Guggenheim Grotto, Cooke show off vocal talents
Friday, June 12, 2009
By Michael Hochanadel
ALBANY — The three Irish tenors who
sang on Thursday at WAMC weren’t THOSE guys, the tuxedoed classical
guys. They were the duo Guggenheim Grotto and the solo troubadour Tiger
Cooke. But, wow, could they sing — and they could also write. Both acts
danced across the divide between folk and pop, the Guggenheim Grotto
guys sounding like Simon & Garfunkel, more or less, or the Amazing
Blondel from the heyday of maximum hybridization in Britain around
S&G’s peak; and Cooke showing off equal hootenanny-to-jukebox
versatility.
Opener “Tiger” Cooke said he was born Tadhg, and explained he’s
undergoing a name change, but his musical identity was clearer: a
mashup of Joni Mitchell obliqueness and odd tunings, Kenny
Rankin/Michael Franks breathy jazz; and jaunty John Mayer pop. He sang
superbly crafted songs of hook-ups, break-ups and make-ups — all
sweetly but with real strength, too. A Dubliner like the Guggenheim
Grotto guys, he sang without accent in an international style likely to
work well wherever well-wrought tunes would be welcomed.
In “Know You Hate Me,” he claimed, “I’m not lost without you,” but
he was. He introduced “Like a Stone” as heavily influenced by Joni
Mitchell, but this applied, in a good way, to much of what he sang on
Thursday. In his last song, “Rid of Her,” he pleaded, “I want a weapon
that will cleanse my soul,” and in songs of loss he was exactly that —
a broken blade, but still sharp.