Event review: WinterTales family matinee
My hubbie, Patrick, our 14-month-old son, Gabe the Babe, and I braved the wailing winds to attend the WinterTales Storytelling Festival’s family matinee Sunday afternoon at Stage Center. The festival’s featured tellers provided an hour and a half of wonderful low-key entertainment for dozens of parents and children ranging from infants to teenagers.
Soldiering on despite a cold, singer-songwriter Steve Poltz opened and closed the show and played his idiosyncratic (I’m tired of using “quirky” in conjunction with “Steve Poltz.”) songs between the three storytellers’ performances. His first two numbers, “Beep, Beep, Beep,” about a talking dirt bike teaching a lonely boy to clean house, and “I’m Not a Marsupial,” a fun wordplay ditty, are off his children’s album “The Barn.”
His next two turns at the mike were the most memorable and had all the hallmarks of his trademark made-up-on-the-fly songs. In honor of his nasty cold, he crooned about a boy who buys a new head from a catalog to replace his frequently ill noggin. The other was a funny and slightly scary (for the kids, anyway) tale about a lonely villain who kidnaps children and sews them to the walls of his cave with his sewing machine.
He closed the show with the heartfelt “Leavin’ Again,” from the movie “Jack Frost.”
In between, , Nancy Donoval, Syd Lieberman and Dovie Thomason, the three featured storytellers at this year’s festival, delivered interesting tales in vastly differing styles.
Donoval (pictured) paid tribute to her second-grade teacher, who not only put her on the path to becoming a storyteller by casting her as the narrator for the class production of “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas,” but also took the class on the best field trip ever — without leaving the schoolhouse. The field trip was to the “forbidden planet” of the bathroom of the opposite gender, and the Minneapolis, Minn., resident spun the yarn with great details, including how the teacher, who later became the school’s principal, got in trouble for letting the class play in the restrooms.
A former schoolteacher, Lieberman wrangled eight young volunteers who provided sound effects on his lively story about a blacksmith desperate to gain some peace and quiet. The audience also was asked to contribute noises for the performance.
Thomason got the audience to sing along as she wove a touching tale drawn from her Kiowa, Apache and Lakota relatives. The story centered on an orphaned boy who is abandoned by his hard-hearted uncle and adopted by a family of bears.
The family matinee offered an quiet but fun afternoon of entertainment, and it’s worth checking out at next year’s festival.
-BAM
5 quirky things about Steve Poltz
I had an illuminating and pleasantly rambling phone interview with Steve Poltz for my Weekend Look cover feature. The singer-songwriter certainly proved his quirkiness once again.
Along with information about his songwriting style, his new CD and his storytelling tendencies, I learned these five fun facts about Poltz:
1. He loves to drink hot, black tea like Darjeeling, and he likes the “proper functionality” of having tea along with good discussion, little scones and little sandwiches with the crusts cut off. He also collects beautiful old tea cups, especially from the early 1900s.
He says, “That’s my favorite thing is to go out for tea. … Some people like to drink alcohol; I like to drink tea.”
2. He practices Bikram yoga to stay in shape. He said the consistency of that kind and the wide availability of studios offering classes in it make it easier to keep fit despite his virtual nonstop touring.
3. He frequently goes online to www.webster.com and loves to play with words. Current favorite words: feral, tableaux, impact and languid.
4. He enjoys airports. No, that’s not a typo. Here’s the quote to prove it:
“I feel really at home in airports. I love airports. Like, once I’ve gone through security. I like going into the magazine stores and getting a tea, and I’m sitting in there watching everybody go where they’re going. I can get my shoes shined. I don’t know what it is, I like airports.”
5. He and the band he’s touring with, the Truckee Brothers, are listening to the “Juno” soundtrack almost constantly these days. (Good choice.)
-BAM
CD review: Steve Poltz, “Traveling”
From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman.
Alternative
Steve Poltz “Traveling” (98 Pounder Records)
Singer-songwriter Steve Poltz lives up to his reputation for quirkiness with his latest album, “Traveling.” Many of the disc’s 11 tracks combine lively or lovely melodies with deceptively heavy lyrics.”Stay Away a Little Closer” is a peppy pop song that sounds like something out of the Patridge Family’s repertoire but tells the tale of an adulterous affair. With its guitars, pianos and strings, “Haters’ Union” shares the pain of missing a lost lover but also seems to refer to his old band The Rugburns.
Poltz has received a lot of attention for “Street Fighter’s Face,” a perky, upbeat tune with a strikingly downbeat story about a Marine who loses his legs in the Iraq War.
Fortunately, it’s not all sunshiny gloom. Poltz regains his faith in love on the bouncy “I Believe” and alluring “Break on Through.” “Brief History of My Life” is amusing and melancholy. “Serve Me My Food” is an inscrutable bit of nonsense sang in a funky falsetto.
The Canada-born and California-bred musician takes some risks. “I Think She Likes Me” begins with a minute of dizzy guitars before Poltz croons, and when it seems he should start the second verse, the song suddenly ends. The jangly “Rains” not only boasts jumpy percussion and eerie backing vocals, but it has a sneaky-fun false ending.
Poltz will perform this weekend at the WinterTales Storytelling Festival and at the Blue Door.
-BAM
WinterTales schedule
GOING ON
WinterTales Storytelling Festival
Today
9 to 10 a.m.: Registration, Stage Center lobby, 400 W Sheridan.
10 to 11:30 a.m.: “Storytelling 201-Part 1″ workshop with Syd Lieberman, Stage Center.
11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.: Lunch, open mike storytelling in the Cabaret, free event.
12:30 to 2 p.m.: “Storytelling 201-Part 2″ workshop with Syd Lieberman, Stage Center.
2:30 to 4 p.m.: Songwriting workshop, Steve Poltz, Stage Center.
6:30 to 7:25 p.m.: Opening reception in the Cabaret.
7:30 p.m.: Evening performance in the Tolbert Theatre: “Humorous Stories” with Steve Poltz, Nancy Donoval, Syd Lieberman and Dovie Thomason.
10:30 p.m. Late Night Ghost Stories in the Cabaret featuring Nancy Donoval and Dovie Thomason.
Saturday
9 to 10 a.m.: Registration in Stage Center lobby.
10 to 11:30 a.m.: “Find Your Own Voice” workshop, Stage Center, featuring Syd Lieberman, Nancy Donoval and Dovie Thomason and their take on the story “East of the Sun and West of the Moon.”
11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.: Lunch, “Oklahoma Olio” presented by Territory Tellers, Cabaret Theatre, free event.
12:30 to 2 p.m.: “Storytelling: At the Heart of the Art of Leadership” workshop, Nancy Donoval.
12:30 to 2 p.m.: “Telling the Story to Teach History and Touch Hearts” workshop, Dovie Thomason.
2:30 to 5 p.m.: WinterTales special event, Oklahoma City Stories at the Oklahoma History Center, 2401 N Laird, featuring Gus Palmer “Telling Stories the Kiowa Way.” Information: www.okhistorycenter.org.
8 p.m.: Evening performance in the Tolbert Theatre: “Inspirational Stories” with Steve Poltz, Dovie Thomason, Nancy Donoval and Syd Lieberman.
10:30 p.m.: WinterTales closing reception in the Stage Center Cabaret.
Sunday
2 p.m.: Family Matinee at Stage Center, featuring Syd Lieberman, Nancy Donoval, Dovie Thomason and Steve Poltz.
-BAM
Steve Poltz wants to tell you a story
From Friday’s Weekend Look section of The Oklahoman. To listen to an audio clip of Steve Poltz, click here.
His songs have stories to tell
Singer-writer Steve Poltz bringing his quirky blend to city storytelling festival
From trick-or-treating at Liberace’s house to meeting Elvis, singer-songwriter Steve Poltz recalls some of the colorful moments of his early years in “Brief History of My Life,” one of the songs on his new album, “Traveling.” “I just one day picked up my guitar, and that song was just floating around in the air. And I started strumming my guitar and remember I said, ‘We first moved to the USA all the way from Canada / We drove across the continent from Nova Scotia to Pasadena.’ And the next thing I knew I was writing this … like sort of a way of letting people know who I am,” he said in a recent phone interview from the clown-theme Pancake Circus restaurant in Sacramento, Calif.
“Sometimes, songs are destined to become like an instant live classic where it works right away and you know you’re going to do that song every night. And those are gifts when you get a song like that.”
Poltz, who will turn 48 Tuesday, often brings his blend of quirky humor, diverse songs and intriguing stories to the Blue Door, where he will play at 8 p.m. Sunday. But he also is coming to Oklahoma City as one of the featured performers at the WinterTales Storytelling Festival at Stage Center, 400 W Sheridan.
Presented by the Arts Council of Oklahoma City, WinterTales runs today through Sunday and includes performances, workshops and a family matinee. Nationally acclaimed storytellers Syd Lieberman, Nancy Donoval and Dovie Thomason are other headliners.
Poltz has played a variety of venues worldwide, first with his indie rock band The Rugburns and for the past decade as a solo artist. He uses storytelling to connect with his audience.
“Whenever you have songs, there’s usually a story behind them. And so, since I’m always on the road playing, it seemed my stories always led into songs,” he said.
“And then I realized the story had to be exciting, because I like to think of the audience and myself as having a piece of string between us, and I don’t want that string to sag too much. So, I wanted to keep their interest. So, when I started playing, if I wanted people to listen to the song, I knew I had to have a good story behind the song.”
As one of the featured tellers at WinterTales, Poltz will participate in group performances with inspirational, humorous and family-friendly themes. Some of the songs he will perform at Sunday’s family matinee come from his children’s album “The Barn,” a musical yarn about a talking dirt bike that befriends a lonely boy.
“I’m a diverse person. I would probably be diagnosed with adult ADD,” he said. “I get bored with one idea, and then I move on to the next one. And you know, probably when I was a kid in school, they probably said ‘has trouble focusing.’ So, I think that’s why I genre hop.”
“Traveling,” released last month on his independent 98 Pounder Records, demonstrates his assorted songwriting sensibilities. “Stay Away a Little Closer,” his favorite track, is a perky pop confection about adultery. A bopping beat contrasts with the depressing tale of a scarred Iraq War veteran on “Street Fighter’s Face.” And the unexpected, atmospheric opening track, “I Think She Likes Me,” has only bolstered Poltz’s reputation as a quirky guy, a description he doesn’t mind.
“I don’t like the word ‘wacky.’ I can’t stand that word. The way some people hate clowns, I hate the word ‘wacky.’ But I like the word ‘quirky,’” he said.
“I just got described as fidgety. … Somebody, they called me the fidgety pop singer-songwriter. Quirky, fidgety, I like that. Wacky, I don’t like. I don’t know why.”
The Canada-born and California-bred musician also created a companion compact disc for “Traveling” called “Unraveling,” which is aimed at his hard-core fans and sold only at his shows.
But Poltz is best known for a song he didn’t record. In the 1990s, he struck up a friendship with a struggling singer-songwriter named Jewel. They wrote the song “You Were Meant for Me,” which was a hit on her debut album “Pieces of You.” It set a record for the longest stay on the Billboard Top 100 chart.
“When the song is born, if you will … they become my kids. And maybe you have one like ‘You Were Meant for Me’ that goes out and get its Ph.D. and earns a lot of money for you, but you also have another one that’s really silly like “Sugar Boogers,” which is this crazy, weird song that’s on my CD “Answering Machine,” and that might be just as fun to play, too, and it never earns you any money. But it’s this crazy child that you had that you’re just as proud of as the other one that was the overachiever,” he said.
Poltz, who will lead a songwriting workshop at WinterTales, said part of the secret is “being available to the muse that’s out there.”
“My advice is that there are no rules and let your freak flag fly. And songwriting is like a muscle — you have to work at it all the time. And the more you work at, then that one song that you might not like will lead to the next song that you’re going to end up loving. … You just need to work at it and don’t let somebody tell you there’s any rules.”
IN CONCERT
Steve Poltz
When: 7:30 p.m. today, 8 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday at WinterTales Storytelling Festival at Stage Center, 400 W Sheridan. Tickets to evening performances are $12; matinee tickets are $3. Information: 270-4848 or www.artscouncilokc.com.
When: 8 p.m. Sunday at the Blue Door, 2805 N McKinley. Tickets are $20. Information: 524-0738 or www.bluedoorokc.com.
-BAM
