Ever since becoming captivated by their heavenly harmonies, I had been itching to see the Wailin’ Jennys in concert, waiting until they were close enough for me to drive to them. On 4/7/09 they came to the Birchmere, and I jumped. It was a wonderful concert. I had been up until 3 AM the morning of the concert grading papers, and had class that morning as well, followed by the three and a half hour drive to Alexandria, but my sleep deprivation was completely forgotten once the Jennys began singing. This was their set list:
- Arlington
- Beautiful Dawn
- Intro: Manitoba, Man-it’-o-ba (This wasn’t a song, but a spoken intro of the Jennys’ impressions of the US while traveling it doing concerts. Very funny.)
- Old Man
- Bring me little water Silvie (which showcased the amazing range of Heather Masse, hitting bass notes as well as any tenor)
- Drivin’
- Deeper Well (an Emmylou Harris cover, and not a Jennys standard at the time)
- Glory Bound
- Motherless Child
- One More Dollar
- “Paint a Picture”? (not sure of the title on this one; it was a new one from Heather Masse)
- Happy Birthday to You (in five-part harmony!)
- Heaven When We’re Home
- Payin’? Rayin? Pagin? Ragin? (very much not sure of the title of this one)
- Weary Blues
- Racing with the Sun
- Avila
- One Voice
- The Parting Glass
The last two were the encore, and the best of the concert. The last was heartrendingly beautiful; the Jennys stepped to the very front of the stage, and the lights went down. The hall became so quiet I could hear Heather softly hum their starting pitch, then they began: a nearly perfect, achingly beautiful rendition of an old Irish tune.
And then, alas, it was over. The only thing that could have made it better was the inclusion of some of Annabelle Chvostik’s material (Apocolypse Lullaby, Devil’s Paintbrush Road), but considering that those were songs she had written before she joined, she probably wanted to retain exclusive rights to them after having left.
The only outright blemish of the evening? The audience, one of whose drunken members couldn’t resist shouting “Nice makeup!” to the Jennys. Nice rudeness, jerk. Feel free to be nicely absent the next time they perform there.