Champion fiddle player Kate Lissauer is well known to many on the Take Art circuit from her very popular old-time country music group Buffalo Gals. We are delighted to welcome Kate back to our scheme with a fantastic new production, Sonic Silents, starting a three-date Take Art tour this Saturday. This fantastic production features three short early films by Frank Borzage, one of the most distinctive and undiscovered film directors to have emerged from Hollywood with a new, live score by Kate.
Beginning his career as a successful and sought-after actor, Borzage began directing short films in 1915. Unlike many of his peers, he chose to reject the sensational, overstated obsession with action and spectacle, which was a common ingredient of the cinema of the time, and focussed instead on emotional and sensual elements of the stories he filmed.
Kate’s programme contains three short Westerns (The Pitch O’Chance, 1916, 25 Mins; The Pilgrim, 1916, 28 mins; Nugget Jim’s Pardner, 1916, 25 mins). Unusually for the Western genre, Borzage’s films contain no chases, robberies or dramatic rescues; he presents, in contrast, portraits of three very specific individuals and the changes they undergo from seemingly random and unremarkable encounters. The films offer an absorbing and poignant glimpse of a bygone time. Novice that he was, Borzage’s bold rejection of the ‘rules’ of film-making gives a modern audience a wonderful, refreshing look at a long established film tradition.
Providing musical accompaniment are a great trio; Kate on the fiddle is joined by master of the five-string banjo, John Whelan, and Jason Titley, arguably the UK’s finest Bluegrass guitarist. Together they provide a live performance of Kate’s score for the films, combining original composition and arrangements of traditional material.
Kate Lissauer began her career as a champion fiddler in her home state of Maryland and is also an expert claw-hammer and old-time three finger banjo picker, a guitarist and an excellent singer. She presently performs both as a solo artist and with her bands, Buffalo Gals and Buffalo Gals Stampede.
John Whelan has been playing country and mountain music on the five-string banjo for many years. John has learned from and been inspired by some of America's finest pickers, and has developed a creative and versatile style, including his own brand of two and three-finger picking. John also plays banjo and sings backup vocals with Buffalo Gals and Buffalo Gals Stampede.
Jason Titley was a long-time member of The Daily Planet, which toured extensively throughout Europe and in the US and left three landmark albums in its wake. Jason also appears on Kate’s solo album Stately Mansion and regularly plays in Buffalo Gals. Jason’s flair for improvisation and deep understanding of rhythm - he is also a percussionist - always makes his playing engaging and exciting.