Me and Peter and Sarah Borges at the Narrows.....

It's to be a Fall River Saturday night with Peter McGowan and our new-best-friend, Sarah Borges and I wonder during the two-hour drive from CT whether the johnnykmusic-touted young lady will live up to the high expectations I have for her performance. Since purchasing her "Silver City" CD (Silver City being her hometown of Taunton, MA), I've given out a number of copies to friends to quite favorable responses. Could have waited for her return appearance to Cafe Nine in New Haven on Friday, January 6, but here I am.

Found the warehouse building (among many of same) down by the waterfront beneath the Braga Bridge in Fall River, parked and met Peter up in the third-floor lobby area of the Narrows Center for the Arts. We quickly checked out the concert venue, then scooted out for a bite to eat before showtime - Al Mac's Diner, right out of Barry Levinson's wonderful movie, Diner, set in Baltimore circa 1959. We were instructed to "take anything along the window," so we obediently slipped into one of the two available booths. Our hostess took our drink order for two Red Dogs (I think it's a Miller faux-grunge beer- unfortunately, not nearly as dangerous as it sounds), handed us a hand-written listing of specials and told us that our waitress would be with us shortly - she then reappeared momentarily AS said waitress! I guess she was playing both parts - ACTING! Okay, two bacon, cheddar, hurt-us-badly burgers, medium rare. Nope. No can do rarities here, you'll have to settle for the low end of medium. Okay, fine. You're the boss.

A quick trip to the packy for a six o' Bass (Narrows is a byob venue) and we're back to the warehouse. The art show reception in the lobby has ended and cleared out, we settle up on the tickets and enter. It's still pre-showtime and a few people are seated in the three sections of ten-deep church pews that face the stage. As we make our way along the back wall of artist cubicles (some open for viewing), we bump into a tall, thin long-haired girl who greets us with a friendly, "How're you doing tonight." It's Sarah! Mentioned that I was planning to catch her at Cafe Nine in January and she said how great they treated her when she played there in September.

We homestead a pew to the right of the stage awaiting the opening act that Peter has seen before and gave lukewarm review about, The Heygoods. Husband/wife duo with quirky style and some interesting subject matter. I didn't like them.

After a very brief intermission, Sarah and her band (members of Jake Brennan & the Confidence Men) take the stage and launch into about an hour of her Silver City songlist coupled with a few other artists' numbers (didn't catch the names) thrown in.

Sarah and her band at the Narrows Center for the Arts 11/19/05 (photo courtesy of Backstage at the Narrows).

She sounded great and has a wonderfully engaging stage presence. She has been compared with Lucinda Williams and Chrissie Hynde. I see more rock influences than blues; and I will refrain from describing her guitar playing as 'kick-ass' (she does have some pretty cool moves) because she defers to The Edge guy (Mike Castellana)for the guitar/pedal steel solos. I'd like to see Borges and the guys take some chances with their songs, not sticking to playing them just as a live version of the CD, but that will probably come in time. Very solid show. Looking forward to her Cafe Nine show. Be there, aloha.

Who IS she?
Portland Phoenix article

P.S. The Narrows Center for the Arts is a neat place for a concert and has some very good shows coming up. The MC is a likeable chap who writes a blog, Backstage at the Narrows, but telling us that he is divorcing and going through a mid-life crisis is a little more information than this cowboy wants to know.