Folk Brothers

When we lived in New York City in the mid-'80s, Karen and I used to attend the annual Fast Folk show at the Bottom Line.

Fast Folk was a collective of New York singer-songwriters who published a monthly magazine containing an album of songs written and performed by its members.

Among the artists we got to see at these concerts were Suzanne Vega, before she had her big hit "Luca," and Dave Van Ronk. The emcees were Jack Hardy and the always-hilarious Christine Lavin, and the lineup included David Massengill, Lucy Kaplansky, Rod MacDonald and many others.

Jack Hardy and David Massengill now perform as a duo, billing themselves as the Folk Brothers, and they will be performing Friday night at Christ Congregation Church in Princeton.

Jack is an especially clever songwriter. I recall him telling the story of a meeting of the collective at which each member was assigned to write a song about an elevator for the following week's meeting. Jack returned the following week and performed his song. His colleagues listened and told him it was a good song, but it never mentioned the word "elevator." He replied, "It's an acrostic...the first letters of each line spell the word 'elevator.'"

He added with a wink, "I think I won." He proceded to play the song, and you never saw an audience listen more raptly to a song's lyrics to catch the lines spelling out "E-L-E-V-A-T-O-R!" There were even a few subtle allusions, such as "Endless numbers lit up as she passed/Lifting her spirits like a jet." And each verse ended with the line "Refusing to mention it by name."

David, who has an especially pleasant voice, may be Jack's musical brother, but the story of Jack's real brother is a sad one. At the Fast Folk shows, Jeff Hardy accompanied his brother on bass, and at the end of the concerts, Jack would introduce him as "my bassist, brother and bodyguard." Sadly, Jeff was killed on 9/11 while working at Windows on the World on the top of the World Trade Center.

Jack and David should provide an enjoyable evening. The concert, sponsored by the Princeton Folk Music Society, begins at 8:15 p.m., with doors opening at 7:30. Admission is $15 for society members, $20 for nonmembers and $5 for children under 12. The church is located at 50 Walnut Lane, Princeton.