The Voice & The Verse joyously hit Budapest again last night and gave me a good wallop of cheer when I needed it. The quartet of 2 Irish Poets and 2 singer-songwriters from the US and Ireland have played Treehugger Dan's several times over the last 3 years, and frankly, I cannot get enough of them. David Rynhart , Niall Connolly, and Neal McCarthy <!-- pagebreak -->were not joined by fourth member Stephen Murray this time because he got a real job back in Ireland teaching poetry to kids. Although I missed his poem, "The Beast," the remaining three lost nothing in the show they gave us. David had us stomping to some blues, Niall had us crying with his beautiful songs, and Neal had us laughing from the get-go with his poetry. I mean, I do not even like poetry and Neal just gives me goose-bumps he is so god-damned good. His first poem (I think a new one" was terrific, and when he performed his classic "Gorgeous" I was looking for a pause button I was laughing so hard. Niall was also nice enough to play his “70,000 Words” on request for me, even though it was a launch gig for his new cd  “Be There If I Have To Swim” Luckily, these guys show up when I most need it, and really saved an otherwise shitty week.
     Almost 25 years ago (ouch!) as a freshman at Bates College I was having a similarly shitty week. I had heard there was a Scottish folk singer in town, but was very down walking home in the snow after water polo practice. Even so, having never heard Scottish folk, my feet surprisingly carried me to the concert. Banjo player Ian MacIntosh, known as one of the grandfathers of Scottish folk purged me with laughter and tears all night long, with songs such as “I’m My Own Grandpa” (yep, it actually works out),” Dead Dog Scrumpy,” Peggy Seeger’s “Arms are For Hugging,”and many more. I came out of there rejoiced, and he is probably the major reason (along with the movie Local Hero that I went to study in Scotland the following year. I told this story to my father, and when Ian MacIntosh came to play in upstate New York, he went to check him out. After the show, my father told him my story, and MacIntosh gave him a big hug and said.” I am going to write a song  about him.” I have no idea if he ever did…but the point of this ramble is that I have the same uplifting feeling every time The Voice & The Verse come to town. Lucky for me, and you, they will be hitting town again in May/June 2009.