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Richard Helm, 
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Singing at the
Edge of the World
Highly recommended What could be more soul-crushing than for a musician who loves playing the guitar to have his hearing destroyed by a hereditary disease? Yet Randy Rutherford's one-man show is one of the funniest, most poignant and inspiring performances you're likely to see for a long time.In addition to his sonorous singing voice, it helps that Rutherford is a natural storyteller. He evokes rich memories of decades past as a young man in Anchorage, Alaska ("the edge of the world" of the title), who's too shy to talk to girls until they start to notice him; of his first pair of cowboy boots ("not too practical for the Arctic"); of growing his hair long to be more like a real musician; of playing in coffee houses; of sunlit summer nights and dark, freezing winter ones; of shape-shifting ravens and a beautiful, young woman he drives away due to his despair. While blind people lose their connection to things, deaf people lose their connection to people, he observes sagely. And when redemption comes, it is enlightening, heartwarming and rewarding. Bruce DeMara |
