specific story the early rise of the influential band and its various problems with contracts and unions that kept it from being as giant-sized as some of its contemporaries. Davies is one of rock's best songwriters, and any excuse to hear such gems as "Autumn Almanac" and "I Go to Sleep" is worthwhile, especially as they are sung with spare acoustic accompaniment and a wonderful, ageless voice. But he's also a very funny performer with natural acting ability. So his long passages mimicking various management personalities, or recounting the audition of Kinks drummer Mick Avory, are high points entertaining while also providing the insight not often found in rock history books or in Davies own 1995 book, "X-Ray." Davies still refers to a dogeared copy of that book as a narrative crutch, although less so than on earlier versions of the show; he's lived the life, he knows what to say. By now, the story has a natural narrative flow that takes the audience from practice in the in his English accent, "Let's boogie, man.

It's Saturday night, isn't it?" Legg had the crowd in stitches while describing the origins of a couple songs. For "Carolina Sunday Waltz," Legg noted that he had to switch the key to match the sound of a resonating vacuum cleaner that somebody used to drown him out when he wrote the song. Legg's most stirring introduction was when he described the difficulty in coming up with the title "L'Amour Manque." Here, Legg noted that he discarded the title "Love The Monkey" because, he said, "I was afraid the Christian right would start accusing me of beastiality." Amid Legg's jokes and humorous social commentary, his finger-picking proved equally entertaining. Legg's speed was the most striking aspect of his playing. But even in his fastest moments, Legg's melodies never lost their flow.

On a couple songs, Legg slid notes up and down by twisting his tuning pegs while town on Martha's Vineyard. She met her husband while going to school in New York. After her marriage in 1922, they lived in Arlington, N.J., where he worked as a scientist for Thomas Edison. They retired to Martha's Vineyard in 1954. In 1940, Mrs.

Riggs published her first book, "From Off Island." The Greater Hartford Low ridership derails Amtrak Cape Codder train By JASON COLLINS Special to The Courant Two of the world's best acoustic guitar players, Adrian Lege and Preston Reed, showcased their tal-ents in the Connecticut Classical Guitar Society's tribute to Ovation guitars at Hartford's Wallace Stevens Theater. Guitar wizardry MllSiC from eacn musician came as no surprise, review But the two interest- ing and contrasting styles made the evening a complete success. Headlining the show, Legg proved to be much more than just an extraordinary guitarist. Legg's comedic ability rivaled his fretwork dynamics. Delivering an endless supply of humorous lines, Legg often had the crowd laughing as he began a number.

When asking the sound mixer to turn up the volume of the monitor speaker, the veteran guitarist said Having been on the scene just two years, the 18-year-old's repertoire was limited to her guest appeaj-ances on other artists' songs and her double-platinum album "111 Na Na." But she didn't disappoint, per- forming her cameos from L.L. Cool J's "Who Shot Ya" and Total's "No One Else," as well as her own "Get You Home," "I'll Be Good" and "Ain't No Nigga" from "The Nutty Professor," soundtrack, performed with her brother, who stood in for Jay-Z. Her freestyle ad-libbing with her sibling was definitely for mature audiences only, and her tales of sexual prowess caused even some of the seasoned officers at the con cert to blush. But the crowd ate it iip, responding wildly to her demands for feedback. Their excitement during the 40-minute set was exhibited only by screams and applause, showing that cool heads can prevail over even the hottest performances.

to legend Bluesbreakers stretched out on "How Can You Live Like That," by late sax legend Eddie Harris; Und the result was one of the high points of the evening, as the group cooked up a delightfully improvisational blues stew. Mayall demonstrated that he is still a virtuoso on harmonica, but he and his crew presented a bumpy entertainment experience at Toad's, often raising and dashing musical hopes. A spirited version of "Parch-man's Farm" a longtime staple at Mayall concerts was followed by a limp version of "Wake Up from the fiery 1993 album of the same name. It was during "Wake Up Call" that Mayall's past haunted him the most. Whittington's guitar riffs were soggy compared with the hot licks dished out by Mick Taylor on the recorded version.

tant director of the chamber. The "Cape Codder" continued losing riders last summer although Amtrak dropped the roundtrip fare from $170 to $158. I'd Donald Pcmauh SBI.l Kowngtim, CtmncctKut Bank Life Insurance Poet, columnist Dionis Coffin Riggs dies Associated Press HYANNIS, Mass. Amtrak has taken the Cape Codder, the New York City-to-Hyannis train, off the tracks after 1 1 seasons because the weekend service attracted just 1,000 riders last summer, and the company lost $50,000 on the service, Amtrak spokesman Rick Remington said. Ridership dropped about 16 percent last summer despite a price decrease from $170 to $158 promotional efforts by the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce and time and route changes aimed at drawing more passengers.

Travelers from New York City would switch trains in Providence and continue to Hyannis on a train that originated in Boston. Amtrak warned Cape Cod tourism officials last spring that the run was in troubleThe train attracted only about 1,200 riders in 1995, a 50 percent drop from 1994. Amtrak did not have the funds to promote the service last year, so it asked for GreaterHartford ClkMIM C0HMMCI When kids are having a tough time sharing, all TeleNurse, a 24-hour, toll-free health care and information service. With TeleNurse, you can talk to a registered nurse, or access an audio library of more man 1 300 topic. Confidentially and free of charge.

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Associated Press WESTTISBURY, Mass. Dionis Coffin Riggs, a poet and newspaper columnist in Martha's Vineyard, where she was known for her flowing sonnets about nature, has died. She was 98. Mrs. Riggs died April 20 at Clea-veland House, a boarding house where she learned seafaring tales that she later passed on in her writings.

Mrs. Riggs, whose grandfather and uncle were captains of whaling ships during the 1800's, drew inspiration from the sea, flowers and trees of the island, where she lived much of her life. One of her favorite sonnets, "Silver Anniversary," was written for her late husband, Sidney Noyes Riggs, who illustrated many of her six books. Mrs. Riggs was born in Edgar- STARTS TOMORROW SILVER PLATTER SUIT SALE 2 FOR $300 OR $175 EACH Reg.

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