Dübendorf: Mat Callahan and Yvonne Moore with "Welcome" AvU 26.5.2007

AN EXUBERANT PERFORMANCE

Virginia Nolan

Singing stories, drinking a glass of wine, celebrating friendships:
A concert of Mat Callahan and Yvonne Moore in Dübendorf equals an invitation to their home.

Their name stands for strong rhythms, powerful voices and an exuberant performance. Their music is a potpurri of black and white: it lives on Soul, is stamped with Blues, Folk and R&B also leave their mark. One guitar, two voices and a harmonica create a rarely heard wealth of facets.
After eight years of collaborating on their respective solo projects, Mat Callahan and Yvonne Moore put their trust in the creative potential of the duet. "Welcome" is a successful concurrence of two musical careers that have their roots in different styles. What Callahan and Moore create in their live in-kitchen, they simply call "New Folk".

Where all the currents join together
San Francisco is always present: this melting pot, where most diverse currents meet. This city, which was home to all kinds of absurdities and ingenuities.

Having grown up in a dance school, music was part of Callahan's life from the very beginning.

Thinking back, he hears the jazz dance classes of his mother, the sounds of black Blues in the streets, Irish Folk music at home reminiscent of his forefathers.

He also remembers the San Francisco sound, the music of the flower power era, of the hippies, who envisioned a better world.

Mat Callahan's songs are mostly stories that are prompted and illustrated by his hometown. Oftentimes, ordinary scenes and unspectacular encounters inspired his songs.

18 years of driving a cab gave him plenty of inspiration: customers who stuck to his mind, impressions that passed by the car's windows.
Callahan's compositions live from the observer's eye - and the zeitgeist of the Sixties. Equality, liberty and peace are the anchors of his philosophy.
"Johnny Refused" is a memorial to the soldiers of the Vietnam war (Callahan was a conscientious objector to that war). "The Hunted" offers encouragement to refugees not to give up.

Callahan and Moore sing about Geronimo and John Brown, fighters against injustice, symbols of resistance, when hope faded away long ago.
Rebellion plays an important role in the couple's art. "We have our own small resistance movement", Callahan laughs. His partner also prefers detours instead of going straight ahead. When Yvonne Moore was invited as Janis Joplin impersonator to the Rudi Carrell Show sometime during the Nineties, she packed her backpack, went, sang and afterwards took the next plane to Nepal. She never saw the TV-broadcast. To get different impressions, to "look behind the horizon", that's what matters to her.

Living-room atmosphere
One should feel at home at a Mat Callahan and Yvonne Moore concert. "Just like guests visiting us at our home." Callahan and Moore create a cozy living-room atmosphere with their approachable way, their humor, and their pronounced sociability. The couple enjoys achieving great things within a small framework.

Moore has an incredibly broad range. A voice that shines from tender sounds to smoky Soul. Callahan and Moore keep their voices close together, they diverge in different pitches and find the way back to their common sound. He plucks the strings, she closes her eyes and her entire life-blood seems to flow into the microphone.

A virtual explosion happens when Callahan joins with his bass voice. It's an exuberant performance, which doesn't seem to have an underlying law. It's a performance, though, that couldn't be more harmonious.
"Welcome" is a passionate creation with profound songs inciting reflection, but never losing fervor!