There’s also a surprisingly impressive, if not transfixing, quality to those eccentric gesticulative dances of his. If FJM weren’t such a strong singer of equally well-written songs, I think his expressions would stop at being laughable, leaving his self-seriousness silly. But with his talent behind them, FJM’s strange expressions add a sense of the advantage a singer-songwriter can gain with an effective stage presence—that forgotten, yet intriguing skill which is more than a singer’s knack for joking between numbers and a tool limited to the repertoire of pop-performers. The right stage presence is—as FJM reminds us—quite valuable during the actual performance. FJM proves that with such an on-stage acumen comes the artist’s ability to align himself with all of it: the music he makes, words he sings out of his rhythms, and those euphoric, damning emotions he feels the whole time. He demonstrates his song’s cathartic control, while many of his contemporaries’ similar attempts lean too heavily on perhaps the wrong substance and an eagerness to over-hold their notes and shut eyes. Rarely does either dramatic define their singer-songwriter’s point live, or at least not as completely as Father John Mistry does here, inviting the listener-viewer into his song’s realm: the specific and poignant relationship between lyric and music and emotion that is as its maker imagined.
FL
"People who like weird people are more likely to like my films, I guess, than people who call people weirdos."
Wes Anderson
I knew there was a reason I used his thoughts in my senior papers.
G.K. Chesterton
New York City celebrates the work of Robert Delpire, the revered curator, editor, publisher, and overall champion of photography with exhibits at four venues around the city. Click-through to see a selection of books and photographs from among the displays: http://nyr.kr/KCOQfB
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