BARRY COURTER: Lisa, there is a pretty cool concert Thursday at Barking Legs Theater featuring an unusual out-of-town act and two of our better local performers. Bluegrass band Monroe Crossing does a cover version of “Purple Rain,” originally done by Prince. There is way more Bill Monroe than paisley funk in their version.
LISA DENTON: “Purple Rain” would have been low on my list of songs you could put a twang to, but by golly they did it. It’s pretty impressive (listen at www.monroecrossing.com). They’re on their annual Warm Weather Tour through the South. It’s been mighty chilly around here lately, but I suppose it’s still warmer than their home state of Minnesota.
I’m also excited about the opening act. Laura Walker plays and sings with Sistren and a little group that probably won’t ever amount to much called The Dismembered Tennesseans. Lately, she’s added duet dates around town with Daniel Parkin. I interviewed him back in September about a song he wrote, “Palm of His Hand,” that was included in the movie “Winter’s Bone.”
BARRY: For strings of a different kind, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center out of New York will perform at the Hunter Museum of American Art as part of the String Theory series. That is also on Thursday. It starts at 6:30 p.m., an hour before the Barking Legs show, so you could theoretically make both. That would be a night of diversity.
LISA: These are high-caliber musicians coming: pianist Wu Han, cellist Andreas Brantelid, violist Mark Holloway and violinist Arnaud Sussmann. It’s too bad all three sets of musicians can’t get together for a jam session to see what comes out of it.
They do share one instrument in common. Which reminds me: Do you know the difference between a fiddle and violin? A violin has four strings; a fiddle has four strangs. (It’s possible that joke works only in the South.)
BARRY: I once had a women at a boot outlet in Murfreesboro tell me the difference between Western boots and cowboy boots, but the answer is too rude for a family paper.
Both shows feature quality performers, and I bet that jam session wouldn’t be as crazy as one might think.