Janis Ian

[Janice]

I am so excited...I just had to tell someone and who better than my music loving fellow Lightheads.

We just booked Janis Ian to play for our concert series!!!! I've not followed her career over the years, but love many of her songs. "At Seventeen" was my theme song in '75 (and I wasn't even 17 yet) and I love her songs "Jesse" and "Light A Light" among others.

This is such a cool booking!

[RM]

Janice,

Congratulations ! "At Seventeen" was an easy song to relate to. A while back I asked you to inform us about the Steve Forbert experience, which you did.
Please do the same with Janis Ian.

Looking forward to it,

RMD

[Jesse Joe]

Im happy for you Janice. Do have a great time...Jesse. :)

[charlene]

tha's so exciting Janice - I know you're a fan from years ago! I think I had a couple of albums from back then and sort of followed her career thru articles etc. when she would be in town up here.
you're going to have a great time...

[Cathy]

Oh, how I wish I lived closer. I love her music!
Congratulations, Janice. Enjoy the show for me.

[brink-]

Fabulous Janice! Better bake lots of cookies for this one, I am sure it will be packed!
You are right to be excited it "is such a cool booking". When is she coming?

[Sundown17]

Cool news, Janice. Wish I lived closer too. Congratulations. Make sure you come back and tell us all about it!

Diane

[talbot10]

Originally posted by Janice:
I am so excited...I just had to tell someone and who better than my music loving fellow Lightheads.

We just booked Janis Ian to play for our concert series!!!! I've not followed her career over the years, but love many of her songs. "At Seventeen" was my theme song in '75 (and I wasn't even 17 yet) and I love her songs "Jesse" and "Light A Light" among others.

This is such a cool booking! Congradulations Janice!
Wait till you hear and see her guitar work! That is a very underated part of her performance. She is a great player.
Bill

[TC]

Took my daughter to see Janis Ian about 8 to 10 years ago. She was doing a free concert at a Whole foods market in San Diego. Why at a Market I have no idea. She was promoting a new album at the time. I got the impression that she was trying to get her career going again and maybe that's all she could get...Not sure.

I used to listen to her a lot in the 70s. The Whole Foods market concert she gave was great! She seems to be a very warm and gracious person.

After the concert or show, she had her new CD for sale and was signing copies of them. I got mine signed (of course). One thing that struck me was how short she is. She had these big heeled shoes on, kind of like what John Travolta was wearing in "Saturday Night Fever" and she was still short! Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti-short. I myself am only 5'5" so for me to notice...well, you get the point.

[Jenney]

Congratulations Janice, this is great news! Let us all know how it is, wish I could be there too.

Jenney

[Borderstone]

Wow,Janice! :) What a coup on your part! I just saw her on PBS in early 2005(or late '04) and she still sounded great.

Proud to say,I have a copy of "Between The Lines" that is in excellent condition. (No bends or white circles on the front cover.) I also have her other top 40 hit "Society's Child". ;)

[Janice]

Thanks for sharing my excitement, everyone. I expect it will be a very good show - and I will certainly share the details.

Richie Havens was tonight and we had two sold out shows. What a nice, gracious and humble man and still has that wonderful voice. He had a guitarist and a cellist with him that were superb. The guitarist had such a light delicate touch that so enhanced the songs. Great shows!!

[brink-]

Richie Havens is great too! ah, that brings back woodstock memories.

[Sundown17]

Took the words right out of my mouth Brink!

I want your job Janice. :)

[Janice]

As promised, I'm back with my Janis Ian report. The concert was last night to a sold out audience. She was magnificent! I expected the wonderful songs. Thanks to Bill Hall, I also expected her phenomenal guitar playing (wow!) and I expected her tiny-ness - I could have rested my chin on her head if I stooped a bit....she is really little. What I didn't expect, but completely enjoyed was her humor! She told the funniest stories between songs - kept us all in stitches. At one point, she even tickled herself with an off-the-cuff comment and couldn't stop laughing. She also told very touching stories, most notably one about her mother. She is a wonderful entertainer, as well as a gracious and personable individual. If she is playing in a city near you, I suggest that you run, don't walk, to your nearest ticket outlet. You won't be sorry :)

[RM]

Janice,

I'm glad to hear she exceeded your expectations. It's always a bonus to attend a concert and find oneself not only listening, but also laughing. Top it off with her being a decent individual, and you've had yourself one heckuva treat.

[charlene]

she always seemed to be someone I would like to know....very quiet sort of person....glad you had a great time Janice.Thanks for the report....
char

[johnfowles]

I brought a pile of PAL VHS video tapest here in 2000 (I have a brilliant digital PAL to NTSC Converter and 3 PAL VCR's ( why 3? you may well ask! Well one is an old Betamax, two are VHS one with stereo the other can play NTSC tapes though my PAL 10 inch Television., which is very useful because I know that I can sling any VHS tape I find around the house into it and I know that that VCR will play it)
My set up also means that if I take the trouble to connect everything all together I can still watch my old tapes and if required convert them,(I have bought a few more PAL VHS movies on ebay UK of late).
Anyway somewhere amongst that pile is a tape onto which I saved many music videos, and one is an exceedingly sweet recording made from a repeat of a 1976 "Old Grey Whistle Test" of Janis's "At Seventeen”
Whilst a certain method was available to acquire music videos I managed to find an mpg file of it but somehow I mislaid it.
I was therefore most pleased to find it again albeit in the flash video (*.flv) format at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3w3DJcT3rcA
I have now converted it to mpg format (so that I can play it using my preferred Windows Media Player
And here is a screenshot from my computer monitor
http://www.johnfowles.org.uk/images/At_seventeen_1976.jpg
Enjoy
John
Janis's quiet and personal introduction is very moving.
For a while,I think after I had installed some format conversion software,I was able to watch the original highly compressed flv files in WMP,indicating that one of the programs had supplied a suitable codec, then it stopped and I now need that codec to preview tbe original flv files before converting them to either the Video CD (VCD) MPEG-1 format or the DVD standard MPEG-2, but after many googles I am not finding one.
Once I get this sorted out I can complete my planned tutorial as started at:-
http://www.corfid.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=2;t=001221
I have found a literally super video conversion freeware program

[johnfowles]

Err Umm.
I selected that particular youtube video because it should have been the same as my old video tape and it was the longest.But having now played the converted mpg file though after re downloading the original flv version I am miffed to discover that it is obviously incomplete. So I am now downloading an earlier and somewhat shorter 1975 recording from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76W-Wkg49tg
There are a few more recordings of this and other Janis songs at:-
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=janis+ian&search=Search