When I Grow Up, I Want To Be An Old Woman

John Boutte opened last Friday's night at the Delacorte. He's got a voice like Sam Cooke and the spirit of an angel. He's also one of the nicest people you ever want to spend an afternoon with in the Park, which only makes the completeness of his heartbreak and despair all the more painful. He's from New Orleans and he carries the loss with dignity and eloquence and sings about it like Cassandra warning Troy about the coming storm.

Toshi Reagon was up next. During her set, a slight disagreement broke out between a guy in a wheelchair and an elderly lady who, he contended was sitting in her seat. "I'm old," she complained to security when they came to intervene, "I can't move."

Nevertheless, by the end of Michelle Shocked's closing set, that old woman was literally kicking her leg in the air higher than I can raise my arms . . .