Went to see some of my folksinging heroes on Saturday night at UCLA, and I'm afraid my review is somewhat "mixed". For starters, the show was "stolen" by Tom Paxton, which I didn't expect. He was joined by a local player, Fred Sokolow, on banjo, Dobro, and mandolin, and Tom was very musical and charming in person. Mike Seeger, who opened the show with his old-timey music, was particularly wonderful when doing songs with autoharp- but that ancient gut-string banjo just doesn't cut it in a huge auditorium. And his choice of songs let me down- mostly goofy "play" songs, none of the old mountain songs or "No Depression in Heaven"-type stuff that I love him for. John Hammond, who I heard many times at the Ash Grove in years past, also picked material that was less than accessible, choosing to do heavy-handed, raucous stuff with percing high harmonica riffs. I love his voice and style particularly when he does the slower blues with catchy guitar figures. Finishing up the show was Loudon Wainwright III (I think), whose songs were kinda weird, but lots of fun. I never paid much attention to him, but he was a big highlight of the show, playing guitar very well and projecting a lot of "personality". The big overall disappointment was that there were really only a few "memoirs"....I expected lots of great stories about the Washington Square scene and all the great singers and players, and that didn't happen. Our Mudcat Forum "reminiscences" of that era were so wonderful, I guess I was expecting more of that stuff, but no luck. For the encore, they all sang "Down By the Riverside" together, and you could feel that THIS was what the crowd had been wanting. They should probably have gotten a show producer to help them weave in a bunch of great stories, chosen more interesting songs, and played a few more tunes in duos, trios, and quartets. Okay, got that off my chest. They're still my heroes, of course.