Music on 4 House Concerts: Terence Martin

Last Thursday, I attended my first ever Music on 4 House Concert. Richard Cuccaro of Acoustic Live had hipped me to this series, introducing me to Ihor, who runs the house concerts along with Marisha, at their home on the Upper West Side, at a Terence Martin show at the Living Room (described here).

The setting is just wonderful. The "on 4" part of the title refers to the fact that Ihor and Marisha own an apartment occupying the entire fourth-floor of a classic New York City pre-war apartment building. The place is absolutely beautiful -- both the public living room in which the music is performed, where a very chill, bohemian vibe dominates, and in the private spaces of the kitchen and living area. As part of the $15 to get in the door -- all of which goes to the performers -- the hosts provide a selection of imported lagers and wines to drink and an assortment of delicious cheeses, and there was more than enough of each to go around several times.

The crowd was sizeable -- about 25 or 30 people -- and filled the room but did not make it crowded. The atmosphere was warm and comfortable. The featured performer was Terence Martin, who was accompanied on dobro and mandolin by trusty sideman Dan Bonis. They played a somewhat abbreviated set of Terence's usual material, bringing up a friend of Dan's to play fiddle on the last two numbers. Terence's voice gave him a little bit of trouble on one song, but he worked through the frog and was no worse for wear.

The set list was as follows:

• "Weatherman"


• "East of the River"


• "Even Trade" - the title track from Terence's most recent CD, which was just reviewd in Acoustic Guitar magazine


• "California"


• "23rd Street"


• "Folding Chairs" - one of my favorite songs, Terence it dedicated to me, Rich Cuccaro and his wife Vicky; Terence said, 'They've seen us so many times! ... And I don't know why they keep coming."


• "Santa Rosa" - a song about a town in New Mexico, inspired in part by Dave Van Ronk; when Terence went into the Army, the only music that he took with him was two Dave Van Ronk CDs; Dan played some nice bluesy dobro on this one


• "The Way It Didn't Go" - one of Terence's best songs, in which he imagines the life that he might have lived with a woman whose eye he caught on the street one time: 'I can't forget the love we didn't make'


• "Between the Thunder and the Light"


• "Where It All Begins"


• "Augustine Creek"