The Mac Weekly

Issue date: 9/21/07 Section: The Arts

In our time of American Idol popstars and angry gangster rap, it's hard to remember that music used to have a purpose beyond entertainment and profit. Artists like folk singers Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and Woody Guthrie wrote songs with political and social messages capable of doing a whole lot more than selling records. But the spirit of folk music hasn't faded away just yet. Not if Shannon Murray and Dave Cuomo have anything to do about it.

The two solo artists brought their unique blends of folk-punk to Macalester last Thursday with an intimate performance in Kagin Commons. The show was a stop on their Respect Yr Mama tour, a six-week long, 1,200 mile bike tour of Minnesota. Biking forty to fifty miles a day with trailer in tow and sleeping at roadside campsites or on whichever couch they can find, Murray and Cuomo have a message to deliver, and they're going to have fun doing it. Even if fun means biking up endless hills, getting caught in the rain and waking up at 6 a.m.

Murray wanted to do a bike tour because traveling by car contradicts the political messages in her music. Ripe with a desire to get to know her home state, she decided to embark on bike tour of Minnesota, accompanied by Cuomo.

"It's like a John Steinbeck novel," said Cuomo, who met Murray at a folk-punk festival. "Being outside, camping. Things move at a slower pace. You can watch the road unwind in front of you."

Murray appreciates the awareness biking inspires. She says she realized how much energy it takes to move herself; to travel and cover distance. "You relate to your environment more when you're on a bike," she said, giggling. "We notice the grasshoppers. Did you know they have wings?"

It's that spunk and curiosity that made their Macalester performance nothing short of magical. With Cuomo standing short and proud at 5'1" and Murray looking impossibly cute in a pink slip worn over jeans, the two were all smiles. In a word, they were animated. The show was relaxed, with Murray and Cuomo switching places every three songs. There was no stage, no microphones or wires. The audience sat on the floors, some with their legs crossed, some curled up in a friends lap. If time and weather hadn't been a factor, the performance would have been perfect under a tree or on a riverbank.

During the performance, a barefoot Murray told quirky stories from the road and her hometown. She let the audience have complete access to her deepest thoughts and insecurities, apologizing for talking too much, for burping, for being sweaty from all that biking. "I said too much," she'd say every now and then, laughing.

Continued...

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