The Speakeasy Stage at the Towne Crier

It had been a hot day in the valley. Folks were looking a little dazed, but relaxed. I took the side stage by the bar at 9:30pm with Steve Raleigh & Jim Curtin, the faint sounds of another band through the far wall. It was the Towne Crier, but not as most think of it. There is a second stage at the Towne Crier. You enter at Main Street, with the bar to your right - a little separate - and tables front and left. There's a couch and chairs. The acoustics are really good. Better than I expected from a space not originally intended for a stage. It does have a speakeasy feel to it, like you can take a booth at the back and just be left to take it all in.

Undercover...? Because music is its own dimension - you can write and read it, but it still exists under cover of a kind of beautiful darkness, of an impermanence and invisibility that no one can touch even though we all course with its energy. And when the world gets too hot or too strange, or too tedious or too demanding, music gives mental shelter, a place to cool the mind so we can experience the heart.

And dig into unexpected challenges.

Speaking of which, as promised in last update, we played through lots of complex new arrangements like 'Bring Back That Summertime'. The guys killed it, and the space was really accommodating acoustically. I'd enjoy playing there again. The audience looked so content and chill, and it was great seeing everyone. Thanks so much for coming out after a long hot day. Hope it cooled your heels. Undercover might be seen again there next month. Stay Tuned.

Thank you, Towne Crier! Thanks to Phil and especially Miss Vickie.

Bring Back That Summertime

I brought along a stack of new tunes to rehearse for the gig on August 6th at Towne Crier's 'Speakeasy Saturday'. Jim & Steve were troopers and we plowed through all of it (I think it was fifteen new songs altogether). In the practice room I let the recorder run and caught this little gem. Now a slideshow on YouTube, next year it'll be a properly recorded song. Looking forward to that. Meanwhile, here's us in the practice room... enjoy!

CLICK HERE for link to YOUTUBE:
Bring Back That Summertime, practice room
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFc-6lpqIcY

This is the thumbnail you'll see online.
The video editing chose this thumbnail, and when I tried to change it, it wouldn't let me. I guess I can't argue with tiger lillies when it comes to an ode to summer...

The Beautiful Bridge

I was back in the studio on and off over the winter recording more jazz tracks, and a fair amount of time at the piano writing. This is in some ways a traditional vocal jazz record of standards, except that half of them are original songs written in standard form. When I write standards I feel like I'm channeling. They write themselves, I am the interpreter. It's an amazing experience of listening and learning that I feel really lucky to have come naturally. Even as a kid I found myself singing entire songs as if they were being dictated by the ghost of some songwriter from the forties who never had their day.
But then a kind of song will come along that while it has the formality of a standard, is more intimate, more about the elemental experience of life on earth. More of my own voice comes through, my own thoughts.

There's one recent song that crosses the line between the two, the old & new, the cheekily romantic & the postmodern, a Bossa called 'Lost In The Blue', and I'm really interested to hear the response to it. In the spring, on the day of these photos, we were rerecording it. I had just added a tricky instrumental bridge where simple repeats had been. Steve, Jim and T. played a beautiful instrumental track. I’ve got a sample of it on my website music page (at the bottom) .

Jim Curtin, T. Xiques, Margaret McDuffie, Steve Raleigh

  

    

Dogwood Night

Logging this one, at Dogwood, September 17^th  2015. It was a Thursday night with a close crowd and just the best feeling it the room. Thanks to Mark Murphy, Steve Raleigh & T. Xiques for a couple of perfect sets, and Joe Johnson, that sound was right in the zone.

Photos courtesy of Alison Rich.