Hal Willner's Freedom Rides Project at Celebrate Brooklyn

Last night I went to an interesting concert in Prospect Park, one I had been looking forward to for a while. Hal Willner's Freedom Rides Project brought together some musicians I was very excited to see: Toshi Reagon, Lou Reed, Roseanne Cash... The event was to commemorate and celebrate the Freedom Riders 50 year anniversary.

I'm afraid I was a bit disappointed in the event. It seemed not to have cohesion, and, more importantly, it seemed to lack in spirit.

The audience was all white, which I was not expecting. The large band that backed the performers seemed at times to be competing with them, and the contemporary arrangements at times seemed a bit discordant, cacophonous, and uncomfortable. For instance, a marvelous and powerful singer, Catherine Russell, had to belt out her song on top of them, and it took away from my ability to hear and appreciate her amazing voice.

Things seemed to pick up more when Tao Seeger came on; I think he was the first performer to directly address the Freedom Riders and the civil rights movement. He was a great, energetic, charismatic perform aer, and he got the audience singing with him. However, it felt a bit awkward or off, being in an all white audience singing about the freedom of riding on the front of the bus.

Toshi Reagon was awesome. She came on next and also talked about rights movements, comparing the civil rights movement to the need for women's rights right now. Her two numbers were wonderful.

I really wanted to hear more of Roseanne Cash, Tao Seeger, Catherine Russell, and Toshi Reagon. They all stood out for me (much more so than then straining Eric Mingus) (even more so than Lou Reed -- it was cool to see him live, but he seemed a bit to be phoning it in).

All in all, a good but uneven show.