Krista Detor concert raises $4,000 for Nyaka School

The Bloomington arts community showed up in droves to musician Krista Detor’s benefit show at the John Waldron Arts Center for Indiana Friends of Nyaka, an organization supporting the Nyaka School for AIDS orphans in Nyakagyezi, Uganda. The show also marked the U.S. release of her critically-acclaimed third album “Cover Their Eyes.”\nDetor played two back-to-back shows Saturday night. Maryland-based musician and long-time Detor collaborator Bob Sima opened the shows. He said he was grateful Detor asked him to be a part of the benefit.\n“Just being able to contribute my art to (the benefit) makes my art more worthwhile,” Sima said after the show. \nA brief intermission followed Sima’s show. Audience members used this time to purchase beer and wine before Detor’s set. Some audience members didn’t make it back to their seat before Detor came out.\n“All right, I guess I’ll wait a minute before I start since I know everyone that’s in the beer line,” Detor joked to her straggling audience from behind her piano. \nDetor opened her set with “Pretty Horses Run,” the opening song on “Cover Their Eyes.” Band members Anne Hurley, David Weber, Steve Mascari and IU professor Jim Krause performed with the songstress. Bobbie Lancaster also lent her vocals to a few songs throughout the night.\nBetween songs, Detor’s wry humor and jokes about her band mates as well as friends in the audience revealed her playful side, which is not easy to discern from a listen to any of her albums.\nBloomington artist and Detor fan Ransom Haile saw the second show. He said her cynical humor is the part of the show he most looks forward to.\nDetor played songs off her new record, which was available for purchase in the lobby. “Go Ahead and Wait,” which Detor described as “a happy suicide song from the perspective of a teenager,” was a crowd favorite, as was “Waterline.” \nBefore Detor’s song “Icarus,” storyteller Arbutus Cunningham read her poem inspired by the song.\n“It’s a very rich experience working with Krista,” Cunningham said. “She’s a great writer and exquisite storyteller.”\nClosing up the show, Carrie Newcomer, a native Bloomington singer/songwriter, came onstage for the duet “Lay Him Down.” The song was written in the same vein as a white spiritual and was based on a story by Scott Russell Sanders.\nAfter the encore, which featured a Detor dance number, the audience milled around the first floor of the John Waldron Arts Center purchasing the artists’ CDs and baked goods courtesy of Vernon Presbyterian Church pastor Sarah Cochran. Cochran raised an additional $100 for Nyaka House with her bake sale. Indiana Friends of Nyaka board member Allen Pease said the organization met its goal of $4,000 with the benefit show.\nDetor’s mother, Judie Iverson, manned her daughter’s merchandise table and chatted with the crowd. \nIverson said she first noticed her daughter’s musical ability when she was in junior high school in California. Iverson said she is proud of her daughter for following her dreams and becoming a successful artist, but is quick to point out Detor is more than just a singer/songwriter.\n“She’s a great mom, a great daughter and a great sister,” she said.\nNext up for Detor is a free concert at 8 p.m. Sunday at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater. The concert, “A Concert for Change,” is in support of Sen. Barack Obama. Newcomer, Sanders and Malcolm Dalglish are also scheduled to play at the event.