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Houston Folklore & Folk Music Society

November 14, 2009

The Houston Folklore & Folk Music Society presents a concert of acoustic, folk, or bluegrass music on the second Saturday of each month (except July, August, and December) at the West University Community Center - 6104 Auden at Rice Blvd.

These concerts are always acoustic music of various types ranging from bluegrass, singer/songwriter, Scottish, Irish, cowboy, old time country, and of course, folk both traditional and contemporary.

Saturday, November 14:  Small Potatoes.

Small Potatoes is Jacquie Manning and Rich Prezioso. This Chicago-based duo has been touring on the folk circuit since 1993 and in that time they’ve become sought-after regulars at many clubs, coffeehouses across the U.S. They have made repeat appearances at major folk festivals, including the Kerrville Folk Festival, the Walnut Valley Folk Festival, and Philadelphia Folk Festival. They were one of the “most requested” acts at the 1999 Falcon Ridge New Artist Showcase. Jacquie is also a past winner of the Kerrville New Folk Songwriting Contest.

They call themselves eclecto-maniacs. They describe their music as “Celtic to Cowboy” and say in has taken them “years of careful indecision” to come up with a mix of music that ranges from country, blues, and swing to Irish, with songwriting that touches on all of those styles and more. Their four recordings, “Alive!”, “Waltz of the Wallflowers”, “Time Flies”, and “Raw” cover all these styles. They both sing, they both play guitars and an array of other instruments. They even yodel. Dirty Linen Magazine called them “one of the most polished, inventive, and entertaining shows on the circuit.” Sing Out Magazine called them “wonderfully eclectic” and said “Small Potatoes might well be leading mainstays on the folk scene for years to come.”

“Make ‘em Laugh, Make ‘em Cry…”

“Jacquie Manning and Rich Prezioso combine cleverly witty with powerfully poignant songs, along with well chosen covers to present an unusually entertaining and involving repertoire engagingly delivered. Prezioso's song "1000 Candles, 1000 Cranes" is one of the most outstanding songs of the past 50 years." Rich Warren , The Midnight Special - WFMT Radio, Chicago, IL

When you see Small Potatoes perform, you hear two great voices, some fine guitar playing, and a touch of tin whistle, flute, mandolin, bodhran, and other percussion toys. Together they present a truly rare blend of vocal and instrumental abilities, award-winning songwriting, and arranging talents. They have the unique ability to adapt to the style of music they happen to be playing. They seem comfortably at home whether playing an upbeat cowboy swing tune or a tender, traditional ballad--though there are no rules here either, sometimes the traditional sounds contemporary, sometimes the contemporary sounds traditional. And they also pay attention to the little things, the warmth, the humor and a rapport with the audience that makes for a memorable performance. A listen to a few tracks on “Waltz of the Wallflowers”, Jacquie’s theatrical, one-of-a kind 1998 Kerrville New Folk winning title track, Rich's powerful “1000 Candles, 1000 Cranes”, or their Celtic-flavored rendition of the Jefferson Airplane classic, “Lather” provides a more than ample illustration. Their new live CD, “Small Potatoes Alive!” also showcases their story-telling abilities and their easy manner with their audiences.

“Specificity Leads to Extinction?”

“I’m a kind of an old-fashioned folksinger...you guys are new fashioned folksingers. You share something with me, in that you sing whatever songs you feel are right for you, instead of limiting yourself to your own compositions, or to one particular genre. Good way to make magic.” Phil Shapiro, Bound for Glory, WVBR-FM, Ithaca, NY

These words mean a lot to us. They make us think we’re doing something right. Phil has been running this coffeehouse/radio show for a long time--he hears a ton of music--we didn’t even ask him to write us a quote. We joke about “specificity leading to extinction”--for us, at least, we believe it really would. There are many great performers who do one thing and do it extremely well--that’s what makes them special. Not us. Actually the eclecto-maniac business began as an accident. We are absolutely no good at decision making, if someone told us we could only do one thing we’d probably implode. So we began by playing some of our favorite songs, and we do like a lot of different kinds of music. It’s become a kind of mission now, our audiences love it, no one (except for a few people in the music industry) has ever told us we bounce around too much. We figure “focus” is an overused word anyway. We still play our favorite songs. We try to write songs in all kinds of styles, but it doesn’t matter if we wrote the song or not, or if it’s an old song or a new song, or if it’s a folk song or not. There’s a lot of good music out there.

“They don’t sound like anybody else. I like that. They lay out a blanket and every song is a picnic.” Warren Nelson, Big Top Chautauqua/Tent Show Radio--Wisconsin Public Radio, Bayfield, WI