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Johannes Brahms: Dein blaues Augen
It comforts me and allows me to open old wounds so they can heal. It reminds me why I love and it shows me again and again how much I am loved. Groth’s words teach me to love better and they tell me what a privilege it is to be the reflection of another’s goodness—to see him whole and well so that he can see it more clearly himself. I get to do that. Wow. There’s love and genuine hospitality in action. And if it weren’t for Johannes Brahms, well, I probably would have never even heard these words, and definitely never in a way so transcendent.
Willie Nelson: Living in the Promiseland
My mother, Helen Joyce drove an eggshell Cadillac until she couldn’t drive any more and the sprawl of West Texas required she spend lots of time in her car. She and I agreed on all things “Willie” and we differed on most things political, but when his cd in her Caddy landed on this track, all our differences blew away with the West Texas wind. We sang along with him most times and she always had it playing when I came to town. Our common ground was “Living in the Promiseland”. I love it for that and also because it makes me feel home.
Stephen Sondheim: Move On
Dear Friends, Happy Friday! What a week it has been. I’m honored to have had...
Joni Mitchell: Both Sides Now
Today I’m all about multitasking. Our time together is nearing an end, yet I feel there is still so much amazing music I want to share with you! While contemplating my penultimate song selection I struggled to settle on a single artist. Thankfully, I came across my most beloved Joni Mitchell song, Both Sides Now and inspiration struck.
Lake Street Dive: Bad Self Portraits
Hiya Folks, Wednesdays, am I right? Humpday. Notoriously sluggish and...
Benj Pasek and Justin Paul: In Short
Back for more then? Thanks! Before we get to the Song of the Day, let’s talk about the Youtube Rabbit Hole Effect. You’re probably not familiar with the term (because I made it up), but you’ve definitely experienced the phenomenon. Things start innocently enough. You click on that intriguing video your friend posted to Facebook, or perhaps you went directly to Youtube to watch that hilarious cat video to brighten your morning…either way the ending is the same. One video leads to the next and before you know it, you look up from your device to find the sun is setting. You’re left wondering how you became so easily distracted and how on Earth you missed lunch! Call me Alice, but I love falling down the Rabbit Hole.
Stephen Sondheim: So Many People
My song for you today is So Many People from Sondheim’s Saturday Night. I love Sondheim. His prowess as a composer and lyricist makes him, in my mind, one of the most influential and important artists of the last century. His words are a masterclass in storytelling and his music, while simple sounding to the ear, is often incredibly complex.
Nick Blaemire: Evaporate
Nick is a good friend and sometime collaborator of mine. He’s also a fantastic songwriter and a killer singer. “Evaporate” one of my favorite of his songs, off his latest album Ampersand. It’s a great example of how to fuse acoustic instrumentation with electronic elements/effects to achieve a super-contemporary feeling.
Candi Staton – Another Man’s Woman, Another Woman’s Man
Candi Staton has one of my favorite voices in the history of music (besides Lauren’s, that is!). She sings with such honesty and rawness on this song about an ill-fated love affair. The emotion comes through strong, even when accompanied by a cheesy late-60s-mode “rock flute” and slightly overwrought horn lines. The lyrics—which don’t even make an effort to rhyme—have a straightforward, searching power to them. The fact there are no rhymes somehow makes the song feel all that much more honest. I particularly love the first two lines: “I can’t ignore the way your yearning eyes look at me / Oh darling, I know what we feel is wrong.”
David Bazan: Curse Your Branches
What I love most about this song is the story behind it. David Bazan was raised Pentecostal, and rose to fame as the lead singer/songwriter of the Christian indie band “Pedro the Lion.” Then he had a crisis of faith. He stopped playing churches, he left his Christian label, and he publicly declared himself agnostic. After that he recorded a solo record, featuring stunningly personal confessionals about his loss of faith. It’s basically a breakup album about breaking up with God. This is one of its best songs. I find it fascinating to hear someone sing so nakedly and honestly about doubt, with a such a palpable weariness in his voice. Feels like you can hear Bazan struggling as he sings.
Nick Cave: Love Letter
This is one of my favorite songs in the world. There’s something about Nick Cave’s rough rock n’ roll voice, paired with a tender string-soaked arrangement, that I find deeply moving. I particularly love how the piano is recorded; it sounds so warm and full of life. The suspensions in the string lines create a harmonic tension that seldom resolves until at least beat two of each measure. The resulting feeling, for me, is a bittersweet yearning that beautifully matches the content of lyrics. And then there’s the moment where the drums come in at 2:55… I get shivers every time. Just the perfect moment of release.
Shovels & Rope: Bridge on Fire
One of the reasons I love the neo-folk duo Shovels & Rope is that it’s a...
NYFOS@Caramoor: Day 5
We weren’t sure we’d be able to make it to Westchester today. They predicted a lengthy snowfall with five to seven inches accumulated on the ground by noon. So we made a bunch of contingency plans, and were prepared to load the singers onto a Metro-North train to work at my house in the afternoon. But it turned out to be a fairly benign snowfall in above-freezing temperatures. The roads were clear (and blessedly empty) on the way up to Caramoor, and we managed to stay on course.
NYFOS@Caramoor: Day 4
Something has been missing for me from the last few Caramoor residencies: one-on-one time with each singer, the kind of interaction where mountains get moved and new artistic ideas get planted. It’s mostly been a question of scheduling: when we have a guest coach, the singers are all in one room with Michael and me and the imported guru, and we simply have less one-on-one time. And this week we’ve had guest teachers every day. Until today.
NYFOS@Caramoor: Day 3
Thursday is usually the most intense day—it’s the designated time for everyone to be off book, i.e., memorized. But today—Wednesday, usually a frolic in the sandbox—turned out to be a strenuous day of contact sports. Some of this had to do with the schedule: Marco was to join us in the afternoon, but he could only get there at 3:40. It was our last coaching day with him—yes, he’ll be back for more rehearsals and he’ll play the performances with us, but then he’ll be in his role purely as flautist. So we had a lot to cover in a short period, and that meant the day ended with three hours of extremely concentrated work on all the flute stuff and all the Spanish stuff.