Flanfire

Karen Mal is infectious - so despite promising myself I would stay home on Saturday night, I was running through some Sheila Marshall songs on my computer and there was Karen's beatific voice - and I KNEW she was gigging outside at BB Rovers on the back side of US 183 WAY NORTH (nosebleed country for 78704 folk). What I did NOT know was that her sidekick for the night was none other than Houston (and Kerrville) folk legend Ken Gaines (the show also featured bassist Eddie Block).

Ken is still doing a number of his songs from his 2002 CD, "Real Men," which ought to be in any folk music lover's collection. The title cut reminds us that real men don't like lawyers or rules, don't complain, but fight - and think their fathers never die. "Shadow on the Wall" talks of a man's quest 20 years after coming home from Vietnam, while "Only a Fool/The Healing" tells of an amazing cure from cancer. Ken can be tongue in cheek or just downright sentimental, and his powerful voice not only carries his own songs but adds texture to Karen's clear tones. The highlight of the evening was his new song, "Einstein's Violin," of which woodworker Ken says, "It's a song for us adults; those who have had our hearts truly broken and those who are working on staying in love." The song closes with these lines:

And if Einstein was right
As we approach the speed of light
To find the feeling’s not so far away
Then maybe in this universe
That separates us now
We'd discover how to fall in love again.
Playing Einstein's Violin
We'd discover how to fall in love again.

and has this chorus:

If we could only play Einstein’s Violin
Would the notes reveal the truth we wish to hold
If we could only play Einstein’s Violin
Would the secrets of the heart unfold?

Karen herself played mandolin on most (if not all) of Ken's songs, and guitar on her own. Several of her tunes are soon to be released on her brand-new Irish music CD (which we hope to review in the very near future). This soft and gentle adventuress (she spent 19 days last summer rafting down the Grand Canyon and wrote a beautiful new song about that experience - and last winter went kayaking and hiking and snorkeling in the Everglades) takes years off your tired feet every time you hear her sing or just see her smile. The effervescent Verena Edwards was in the house - celebrating her brand-new status as a U.S. citizen!