OCT 25 gig: Jennifer, Duke and Sonny TRIO
Dear friends/colleagues/fans - I'm writing to let you know that I have a few different kinds of shows coming up:
- singing my own songs with Duke and Sonny at Gail's Rec Room 10/25
- Subrosette @Lizard Lounge 11/20 (guests and them tba)
- a cd release show with Session Americana (11/7 Brooklyn)
- and the Wintery Songs tour!
The last little entourage of monarchs and bees are pollinating away - like there’s no tomorrow. And, actually, well… By the time Duke and Sonny and I play our second ever trio gig, October 25 at the Rec Room, I'd like to think these 80 degree days will be long past and we’ll immerse ourselves in leaves of orangeyellowredgold. And I don't know about your trees, but mine have had a banner year of seed production. Can we talk seed pods? Constant barage of falling conkers from the european horse chestnut. I've been under the tree picking up chestnuts and hit on the back with gnawed-free conkers falling from thirty feet above. Squirrels are really on top of it this year. I'd say in the space of a week every seed has been felled by our resident squirrels. Given their diet, I'm guessing they have a much easier time surviving than the rats and bunnies, who seem to studiously avoid hanging out under the tree's canopy. My fantasy of carrying said chestnuts through audiences of Wintery Songs shows while I sing chestnuts roasting on an open fire may actually come to fruition this year:)
Tickets for 10/25 Rec Room gig in Belmont, MA here
Esteemed spouse, Ry Cavanaugh and the Session Americana crew have just released a beautiful new record called North East with a whole team of local guests. Everyone chose a song written by a New England songwriter. And we spent three days in the studio last Spring recording twenty tunes. CD release shows in September were fabulous - Session Americana plus nine guests! Singing harmony and playing piano on Ry's version of Carly Simon's Coming Around Again was a highlight for me. As well as listening to Ali McGuirk sing Mark Sandman's The Night, Kris Delmhorst's version of Chandler Travis' Air Running Backwards and John Powhida's killer version of Gloria Gaynor's Dim all the Lights! Some sweet reviews including one which singled out my track: Patty Griffin's Goodbye.
Ten weeks until the Wintery Songs shows are upon us. Tickets on sale already for some of them. I read with great interest in the the NYT this week about recent McArthur Award winner Annie Dorsen, who wrote an algorithm for a computer to transform a score from one song into another over the course of about 15 minutes of ‘transition.’ Brilliant! Three singers sightread their way live through the computer's score. Dorsen started with Yesterday and ended with Tomorrow. Cool!! Paul McCartney to Annie. And while I don’t have an algorithm for it I have been fascinated with this very idea - how to write an arrangement that sneaks you surreptitiously from one song into another. In my case it’s been about that old chestnut, The Christmas Song morphing into Away in a Manger? Here Comes Santa Claus? Let It Snow? Love to hear your ideas. Write me. Please incorporate the actual chestnuts into your idea.
cheers, Jennifer