CRANKY SHOW
One of the reasons I have moved to Marshall is because there are so many community events. There are plenty of events in Asheville, concerts and art openings, but they are not community events or at least don’t feel that way. Asheville is too big. But when something happens in Marshall with its 800 inhabitants but more scattered in the mountains around, it is a community event. Most people know the performers and those in the audience often know each other.
Sunday, at Nanostead, in Marshall in a storeroom with the shelves hidden by Primrose’s tea tent and lit with a few scattered lights there was a performance that was magical. Primrose, who is artist from England did two of her cranky shows with accompanying music. She and a guitarist even sang together in one cranky show. A cranky show is a narrated story accompanied by a very long strip of paper on which Primrose makes drawings which she scrolls behind a small stage window by cranking the rolls from one side to the other while she tells a story that goes with the drawings or sings. They are short pieces.
But this evening there were a number other artists: musicians, all very talented, who played guitars or other instruments and sang. A woman read her poetry.
My daughter Susie even got up and recited a story she had made up about a strange woman on the French Broad river who was suddenly able to unfurl a red umbrella and fly. She called it a sermon and preached it in a half southern, half northern accent.
After two hours I went home pleased with my welcoming performance to Marshall.
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 