isn't this new music world overwhelming? there is so much to listen to! as a rule, i don't read music magazines or look at taste-maker blogs. for me, they're a recipe for a disasterous bout of jealousy. since i work in the music industry, i prefer to hear about new music from non-industry types.
ahem erin, you say, you've painted yourself into a metaphorical corner.
ok, ok, so i don't really know how i find out about music, but like everyone else, at any given time there are a few records that are spinning heavily in my subconscious. for the final episode in this week's series, i'll share with you what i like these days.
"gospel legends" / "goodbye babylon" box set: a month or so ago, i had an afternoon alone in a hotel room. as i was switching channels, i became mesmerized by an info-mercial for a compilation called "gospel legends". recorded live, it is a document of the convergence of 30+ contemporary gospel artists backed by a full-on choir and house-band. i ordered it on the spot, and i've been loving it alot lately. which also reminds me of another favorite gospel collection of mine: goodbye babylon. this 6 disc set collects obscure performances by both white and black gospel artists from the 20s and 30s. it's scratchy but more punk rock than any music being made today.
"erik deutsch's hush money": full disclosure, erik deutsch is a close friend and one of my favorite musicians. he's made a name for himself with charlie hunter, norah jones, and a whole fistful of other talented people. his playing is bright and shiny without ever being cloying or cheesy. his usual band includes piano, bass, drums, guitar, oboe and saxophone. his newest, "hush money" adds a little grit, grime, and groove to his clear sound. my favorite song is called "dirty osso bucco". enough said. http://www.hammerandstring.com
"ocote soul sounds / coconut rock": ocote is one of the many irons in the fire of musician martin perna. he's best known as one of the founders of antibalas, the seminal brooklyn afrobeat band, but his talent can't be contained in just one group. this record has all my favorite things: warmth, groove, and space sounds. check out "the revolt of the cockroach people".
"heartless bastards / the mountain": a few years ago, i was setting up for soundcheck at one of my favorite venues, the tractor tavern in seattle. the soundguy had a record on that caught my ear. it was the heartless bastards first release, "stairs and elevators". i've been a big fan ever since. the first time i saw them live, i was worried that they couldn't match the energy and heft of their albums, but match it they did. the fact that they didn't excede their recorded sound is more a tribute to the brilliance of their records than a slam on their live show prow-ess. their newest, "the mountain", continues to scale the rock everest.
"regina spektor / far": i don't have a lot to say about regina except that she is brilliant, and i love her. and the more i listen to "laughing with", the more i hear. did i already say, brilliant!
so, philadelphia, i'll see you tomorrow night at world cafe live. my friend jill sobule and i are gonna make you a show, and we've got a band to back us up. thanks for reading this week, and see you soon!
i am a reader, always have been. i can and do read anywhere: the car, on airplanes, at gigs, outside, inside, morning, noon, or especially at night. my idea of perfection is to climb into bed and read until the early hours of the morning.
i read some fiction, some poetry, but i am mostly a non-fiction junkie, especially biographies. some of my very favorites include my multiple judy garland tomes plus books on tab hunter, anita o'day, bette davis, rudolph valentino, and mary pickford. you see where my taste leans, no, perhaps topples.
recently, a friend gave me "mary todd lincoln: a biography" by jean h baker. yes, that's right, mary todd lincoln the wife of the asassinated president. i must confess, i love it. i haven't been able to put it down all week. in fact, when i have crawled into bed after long days of driving and shows, instead of falling gratefully to sleep, i am trying to prop my eyelids open so i can read more about the complicated, ornery, and desperate mary T.
it's unfortunate that MTL (as i like to call my new BFF) has been reduced by history to a grieved widow. dig just under the surface, and she becomes a nationally despised grieved widow. dig a little deeper, and you find a despised grieved widow who felt she was a role model and shopped for the part. and dig deeper than that long sentence, and you find a woman trapped in the limited space allowed for women in her time.
MTL was a highly educated, clever and charismatic chiid of kentucky royalty. her upbringing of privilege led her to the uncomfortable intersection of having learned to speak her mind and the burdensome assumption of marriage and child-rearing. in an era where women were beginning to be seen and heard, MTL outran the expectations of her sex. known for her vicious and accurate imitations, her strong political opinions often got her into private hot-water. known for her ostentatious dress, her unpaid shopping bills often led to back-room political patronage to settle them. had MTL lived even a generation later, she'd have had wider latitude for her bright and sharp personality.
books like this remind me i am lucky to be living in the 21st century. for all the crazy people who would like to limit or judge my lifestyle, i have plenty of space to ignore them and explore my self, unfettered. i think that's part of my wonder and fascination with MTL. i try to imagine myself in her time, and i just fail to see how i'd manage. for all her notoriety, mary todd lincoln was bound by her corsets, both metaphorical and physical.
by the way, thought i might finish with a list of a few of my favorite independent bookshops around the country. by no means definitive:
malaprops, asheville NC elliot bay, seattle WA powell's, portland OR a room of one's own, chicago IL kramer books and afterwords, washington DC
i am a reader, always have been. i can and do read anywhere: the car, on airplanes, at gigs, outside, inside, morning, noon, or especially at night. my idea of perfection is to climb into bed and read until the early hours of the morning.
i read some fiction, some poetry, but i am mostly a non-fiction junkie, especially biographies. some of my very favorites include my multiple judy garland tomes plus books on tab hunter, anita o'day, bette davis, rudolph valentino, and mary pickford. you see where my taste leans, no, perhaps topples.
recently, a friend gave me "mary todd lincoln: a biography" by jean h baker. yes, that's right, mary todd lincoln the wife of the asassinated president. i must confess, i love it. i haven't been able to put it down all week. in fact, when i have crawled into bed after long days of driving and shows, instead of falling gratefully to sleep, i am trying to prop my eyelids open so i can read more about the complicated, ornery, and desperate mary T.
it's unfortunate that MTL (as i like to call my new BFF) has been reduced by history to a grieved widow. dig just under the surface, and she becomes a nationally despised grieved widow. dig a little deeper, and you find a despised grieved widow who felt she was a role model and shopped for the part. and dig deeper than that long sentence, and you find a woman trapped in the limited space allowed for women in her time.
MTL was a highly educated, clever and charismatic chiid of kentucky royalty. her upbringing of privilege led her to the uncomfortable intersection of having learned to speak her mind and the burdensome assumption of marriage and child-rearing. in an era where women were beginning to be seen and heard, MTL outran the expectations of her sex. known for her vicious and accurate imitations, her strong political opinions often got her into private hot-water. known for her ostentatious dress, her unpaid shopping bills often led to back-room political patronage to settle them. had MTL lived even a generation later, she'd have had wider latitude for her bright and sharp personality.
books like this remind me i am lucky to be living in the 21st century. for all the crazy people who would like to limit or judge my lifestyle, i have plenty of space to ignore them and explore my self, unfettered. i think that's part of my wonder and fascination with MTL. i try to imagine myself in her time, and i just fail to see how i'd manage. for all her notoriety, mary todd lincoln was bound by her corsets, both metaphorical and physical.
by the way, thought i might finish with a list of a few of my favorite independent bookshops around the country. by no means definitive:
malaprops, asheville NC elliot bay, seattle WA powell's, portland OR a room of one's own, chicago IL kramer books and afterwords, washington DC
this is an edited excerpt from a much longer piece i am working on...
i think there is a mistaken air of rarification and mystery that surrounds capital hill and our senators and congress-people. it is a common misperception that somehow there are giant hurdles put in place to stop us from communicating directly with the people who are supposed to be representing us. we see them on TV, read about them online and in the papers, and perhaps in that way they seem as inaccessible as brad pitt or paris hilton. but twice now, i have gone on lobby days to the hill, met with senators, representatives, and representatives of the representatives and senators, and found the opposite to be true. all it takes is knowledge and time.
this year, i have begun working with organization called the Future of Music Coalition . FMC was started a few years ago by a group of artists, independent label owners, and lobbyists who wanted to create a pathway for artists to be involved in the political process. beyong the usual activities of playing benefits and tabling at shows, FMC bridges the gap between the concert hall and the congress.
our lobby day this october fell directly on the heels of the annual FMC policy conference. this year, i spent three days on panels and in workshops with other musicians, thinkers, internet people, and activists tossing around ideas and trying to make sense of the intersections of the current technology and music climates. i can't resist adding that during his keynote address, the FCC chairman Julius Genachowski name-checked me as someone who was "harnessing the power" of the internets with my Cabin Fever series . the chairman is a political appointee and as such is bound to be as boring and non-confrontational as possible, so i felt a little sheepish about being held up as an example, but as i am learning, "a foot in the door is a foot in the door". i'll take it.
on this most recent trip, we visited the offices of Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY), Rep. Mike Doyle (D-PA), and Sen. Al Franken (D-MN). we were there to thank them for their support on a few key issues: increasing low power FM, protecting net neutrality, and the digital performance right. (for more info about these issues, see the FMC site). we also got to sit down in conference with Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI). Senator Feingold is an avid music fan, and he name-dropped a ton of obscure indie rock bands i had never heard of. who knew? in Representative Doyle's office, i was suprised to find his chief of staff is a big fan of mine, who was genuinely thrilled to meet me. who knew?
if you want to advance an issue and effect change on it, you need to find a champion- a representative or senator who will make your cause part of their portfolio of issues. for example, rep.Doyle has been a great champion of low-power FM radio. the tricky part is that every congress person has to balance a ton of interests and pressures. they may be your champion on one issue and your enemy on another. i've observed first hand that it's a complicated job, and things move slowly. for every victory there may be a setback, but over time with persistent energy, consistent ideology, and creative tactics, any everyday citizen has an opportunity to make change.
in political lobby-ing and activism, i have found the perfect marriage of my age-old dilemma between chafing at rules and wanting to be liked. in speechifying and rabblerousing on complicated technology and policy issues, i have found a way to own my cultural place as an artist without making activism the sole content of my art. it's a fine line and a delicate balance, but my most recent trip to capital hill confirmed my suspicions that it's the path i need to be on.
this is an edited excerpt from a much longer piece i am working on...
i think there is a mistaken air of rarification and mystery that surrounds capital hill and our senators and congress-people. it is a common misperception that somehow there are giant hurdles put in place to stop us from communicating directly with the people who are supposed to be representing us. we see them on TV, read about them online and in the papers, and perhaps in that way they seem as inaccessible as brad pitt or paris hilton. but twice now, i have gone on lobby days to the hill, met with senators, representatives, and representatives of the representatives and senators, and found the opposite to be true. all it takes is knowledge and time.
this year, i have begun working with organization called the Future of Music Coalition . FMC was started a few years ago by a group of artists, independent label owners, and lobbyists who wanted to create a pathway for artists to be involved in the political process. beyong the usual activities of playing benefits and tabling at shows, FMC bridges the gap between the concert hall and the congress.
our lobby day this october fell directly on the heels of the annual FMC policy conference. this year, i spent three days on panels and in workshops with other musicians, thinkers, internet people, and activists tossing around ideas and trying to make sense of the intersections of the current technology and music climates. i can't resist adding that during his keynote address, the FCC chairman Julius Genachowski name-checked me as someone who was "harnessing the power" of the internets with my Cabin Fever series . the chairman is a political appointee and as such is bound to be as boring and non-confrontational as possible, so i felt a little sheepish about being held up as an example, but as i am learning, "a foot in the door is a foot in the door". i'll take it.
on this most recent trip, we visited the offices of Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY), Rep. Mike Doyle (D-PA), and Sen. Al Franken (D-MN). we were there to thank them for their support on a few key issues: increasing low power FM, protecting net neutrality, and the digital performance right. (for more info about these issues, see the FMC site). we also got to sit down in conference with Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI). Senator Feingold is an avid music fan, and he name-dropped a ton of obscure indie rock bands i had never heard of. who knew? in Representative Doyle's office, i was suprised to find his chief of staff is a big fan of mine, who was genuinely thrilled to meet me. who knew?
if you want to advance an issue and effect change on it, you need to find a champion- a representative or senator who will make your cause part of their portfolio of issues. for example, rep.Doyle has been a great champion of low-power FM radio. the tricky part is that every congress person has to balance a ton of interests and pressures. they may be your champion on one issue and your enemy on another. i've observed first hand that it's a complicated job, and things move slowly. for every victory there may be a setback, but over time with persistent energy, consistent ideology, and creative tactics, any everyday citizen has an opportunity to make change.
in political lobby-ing and activism, i have found the perfect marriage of my age-old dilemma between chafing at rules and wanting to be liked. in speechifying and rabblerousing on complicated technology and policy issues, i have found a way to own my cultural place as an artist without making activism the sole content of my art. it's a fine line and a delicate balance, but my most recent trip to capital hill confirmed my suspicions that it's the path i need to be on.
i'm always a little sad when the van turns east and starts to head home. today, at 530am, we left los angeles to bang out a drive to denver in one day.
i grew up in virginia and have spent the last 10 years between rhode island and massachusetts, so i'm pretty firmly east coast. i've been touring since i was 17 (i'm 24 now)(just kidding, i'm 32), and i've traveled around the US in pretty much every direction and combination of geographies you can imagine. but, for economics and practicality, i always start my driving tours from home. thus, the east is the beginning, the freshest point in the tour, where the cities are clustered, and my days are busier.
as i head west, everything expands. the drives are longer, the landscape flattens, and with it, so does my mind. i slow down, life gets simpler, friends and obligations drift away in the rearview mirror. by the time i get to the west coast i'm like a zen master living in a cave, unaware of the hours of the day or even the people i am traveling with. i am concerned only with that night's show and not getting swine flu.
i've been on the road 42 days without going home. most of my shows have been with my friend jill sobule, and all of the days have been with my trusty friend and tour manager desdemona "bunty" burgin. every tour manager needs a nickname in quotes. bunty's dates from childhood, not from some unspeakable road happening that's remembered in an obscure nickname. wait! i should probably lie and say we call her "bunty" because of "that night in san francisco".
playing with jill has been a blast. i didn't know her before the tour; our managers thought we'd fit, and they were right. she's funny nearly all hours of the day, a great songwriter, and a fantastic musician. she's just got bucketfuls of style, whether it's her songs or her clothes or her palatial LA estate that she bought with money from her fans who thought they funded her record. just kidding about that last part.
in the east, i am a do-er. i never stop moving, processing, agitating either myself or those around me. i get quiet in the west and serious. the landscape is like a meditation to me, the soporific drives leave me feeling so relaxed and blank sometimes it's hard to rally to ordinary conversation. and sometimes in the west, i am just battling mere exhaustion, the result of the 4-5 weeks of touring to get out there.
for me, the east is plugged and west is unplugged. i hesitate to say which is better, but i can say after this long that the west is possibility and the east is the known comfort and electricity of home. so the moment where we turn back and start the trek home is always a bittersweet one for me. i'll be glad to get home, but i'll miss the simplicity of driving through unbroken horizon.as we head east to philadelphia, i'll try to fill in the blanks and share some of what's been happening for me the last couple months. here's some road pictures to start.
bbq in memphis TN
book in my dressing room, portland OR
sprinter the day we left goshen MA
pittsburgh PA. dont know why i think this is so funny.
lorraine motel in memphis, where MLK was shot
church on the interstate near cincinati OH
sign in the ladies room, louisville KY
graffiti in the ark dressing room, ann arbor MI, from 2002
our van got graffitied in santa barbara CA. dont be jealous because we have universal healthcare and gay marriage
forgive the pun, but this week, in between the stories of health care and senator kennedy, we will be inundated with stories about new orleans. from npr pieces to cnn profiles and new york times articles, new orleans finds itself on the front pages again as the four year anniversary of hurricane katrina approaches. part of me is grateful, of course, for the coverage, and another part of me is cynical about how new orleans is continually defined by the story of the storm, and subsequently given the short shrift of being covered only on anniversaries.
the problems of new orleans are too complex to be visited once a year, and though the storm brought them to the fore, they are endemic and emblematic of the greater problems our country faces. all year round people who live in new orleans and care about new orleans face those problems and try to solve them. i count myself as one of them. however, with no reasonable excuse, here i am "visiting" on the anniversary. the following has in some form been languishing on my virtual desk since may, when i took an unusual trip to the city.
circa MAY 29, 2009.
i miss new orleans... and even though i have had to switch gears immediately and get back on the road, i am clinging to new orleans even as i spend hours in the van. even as i play other music, even as i think thoughts other than new orleans, the experience is still bubbling underneath. why this attachment? what is it about that city that grabs me, that envelopes me, that sustains me. for that is what i felt in the 4 days i was there. every time i visit, new orleans is both a spiritual replenishment, and a challenge to do more with that replenished spirit.
in april, i had gotten a surprising and wonderful email. Future of Music Coalition (FMC), Air Traffic Control (ATC), and Sweet Home New Orleans (SHNO) were inviting me to join the fifth version of their Artists Retreat. i'd be joining a group of artists and activists from across the spectrum of the music business for 4 days of workshops, music, and, of course, food. Our group would include singer-songwriters, old-school punks, spoken word artists and actors, indie rockers, jazz composers, afrobeat masterminds, and classical players. plus, we'd be joined by the people who run FMC, ATC, and SHNO- people who activate, agitate, and articulate the cause of new orleans, among other causes, professionally. i'd been to new orleans many times before- to play music, to write, to record, to visit friends- but i knew that this would be yet another side of the city, yet another way to experience it.
looking back on those 4 days, i am most struck by what happens when you put bright people in a room together. some of us were famous, some of us were not, some of us had experience with activism, some of us did not. yet from the first evening, when we had a "get to know each other" crawfish fry and jam at mother-in-law's lounge, there was a wonderful equality among us. it's a rare thing to go into a completely new group of people, meet and be met, and come out the other side with friends, but that's exactly what happened.
i suffer from terrible jealousy of other artists- i am constantly comparing myself. that person sells more, that person draws more, why is that person famous when i am not. it eats at me, it sickens me spiritually, and worst of all, it paralyzes me. as i've grown older and worked with this feeling, i have discovered an antidote, a serum that i can inject to heal that sickness when it fells me: IDEAS. and there were ideas in abundance in new orleans.
one of the first things we dug into was touring. most of the people in the group made their living on the road. so how can our touring be used as activism? it's a ready-made distribution network; we've already paid for the gas. so, tapping into that aspect was an immediate idea. tying our touring into the green movement was another. as was hosting local activist groups by tabling. if we all make small requests of venues together, then practices from recycling to food to merchandising will change.
it's impossible to be in new orleans, to consider new orleans music, without the buzzword "local" landing on your tongue. new orleans music has always depended on its neighborhoods for fermentation, support, and character. katrina was a brute force that has choked those neighborhoods at the roots. SHNO is working specifically on this problem, and trying to restore neighborhoods one block, sometimes one house, at a time. as touring musicians from other parts of the country, we took that idea and ran with it. we can make each of our shows more "local" by involving adjacent communities and rewarding those in walking and biking distance from where we play. we can give away our skills as writers, composers, interpreters to the communities that nourish us.
the efforts to save new orleans require yet another relationship besides the local and environmental: the political. some of us in the room had extensive experience dealing with legislatures and committees at the state and federal level, some of us had never done anything of the like. (i fell somewhere in-between) one of the best tools we hold is our cultural role as guides of opinion and attention. as artists, our job in communities is to point in specific directions and help our neighbors look the same way, at the same time. so, choosing a cause to educate ourselves about and advocate for becomes just as important as putting a new roof on someone's house. we found out that activism of this sort is easier than you'd think. just learn about it, then open your mouth. the FMC folks shared some amazing stories how the artist can often open doors of power that seemed would never swing and melt the heart of even the crabbiest senator.
so i found, that this is what happens when you put bright people in a room. when egos deflate and the ideas expand into that void, then change can occur. after our sessions, i felt like a part of an army who'd just received their orders and is ready to crash through a wall. there is also the saying that a grateful heart has no room for jealousy or hate or pain. put me in a room like that and my heart swells with inspiration and thanks.
so, yes, we ate at mother-in law's and and i bonded with leah at historic dooky chase's. yes, we toured the 9th ward and met some newly returned residents. yes, we went to the house of a mardi gras indian chief and accompanied him while he sang to us. yes, we spent a late night dancing to a live organ trio on frenchmen street and stumbling home at dawn. and yes, on the final night of the retreat, we played a benefit show at tipitina's.
yes, that was the time line. we did this. we went there. but for me, this time in new orleans, it was the people and the ideas that moved me more than the music or the architecture. it was the play of hearts as we sussed each other out, tried to explain ourselves without our foremost language of music, that made me dance inside. in simply sharing ourselves with our group, we were all capable of being as inspiring in our collective experiences, as we are in our notes, rhythms, writing and performance. so, when on the final nite at tips we cut open our chests to sing and play together, it hit with all the more force. a hurricane of hearts came blowing across the stage and moved every soul in that room.
having come to know my fellow artists without their art, i was all the more moved to see the ease with which luke worked the crowd and played drums, despite a separated shoulder. the way saul's voice rumbled and caressed and said what i wanted to say. the way i was carried away by jolie's otherworldly rhythms and the fierce vision of her music. how martin and mariam sang with their instruments as easily as i breathe, their ears leading them out onto a tightrope of risk, with no net below. how vijay, in his own quiet way, confidently gave us ground to dance on as bonerama worked us into brassy ecstasy. and then there was the force of wayne's guitar, not only loud, but intentional and biting the top of every note. how laura pinned up her braids, wiped her glasses, then tore the roof off the place.
at the end of the night, i went out into the crowd to watch scott. he seemed so right, so himself up there leading the band and singing "shit, shit, shit" over and over again, like some rock god pronouncing us whole from the mountain. amen and pass the community.
i'm leaving tomorrow to go visit the summer camp that i went to as a kid. i'm helping teach a music class with one of my oldest friends. the whole thing is crying out for more writing, so stay tuned. but i thought i would post this picture. where are you hudson heatley? (on facebook, i know.) i think we were singing "prince of darkness".
i spent the weekend in utah. still a marvel to me of mod-ren life that i can take off for a few days ACROSS THE COUNTRY. i've been doing it for years, but really, its pretty amazing we can do this.
i had two shows, one in the desert of Torrey and one in the mountains of Snowbird. totally different, both incredibly fun.
the internets were afire yesterday about a supposed war between my friend jill sobule and katy perry. katy perry who is so famous right now that i am not sure where the person is underneath the gloss and hype.
the way the internet works, you probably already know the story: jill made a joke in an interview recently. she was fake mad at katy perry for stealing the song title, "I Kissed a Girl"- jill's 1995 hit. and maybe jill was a little fake mad for katy perry's sneaky relationship with queers. you can spin katy either way- does she support queers? er maybe. does she make queers the butt of the joke? er maybe. it's a little disconcerting to say the least.
speaking of dis-concert-ing. i have been to a katy perry show. i saw her in may at irving plaza in NYC. a friend of a friend works for her. an old college friend is in her band. so i went to the show and felt old (i'm fucking 31) and like this had nothing to do with the job i've had for the last 12 years. it was something entirely else.
but i was struck by how good some of katy's songs were. they pushed all my pleasure buttons with their hooks and highly singable choruses. and i am a sucker for a too small room. watching from the VIP balcony, i thought that katy perry was a good musician, and more than that i thought she knows exactly what's going on. she knows her songs are manufactured to be hits. and she knows there is a script written for her and if she sticks to it, she's gonna be famous now and make a lot of money. that's just the way it works.
but look into her eyes and i think she knows the difference between being real and not. and i'd be surprised if she hit back at a proven writer like jill. i think she looks at jill, sees her future, and hopes that she is as lucky as jill to still be doing it, and doing it better than ever, 15 years after a big-time hit.
at katy perry's level the music business is more business than music. but the other part of the story is that it will never stay that way. katy perry as we know her now will fade. she has to. there are too many others waiting in the wings with tighter asses and more pliant wills.
only time will tell what katy perry wants to do with her real self. when her notoriety fades, will she keep writing songs? will she still want that joy of too many people in a too small room, even if its 100 people in a room meant for 50?
i heard another friend of mine, ani difranco, get asked this question about her career: " do you ever wish you had a hit song?" and ani responded by pointing out the term "hit song" was pretty violent. we're being struck with a blunt object called katy perry and told to like it. who wants that out of music?
as for jill, you'll have to ask her how she feels about having her joke turned into fighting words. and you'll have plenty of opportunity because jill sobule is a real artist: articulate, accesible, creative and working every day in too small rooms with me this fall.
