OK, this is the first full-length article on a wedding and reception I’ve written, this being the marriage of Marty Boratin, music fan, supporter and Buffalo’s Rock and Roll Chef, and Susan Tanner, all-around good person, record industry survivor and employee of Righteous Babe Records. For those who read the blog entry previewing this, here are the answers to the three main questions: Yes, Ani DiFranco was there for a bit (I did not see her, but Val encountered her); yes, the outdoor wedding and reception did come off fine despite the weather, and no, Johnny Dowd was not a depressing choice for part of the musical entertainment.
The wedding and reception, while outside, were actually held inside a gigantic, and I mean gigantic, tent behind the house where the couple, attendants, 300 guests and the bands performing all fit, as well as a small gazebo at which the officiating minister, Ron Ehmke (check his blogs out through the link on our blog, as well as any other writing you can find by Ron, a friend but, more importantly, a great writer in music, arts, culture and Louisiana, his home state), conducted the ceremony. Ron, as well as being another supporter and writer of Western New York music, formerly worked with Tanner at Righteous Babe.
The procession, led by matron of honor and fellow music industry survivor Andrea Mulrain, attendant and Righteous Babe manager (and fine artist herself) Mary Begley and best man William “Maddog” Morlock, was accompanied by the fiddle playing of Doug Moody, who recently moved to the Saratoga Springs area but played and sang with the Steam Donkeys for years. Ehmke, in humorous and serious tones, called Boratin “one of the cultural heroes of Buffalo,” and very accurately noted that Tanner is “one of the most open-hearted persons I know.” Of course, knowing the couple didn’t prevent Ehmke from making the hilarious faux pas during the exchange of rings by turning to Marty and Susan and saying, “Susan and Mary … I mean Marty, Oh, dear.” Those of us in attendance howled, including Boratin, Tanner and Begley.
After the ceremonies, people went out of the main tent to the liquor/beverage tent, which was adjacent to the house, and stayed outside for a while, despite the temperatures that never reached 50, winds which seemed to get that high, occasional mist and lots of mud underfoot. The portable bathrooms were a bit of a walk, but amazingly clean, sturdy and even had pumpable flushing toilets and water running in the sinks. But as the wind increased, more people took a fast walk from the beverage tent back to the main tent, especially when the Steam Donkeys started playing. The starting of the band’s split set coincided with the opening of the main food line, which actually stretched back to within 5 feet or so of the stage. After three songs, including a rousing version of “Smoke That Cigarette,” Marty and Susan had their first dance as a married couple to “At Last,” sung by Maureen Russell Kross, wife of former Steam Donkey drummer Joe Kross; besides Kross’ strong vocals, the tune was highlighted by Moody’s fiddle and Jim Whitford’s pedal steel guitar.
Johnny Dowd, accompanied by Kim Sherwood-Caso on vocals and Brian Wilson on drums, then played a set paced with sometimes bluesy, sometimes stark, almost skronky, guitar rock, with the spareness a real asset; someone, Wilson, I think, was triggering bass lines. Songs played included “I Love You” and “Miracles Never Happen,” to which Dowd noted, “You could say today is one of those,” before playing some skewered blues guitar and urgent, almost testifying, vocals, then ending his set with a punchy “Wedding Day.” The Steam Donkeys resumed their set, with some solid country swing, and a lot of dancing started, especially with their twangy run through of “Hokey Pokey.” Singer/guitarist Buck Quigley pointed to one couple dancing who the band played the reception for as proof that weddings the Steam Donkeys played at “stuck,” then turned to drummer John Brady and said, “sorry, John,” for the now-divorced percussionist, and then turned to guitarist Charlie Quill and said, “sorry, Charlie” to the soon-to-be-divorced picker. With less than one degree of separation in effect, the crowd roared. The band, really hitting a swinging groove, ended its set with its “Train” medley.
The last band up was The Old Sweethearts, probably the best young band in Buffalo and one of the best roots-oriented bands of any age in town. Before the band played, due to my constant nagging, singer/guitarist Roger Bryan, one of the most modest musicians I’ve met, finally got me a copy of the band’s new CD, “Arms of the Town,” which I listened to four times in the next 48 hours (yes, it’s that good). The band played its version of battered country and country rock, atmospheric pop country, eerie country and country rock and related styles, taking songs from its two CDs, as well as several covers, some surprising. Out of virtually nowhere, the band tossed in an energetic cover of Bowie’s “Suffragette City” with a touch of weird electronics, and later slightly sloppy, kick-ass versions of “Any Way You Want It” and “Back in the USSR.”
Things finally came to a stop soon after the set ended, which coincided with the alcohol running out, and as Marty and Susan got us to form a convoy bringing the gifts in to the house, the school bus that picked up a good number of people from Buffalo, particularly our West Side neighborhood (Val and I, no longer drinkers, drove ourselves), loaded up and left. It was and is nice to see a couple as good together as Marty and Susan married, and they obviously had a blast at the wedding and reception, as did we. It was also nice that this wedding brought the tribe together for a bit, to borrow from Val’s blog entry, and we go to spend some, but not enough, time catching up with Casino el Camino, the former Jack Lord and SplatCat who was in town from Austin; he and Marty lived together for years at The Death Ranch in Buffalo.
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Susan and Marty- one of the many dances |
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"Let them eat cake" (and drink beer) |
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Steam Donkey's Charlie Quill and Doug Moody |
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Susan and (a "casualer") Marty cutting the cake |
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Johnny Dowd, unusually celebratory... |
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