BIG SOUNDS FROM SMALL POTATOES: CONCERT TO BE BROADCAST AT 7 P.M. SATURDAY ON KRCU-FM

On Memorial Day, two Illinois musicians who call themselves Small Potatoes came to the KRCU 90.9 FM studio to play a concert to be heard later -- at least by most KRCU listeners.

Jacquie Manning and Rich Prezioso gave the first-ever in-studio concert at KRCU before an audience of 19, most of whom didn't know what a whirlwind of pantingly good sing-alongs ("I Wanna Be a Dog"), quirky jazz tunes ("Avocado"), haunting odes ("I Brought My Father With Me" ) gentle protest songs ("1000 Candles, 1000 Cranes") and yodeling was in store.

A recording of the concert will be broadcast at 7 p.m. Saturday on "Your Folk Connection" on KRCU FM 90.9 and at 7 p.m. Sunday on WSIU/WUSI 91.9 FM. The concert provided enough material for a second show to air at 7 p.m. June 16 on KRCU and at 7 p.m. June 17 on WSIU/WUSI.

Manning and Prezioso chose their name one night while performing at a steakhouse. Noticing that nobody was paying them any attention, Manning suggested Small Potatoes would be an appropriate name.

The duo play a song, "Minor League," with a similar theme, but their talents are major league.

Small Potatoes' long experience performing many different kinds of music, from Celtic to Renaissance fairs to writing Cap'n Crunch commercials, gave their concert an electric air that anything might happen. One moment Manning's fine, evocative voice sent goose bumps around the room with a poetic Michael Smith song titled "I Brought my Father With Me." Next they rambled through a Hawaiian cowboy song with a bit of "Walk, Don't Run" thrown in.

Prezioso says "the goose bump factor" is the method they use to pick songs to perform.

Manning and Prezioso, who are married, spend a lot of time on the road but call home Cary, Ill., where they live and die with the Cubs. Before meeting Prezioso, Manning spent quite awhile as stage performers at Renaissance fairs along with stints playing folk, rock n' roll and even country music. Prezioso, an especially nimble and tasteful guitarist, played folk, rock, blues and country music in bands and even worked as a jingle writer.

They started working together out of economic necessity, he says. "We just needed a job."

Now they have one. Their priceless original "Waltz of the Wallflowers" won a top award at the Kerrville Folk Festival, one of the nation's biggest folk events. "Big-time folk music award the ultimate oxymoron," Manning says.

They were on their way to the Kerrville Folk Festival after leaving Cape Girardeau.

Small Potatoes plays a circuit of folk clubs Prezioso likens to "an underground cult." Sometimes they get to play before 10,000 at a folk festival like Kerrville, more often they play in church basements or even for house parties of just a few people.

Listening to Small Potatoes on the radio won't be the same as seeing them live. Like Small Potatoes themselves, it will be different.