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Diggin' Small Potatoes
By Allen Rich
Mar 24, 2008

For three years now, Harmony House Concerts has been treating North Texas music fans to superb acoustic concerts in an intimate setting.  Regulars come back time and again for the cozy camaraderie, the coffee and the culinary treats afterward.  Sunday they were there for a Texas-sized helping of Small Potatoes. 

Most critics consider these musical spuds to be Chicago-based duo, but that would be a rather unfortunate slight to Gracie, a collie-mix adopted from an animal shelter that now travels with the band. 

On Sunday, Rich Prezioso was hard at work on the guitar and vocals; Jacquie Manning was working on flute, mandolin, bodhran (Irish drum), guitar and vocals. That left Gracie free to work the crowd. 

Listening to Prezioso and Manning harmonize during the sets and finish each other's sentences during the breaks gives the impression these two are vines that have spent a lifetime winding around the music they create until, finally, the vines have grown into each other. 

Small Potatoes has been playing together since 1992 and that span has given Prezioso and Manning time to put together a repertoire that includes traditional folk tunes as well as songs by Steve Goodman, Kate Wolf and James McCandless, just to name a few.

There was always an intentional, erie feel to Goodman's version of "Ballad of Penny Evans," a sobering song about a young mother, widowed by the war in Vietnam, who tore up the government check that came in the mail every month and returned it with a hastily scribbled note that read, "Did you think this would make it alright?" 

It was like a punch in the stomach Easter Sunday to hear Manning softly whisper the first few notes and suddenly realize Goodman's song that had once seemed so relevent in the early 1970s was just as relevant today.

However it is no small compliment to Small Potatoes that nothing showcases their act better that one of their own songs, "Waltz of the Wallflower," an unforgettable number about two lonely kids that feel cheated out of the opportunity to ever contribute to the gene pool until they slowly stumble toward each other for that "first dance." 

With Rich playing the part of the awkward adolescent male and Jacquie vocalizing the thoughts of a shy girl still dreaming of her first kiss, "Waltz of the Wallflower" is more than a song and more like a three-minute musical that gets better with every phrase and expression. 

"Time Flies" by Prezioso is another original that proves these guys deserve their slot in the big-league circuit.

Prezioso says their eclectic style is a result of "years of careful indecision" and if you're looking for a word that describes a band that is equally at home doing Celtic, cowboy, jazz, swing, blues and folk, maybe it's Celcowjaswiblufo.  If that doesn't make any sense, well, neither does naming a band this good Small Potatoes.

Small Potatoes is a polished act that has graced stages from the Kerrville Folk Festival to the Philadelphia Folk Festival, so the level of talent exhibited by Prezioso and Manning (and Gracie!) is no surprise. 

The only surprise is that Harmony House Concerts continues to bring this level of talent to the gentle rolling hills of northern Fannin County.  The only downside is that performers of this caliber leave town without an opportunity to share their considerable skills with high school drama classes.

Small Potatoes leaves Ravenna for a series of shows on the West Coast, but they will be back in Texas for an appearance at the Lone Star State Dulcimer Festival (http://www.lssds.org/grfest.htm), a free festival slated May 7-9 in Glen Rose, Texas.  And Kerrville Folk Music Festival fans will get a chance to see Small Potatoes June 6 and June 8 this summer.

To learn more about Small Potatoes, visit http://www.smallpotatoesmusic.com/