Independence Day?
7/23
Rockwood Music Hall, Stage 2
Doors: 6PM
Music: 7PM
How did we get here?
There’s a life tapping on the window, and I can’t be sure if it’s a new one, or an old one. There so much excitement about “coming back” and there is energy as I imagine so many overdue reunions. People reunited with their family, with their friends, with frivolity.
But there’s still a hesitation to open that window. Not because I don’t want to go back to an old life, or fear to embrace a new one, but because both of those lives have beginnings. And beginnings are not something I’ve experienced in a long time. I spent months wrapping myself in the familiar: revisiting old stories, old songs, a list of old friends culled smaller and smaller; and building routines around the absurd: zoom happy hours, and virtual meetings, and countless hours working in silence and anonymity so exhaustion could let you sleep amongst the sirens.
Those things were certainly new, but they were not beginnings. Beginnings are the garden path bending out of sight, the blank page, the first stretch of unfamiliar road, the kiss of a warm breeze in the still cold winter. The heart at first and the soul behind.
New Beginnings - ‘Matriarch’
I have a friend, Mary Jennings, who just released a record called “Matriarch” and I promise you it is a magnificent triumph of a record. This is the sound of someone navigating so much uncertainty with the clarity and hope that only honesty can bring. Reconciling the past with what the future brings is heavy work, and Mary takes us with her though every gut wrenching turn.
We survive because we can take from each other when we need to. I genuinely believe we owe each other something, and on this record, Mary gives us 11 beautiful lanterns that she left for us on her own way through the fog. The light of the next one is visible if we are brave enough to step out of the aura of the first. Give it a listen. The doors and windows may be opening, but there’s a good chance we’ve all got a lot that we can’t just paint over with the excitement in the air. I think these songs will help.
The Return of Live Music - 7/23 Rockwood Music Hall
What I had imagined for when we reached “the end” was, everyone that I loved and everyone that has supported me together in a room able to hold each other, meet each other, sing together, celebrating with music. Well I may just get my wish if you play along.
On July 23, 2021 Mary Jennings and I will be playing at Rockwood Music Hall bringing live music back into our lives. We will be celebrating her new record, my record, and meeting for the first time. You should come too and celebrate all the things you've had to put off celebrating, all the people you miss, all the things you can start to hope for.
I’ve opened the window and I’m about to leap through it. I hope to see you there.