Ron "Ran" Waite Wing In Concert: Ferron

In Concert: Ferron by Ran I went to see Ferron at the Tin Angel in Philadelphia on February 12, 2005. There certainly is no question that this OUT Canadian is an icon in womyn's music. She has survived over 30 years in the music industry and recorded twelve albums. She continues to bring her unique brand of folk music to her devoted followers. I was looking forward to seeing her in concert. She walked onto the stage, an unassuming womyn, someone who you would easily pass on the street. She gave Tin Angel's management a slap on the hand when she said to us "I'm impressed that you're here. I never saw an ad for this

show, sorta like the myth of Ferron!" What followed was a no frills, acoustic show—a mixture of new (from her upcoming CD) and classic Ferron songs, mixed with Ferron anecdotes. She performed for 90 minutes before a small, but appreciative crowd.

Ferron's songs don't readily reflect their titles, since words are rarely repeated. Unfortunately, because I have not followed her career for a long time, and only own two of her CD's, I missed the names of the specific songs that she sang. She did perform a total of 15 songs during the evening. She reflected that "the thing I like the most in my years of singing is that I sing songs that I wrote when I was 18. It's like I knew something back then." She had a unique style of performing. It was a combination of whispering, talking and singing. The songs were slow and methodical, the meaning of the words were superceded by both the melody and the delivery. This show could easily have been performed in a dark room, lit only by candles, with everyone sitting on futons and musing about feminist theory. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed her voice and the melodies, but I felt out of place. It was as if someone was telling inside jokes and I just didn't get any of them.

She said, tongue-in-cheek, "you're here on a Saturday night when you could be next door at the martini bar. I never promised a big show. Oh, I know, you'll need a martini after my show!" Several of her comments, like that one, were self defacing. She made several references to her age (53) including when she told us "I'm getting ready to do Blue Plate Special performances. Perform at 4:30 and be home by 7 with my jammies on and ready to watch Jeopardy." A few other times it sounded as if she was just rambling on about nothing in particular. Oh dear! For her encore she sang "Testimony," a song requested by the audience. I can't imagine that this show would inspire anyone to become a new Ferron fan, it certainly didn't inspire me! For me, it was a very mediocre performance. My recommendation would be to pick up one of her CD's–she sounds great with a band and singers backing her up. On CD she is one hell of a writer, producer and performer. Her upcoming CD is entitled "Turning Into Beautiful" and it will be available soon (we got a preview of it at the end of the show—and it sounded great). You can find Ferron on the web at www.ferrononline.com. 

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