In performance: Anthony Dean Griffey Washington Post (blog)
By Joe BannoThe Vocal Arts High society deserves applause for helping push the boundaries of the classical voice recital by including American talk music. But in a selection of American folk songs on Anthony Dean Griffey's Terrace Theater program on Wednesday, the mix of crooner and material felt contrived.
It was an inspired idea to start the evening with folk music veteran Paul Brown playing an delighted, extended solo on bluegrass fiddle as people entered the hall. But even bringing the lights down and placing the sharply defined unclear squarely on Brown did nothing to stop an unreceptive audience from drowning him out with chatter. (A woman near me archly quipped, "Peradventure if we all start clapping, he'll stop.")
But even if Griffey's entrance quieted the crowd, his singing didn't quiet doubts about his chops as a populace singer. His tenor is an impressive instrument -- ample, resonant and emotionally expressive, its tone generally misty-hued, though with nasal accents lending it idiosyncratic color. But it's all too big and operatic for the Southern tunes he sang, and his conservatory-trained vowels and shadings of tenor were an impediment to loose-limbed numbers like "Cumberland Gap." Brown, who switched to banjo for the set, sounded subdued and circumspect next to Griffey's Wagnerian outpourings.
![Arts & Entertainment : Music Review Washington City Paper]("http://nt1.ggpht.com/news/tbn/8bdYJeMjZLYuhM/6.jpg")
Washington Borough PaperArts & Entertainment : Music ReviewWashington City PaperFrisell uses the viola as a lead instrument here, and in the past has made nearly the same use of dobro, steel guitar, cornet, banjo, and looped samples.
