Small Potatoes (wrap-up)

By Greg Pool
Host, TreeHouseConcerts.org

Here's a wrap-up of the visit by Small Potatoes to the Tree House (pictures and after-show interview):

* Rich Prezioso and Jacquie Manning were amongst the six New Folk competition winners at the Kerrville Folk Festival in 1998. One of the two songs they played was "Waltz of the Wallflowers."

* Officially, Jacquie won the competition, having written the songs, but Rich had one that never made the final round (but should have!) called "1000 Candles, 1000 Cranes."

* I was attending Kerrville that year, but there was little to do during the week that didn't involve hot sun and dust. So I got to watch every performer in the New Folk competition, and that meant seeing Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer perform (and win!). I also liked finalists Joel Cage, who would win in 2001, and Dan Gediman, who's was also recording a segment about the festival for NPR.

* It's a small world in the house concert biz. Last year I made a positive reply to a post about Small Potatoes on the Yahoo discussion group dedicated to house concerts. Someone on the list forwarded it to Rich, and he wrote me back personally. That's how it works sometimes!

* Jacquie played some unusually looking Irish whistles that sounded great. They looked like they might be made out of wood, but upon further inspection it turns out they are made of PVC pipe. Wow! Jacquie says there used to be a fellow who made them all the time who has since passed away, so she treats them as collector's items these days.

* Our 19-month-old daughter made it through most of the first set and only fell asleep upon hearing Jacquie sing Juliet's favorite song, "Give Yourself To Love" by Kate Wolf. Juliet remembers when she was young and walking in on her mom in the kitchen one day talking to Kate Wolf.