Jimmy Carters

Last night, Neilson and I went to the first of the Music Downtown shows. They are a series of concerts sponsored by Wall Street Rising at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center this week, designed to draw people into downtown Manhattan in a post 9/11 world. The shows are free, but like a lot things that are free in New York, getting tickets was a hassle. Neilson had to stand in line for four hours for them. (I waited for the Shakespeare in the Park tickets, in case you are thinking this arrangement is unfair.) The bill was a kind of a strange combo--melancholy hipster Cat Power along with the gospel group The Blind Boys of Alabama. I didn't know anything about these groups before the show--we got these tickets because the Ryan Adams ones had been snapped up already. (We also have tickets for Aimee Mann on Sunday).

I really like Cat Power's name, but, other than that, she proved not to be to my taste. Neilson described her as "dirgelike" and that just about sums it up. So if you like dirges, seek her out.

The Blind Boys of Alabama, however, were amazing. The original members of the group met at the Alabama Institute for the Negro Blind in 1939 and some of them are still going strong. They are now joined by some younger--and some sighted--members. They performed rousing versions of gospel classics along with some modern tunes, accompanied by two electric guitars and a bass, joking and hamming it up. There was an incredible "Amazing Grace," sung to the tune of the "House of the Rising Sun." The highlight came when one of the founders--Jimmy Carter--came out into the audience. By the end of his trip around the auditorium the whole crowd was on its feet, clapping and stomping and cheering. I jumped up even before I was conscious that I wanted to, and, for the first time, I understand how revival meetings work their magic.

It must be a good week for Jimmy Carters. I put aside my intense distaste for Larry King to watch some of his interview of former President Jimmy Carter on Sunday. It was really powerful to see the devout Baptist take fundamentalist Christians--and fundamentalists of all religions--to task for their belief that their relationship with God makes them superior and gives them the right to subjugate others. Go Jimmy!