The Willy Street Fair, held the last weekend in September, marks the last breaths of summer in Madison. Surprisingly, the weekend is usually blessed with good weather and today was no exception, crisp and cool with a bright sun in a clear sky. I had just gotten back in town and didn’t really feel like going, but I couldn’t miss the chance to see John Prine’s guitarist Jason Wilbur on the Folk Stage. It was a strange feeling to see someone close up on a little stage that I had just seen a few days earlier from far away on the DECC’s huge stage. Once people heard that he was John Prine’s guitarist I think they expected he was going to play Prine’s songs, but he has a whole set of his own music and has released several CDs. It was mostly standard singer-songwriter type fare, little of which stuck with me, but he’s a great guitar player (unsurprisingly) and his set was quite pleasant.
Next up on the Folk Stage was Paul Cebar who is best known as the leader of the Milwaukeeans, an ever changing but always entertaining group that never fails to bring the party. I’ve seen Cebar solo on several occasions and find that I actually prefer him this way. He released One Little Light On earlier this year, an acoustic solo record which I look forward to hearing. In addition to the Peter Mulvey co-write “What’s Keeping Erica,” the CD includes his version of the Magnetic Fields “Book of Love.” For some reason this seems to be the song from Stephen Merritt’s magnum opus 69 Love Songs that everyone wants to cover. In my mind it is maybe only the fifteenth best song on the collection, but I’ve heard it covered by people from M Doughty to Kyle Fischer from Rainer Maria. Cebar did a good job with it, but I’m still a sucker for Doughty’s. Despite the fact that he was solo he was more than willing to play band songs. The last half of his set was mostly requests from the audience and they tended toward the peppier numbers like “Didn’t Leave Me No Ladder” and “I Can’t Dance for You.” He pulled off each of them effortlessly, even though he responded to at least one with a surprised, “Solo? Really? OK, I’ll give it a shot.”
And with that Madison moves into fall.
Jason Wilber
Paul Cebar
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