Buffy Sainte-Marie at The Highline Ballroom

Friday 28 March was Buffy Day, with her long awaited gig at the Highline Ballroom on West 16th Street. Buffy played there last year but I wasn't able to attend. We got the subway down to West 14th and wandered over between 9th and 10th Avenue to find the Highline, a bit off the beaten track surrounded by warehouses and blocks of apartments, the predominant smell in the icy breeze from the river being fish.

When I went in to pick up my tickets at around 3.30pm, Buffy was doing her sound check, but had gone by the time I got my tickets from the box office and glanced into the main room. It was a strange sight, that fleeting glimpse inside, with what looked like formica tables and the overall impression of a Northern working men's social club. My heart sank. A venue in the middle of nowhere with a box office clerk asleep in her cubicle and a social club... o dear. But so many big names have played here since it opened, there must be more...

We walked down into the Village to kill some time and find a diner to eat in and warm up a bit. Needless to say, chips helped. We walked back up to the Ballroom and got there at about 5.30pm and a queue had started to form, perhaps 20 people already queuing outside the doors. That was more like it. There was a definite whiff of grey hair in the air and beards on the men, a mix of aging hippy and the more well-to-do reliving their youth.

The doors opened just after 6pm and we were allowed in, being escorted to tables set to sit six people each. The venue looked much better with atmospheric lighting and what I now realised were table covers removed, revealing nice shiny walnut tables underneath. I was delighted and alarmed to be right in front of the stage, sitting to the right as you look at the stage, nice and close but would that be bad for photos? I *had* to take some photos.

We ordered beers - I took it as a good sign that they sold Guinness - and the nerves started as the Ballroom filled up and the noise levels increased with people talking. A couple on our table had been to college with Buffy in 1959 and told us about the long parties they used to have at which Buffy would sing.

Uncle Monk, the support act, made up of Tommy Ramone and his partner, came on stage shortly after 7pm and gave us some bluegrass twangings for about 40 minutes. I quite liked what I heard but his partner sang too quietly and timidly and could hardly be heard above the murmur of poeple chatting. Tommy was wandering round after the show (and had been taking photos of Buffy during her show) and I shook his hand and said I enjoyed his set.

The stage was re-set for Buffy and the tension mounted every time doors opened by the side of the stage or people walked on stage to do something. Two microphones were set up to the left of the centre mic which suggested backing singers (the last time I saw Buffy she sang alone). On came two women, one looking vaguely familiar, and Buffy later introduced them as Ulali who I have on a pow wow rock DVD from when Pura Fe was a member. Buffy had a three-piece band (drums, bass and guitar) and she played guitar (two guitars standing to the right of her mic), keyboard to the left and another keyboard (a larger Kurtsweil) to the far left of the stage. The lights dimmed and there she was all in black, black stack heel boots (not the platform mocasins I remember), black trousers and top, bead necklaces and feathers in her hair. Buffy was on-stage.


Buffy opened with 'Piney Wood Hills', a nice gentle start to the show, all smiles and getting eye-contact with the audience, including me a few times. She was in good voice and good humour, joking with the audience, talking inbetween each song, either a few words about the next song, it's context or why she wrote it. She's a delight to listen to. Swapping guitars as appropriate, moving to the central keyboard for the some songs (those from 'Coincidence') and using her mouthbow for 'Cripple Creek', commenting that at some stage in every civilisation the smart people eventually learn that you can make music with weapons. She only used the large Kurstweil once, for 'He's An Indian Cowboy', where she can plonk away to her hearts content for the ultimate lovesong about a teenage crush, one of my favourites. It was also a delight to hear her sing a tense, harrowing version of 'Cod'ine', another one of my long-time favourites.

Buffy sang four tracks from the new album (due to be launched at the Montreal Festival in June) and they sounded excellent, full of energy and alive. Three upbeat songs that would do great in the current re-mix stakes and a slower song full of beautiful imagery that Buffy described as a 'new folk song'. 'Cho Cho Fire', 'AIM Elijah' (the Keshagesh song) and 'Working for the Government' were fast and furious, rock beats and pow wow choruses, with 'Still This Love Goes On' as a slower, tender love song to the land (Buffy said it was a song she sings to remind herself about Canada). The new songs work excellently live and if these are a sample, it'll be a great album!

The full set-list was:

Piney Wood Hills
Fallen Angels
Cho Cho Fire
Cripple Creek
Little Kids (That's What Little Kids Do)
He's An Indian Cowboy At The Rodeo
Relocation Blues (by Floyd Westerman)
Up Where We Belong
AIM Elijah (Keshagesh song)
Little Wheel Spin And Spin
Big Ones get Away
Working For The Government
Darling Don't Cry
Until It's Time For You To Go
Universal Soldier
Cod'ine
Still This Love Goes On
Priests Of the Golden Bull
Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee
Starwalker
Goodnight (encore)

And I know that's the setlist since Chris got it from the stage when they were packing the equipment away after the gig while I was waiting and hoping for Buffy to come out for a chat. Which she did, and kindly signed the photo of me and herself taken three years ago after the Belleville gig. She said she hoped to tour in the autumn, so here's hoping. Of course, I also had my photo taken with Buffy again but that one won't be blogged. What else can I say?

Buffy played for about 1.45 hours (not sure, I was too busy enjoying meself to time it), she was in great voice and gave some of the songs, especially the new ones, some heavy pow wow singing, which was wonderful to hear live. The audience didn't join in the pow wow singing like in Belleville, but this was New York not a town surrounded by native homelands. It was great to see Buffy, especially sitting so close to the stage and, of course, to chat to her briefly afterwards.

Then came the walk back to the subway station with pow wow in my ears and the few stops back up to Times Square and the hotel.