Sara Hickman (wrap-up)

By Greg Pool
Host, TreeHouseConcerts.org

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

* Sara Hickman was a main stage performer when I attended the 1998 Kerrville Folk Festival, and she was absolutely engaging. She had a full band, and as I mentioned in the after-show interview, threw out crowns during "I Wear The Crown," much to the delight of the crowd.

* I was very surprised to see that she would play our house. It was only because I saw a gap in her schedule: She was playing KPIG on Sunday morning (Please Stand By) but Don Quixote's Monday night. Felton is far enough away from us on the Monterey Peninsula, so we were lucky ducks!

* The scheduled guest for June was to have been David Ross MacDonald, but he couldn't make it due to a family emergency. David's fine, and it's the second year that we've tried and failed to have him come by. He's that special (even when he's not drumming with The Waifs!), and I can't wait for all of you to hear his fingerstyle guitar.

* Prior to the show, we had three mothers (counting Sara) eating dinner with two toddlers, so the child-raising stories we're flying back and forth. It was nearly a Mommy & Me class!

* We had some of the best weather all week, and the sun was shinning through brightly through the windows during the first set. But it was still cold for a Texan, and Sara needed to sit by the fire and wear the fuzziest socks Juliet could find.

* Last time I saw Sara was in 2002, at the old Palms in Davis. I was the "single guy" that night, much like Steve Zmak was, and Sara wrote on my copy of her Spiritual Appliances CD: "You're on my to do list!"

* The highlight of the night was hearing "Simply," just because it's such a beautiful song. There's a live version of that one on The Best of Mountain Stage Live, Volume 2.

* But the other surprise tonight was Sara's version of the Stones' "Mother's Little Helper" off her current album, Motherload. You almost couldn't recognize the original from Sara's, and now I can't get that rhythm out of my head. That's the mark of a good cover.

* I got to sit in the studio at KPIG that Sunday morning and watch Sara's three song set, and she showed her range very well. The first song (Everything's Red) was upbeat, almost rockin'. The last song (Too Fast) was a fun little farce, with a bit about her love working at a popsicle plant. But the middle song was a stunning song (The One), very slow and deliberate, sung from the perspective of the one victim of the Virginia Tech shootings the media left behind...the mother of the shooter. Sara was tearing up towards the end, it was so powerful.

* Sara's been shocking audiences for 20+ years with her wit, songwriting and amazing internal beat, and you'll find a lot of it on a DVD of her performances. Made up of videos, performances, guest appearances on TV, the gem is seeing Sara in 1990 on the Tonight Show. Not with Jay Leno, but with Johnny Carson. There's also a touching home video of Sara meeting with her childhood hero, George Burns.

* The DVD was co-produced by Gene Cowan of Cowan Creative out of San Jose. He also does Sara's website and was her driver and host on the Northern California tour.

* The reason why the quality of the interview with Sara was less than normal was because a few days prior I lost the hard drive on my Mac. I replaced it the next week, but it meant I had to go with Plan B for recording. That would be using equipment which is now unavailable, including an iRiver 799 and a Griffin LapelMic. The iRiver records directly to MP3 and the mic is stereo but suffers from distortion if the voices get too loud. But that set-up is great for field recording; the iRiver takes one AA battery and that's all the equipment you need.