University of Virginia Library

Jordan Fund Benefit Concert
Presents Mandrake Memorial

By Gordon Peerman

St. Thomas Hall on Alderman
Road will be the scene of a rock
contest featuring The Mandrake
Memorial and Townes Van Zandt
on Saturday, May 2, at 7 p.m.

Part of a nation-wide college
tour sponsored by Poppy Records,
and here at the University by
WUVA, the concert will also
feature the local University groups
Wide Load and Collector's Item.

The Mandrake Memorial, originally
from Philadelphia, has up to
this time performed mostly in the
eastern U.S., where they have
received rave notices from all
quarters. Record World described
the group in its review of their
Carnegie Hall concert as "one of
the most under-rated American
groups.

They produce symphonic sound
which forms into beautiful escapist
movements of their endless rock
concerto." Their third album, Puzzle,
was recorded in England with
engineer-artist Brooks Arthur and
promises to offer a new direction in
music, the flowing mind symphony.

In addition to the trio from
Philadelphia will be Townes Van
Zandt, a slim poet-folksinger from
Texas who composes stunningly
brilliant ballads in the tradition of
Tom Paxton, Bob Dylan, and
Leonard Cohen.

Still in his teens and getting into
country music, he fell under the

influence of one of the greatest
Black blues musicians of the
country, Lightnin' Hopkins.

Although black blues had not at
that time become the popular
sound it is today, Townes spent
hours listening to Hopkins' records
and travelling great distances to
hear him play in the dingy black
clubs of Texas.

Never expecting to approach the
sound of Lightnin's music, a sound
bred, like B.B. King's in years of
southern Black living, Townes came
to appreciate the remarkable purity
of his compositions, now manifested
in the younger man's style.
Townes' music is not merely a
reaction to the cacophony of
mass-produced electronic music,
but a re-examination of the simple,
contemporary folk forms, viewed
with subtle eye of the true poet.

Tickets are priced at $1 and may
be purchased at Newcomb Hall, the
Bandbox, and Mincer's. Proceeds
from the concert will be donated to
the Churchill Jordon Scholarship
Fund for disadvantaged students. In
case of rain, the concert will be
moved to Cabell Hall.