'On and Off' Showcase 03/08/11!

SAVE THE DATE for the next On and Off event at Club Passim! It will be on March 8, 2011 and will include another batch of incredible local musicians. So far... Dennis Brennan! Honorary local, Margaret Glaspy! Mark Erelli! and Jess Tardy! Backed by Billy Beard on drums! Zachariah Hickman on bass! and Mark Erelli in guitar! Guests are inevitable and surprises in store.

We can't wait!

Oh Hear Us

I have posted yet another video from the 2007 film project benefit at Club Passim.

This video is an incredibly gorgeous version of Jennifer Kimball's, Eternal Father. Rose Polenzani lends her sweet voice to the mix, while Duke Levine stands heroically by, on electric.

The song is from Jennifer's last record, Oh Hear Us, released in 2006. The first verse comes from the hymn Eternal Father and the second from Our God Our Help in Ages Past.

I can't say how much I miss Jennifer and her music here around the Avenue. She and the family are due to return from Ireland in June. Until then we have a few YouTube videos to tide us over.

Eternal father strong to save
Whose arm does bind the restless wave
Who biddst the mighty ocean deep
Its own apointed limits keep
Oh hear us when we cry to thee
For those in peril on the sea

Time, like an ever-rolling stream
Bears all its children soon away
To fly forgotten as a dream
Dies at the opening of the day
Oh, hear us when we cry to thee
For those in peril here with me

Oh let the darkness shine as light
Make endless nightime to be bright
When fear and sorrows all have passed
Then face to face well meet at last
Be still when tears are wiped from men
Whose eyes shall never weep again,
weep again, weep again.

Dark Eyes Shining Darkly

Only a handful of songs have ever effected me like "Your Fonder Heart." When I first heard the song, my eyes welled, heart swelled, my head whirled and I lifted off the ground... like how a great song can make you soar.

Why? Though I never know the exact thing about art that shifts my being, I imagine that with this song it has a lot to do with glowing energy that enters the room when Anaïs plays it, the visually striking language she uses along with its moving sentiment, and her disarming delivery. I was captured by that rawness in her style of singing and playing from the second I saw her take the stage at a Club Passim Campfire festival.

When I first began taking the camera out to shows, I shot a lot of my favorite artists around town with no specific focus regarding the On and Off Mass Ave project. I have been having a ball uploading some of that footage and sharing with the people. Here are the lyrics to the song along with the video I shot at Club Passim at the CD release for The Brightness in 2007.

Your Fonder Heart

come out, come on, come outside
don’t you hide your handsome face from me
I want to see you half-lit in the half-light
laughing with the whites of your dark eyes
shining
darkly

way over yonder I’m waiting and wondering
wither your fonder heart lies

come out, the streets are breathing
heaving green to red to green
come with your nicotine and wine
tambourine keeping time
come and find me in the evening

way over yonder I’m waiting and wondering
wither your fonder heart lies
way over yonder I’m waiting and wondering
whether your fonder heart lies

come out, come inspired
you will not come to harm
if I cannot take you for a liar or a lover
I’ll take you for my brother in arms

way over yonder I’m waiting and wondering
wither you fonder heart lies
way over yonder I’m waiting and wondering
whether your fonder heart lies

Ladies and Gentlemen...

The MAGNIFICENT tellers of my soul, Tim Gearan and Duke Levine.

Meghan Says...

Meghan says that "it is the end of an era around here."

It was a just a few months ago that I wrote how beloved the Tim Gearan Band is to the local fan community, and how there is no place like Monday night at Toad. Will we ever know such an epic residency like this again? (The band will be playing at Atwood's going forward... good news if you were not attached to the Friday night version of Tim's band.)

In the remaining weeks look for me at Toad as I record memories from the regulars that helped to create the energy and magic over the years. This piece will be available to view at the Deli Magazine website, probably at the end of September.

In other News...

This weekend is the incredible Club Passim Campfire Festival in Harvard Square. Tickets are offered at a lower price this year, so if you're around, it's well worth the $10. I will be there all weekend, either at the merch table or enjoying the music.

AND

I have made a little fan page for The Giant Kings on Facebook, please join. Check out this fabulously fun band twice this month at the Lizard Lounge! I have started a poem about them- that's how cool I think they are. (Duke Levine, Kevin Barry, Chris Cote... COME ON) Maybe I will post it here when I am done.

:kiss kiss:
*Check out this blog for more photos by David Griffin.

Border Nights

Going to see favorite musicians at Club Passim is one of the best things about living in the Boston area.

Ten years ago, after dinner at the Border Cafe, I walked past the window of the club and saw a stage and a roomful of audience. The restaurant is across the alley from Passim. It did not take me long to find my way through the doors and into the world of live acoustic music. Now I am at the Border a few nights a week after shows (and usually after helping stack chairs). The Border is among my home sweet homes.

I could not begin the count the times where I have taken refuge here on long Campfire festival days... the people I have met, the stories, the insane laughter, and OH, that glorious country music that always reminds me of my childhood home of Tucson, Arizona. If you're gonna play in Texas, you gotta have a fiddle in the band... or any number of Dixie Chicks songs.

This post is a note of affection for my favorite local margarita haven. When I am there, I am with my beloved pals from the world of Passim... I currently recommend the Patron margarita.

Music = Life

Some time a ago, I caught something- it was bad. Always a music lover, it was inevitable that my condition would either sustain itself or grow uncontrollably. My natural obsessive nature made it very likely that this mostly healthy sickness would be at the center of my current existence.

That is where I find myself today, at 31- In absolute love with local music, out five nights a week, at least, purely devoted. When not out seeing Tim Gearan at Toad, Atwood's, or the Burren... if not at the Lizard Lounge for Session Americana... I am privileged to be seeing my favorite musicians and musician friends play at Club Passim and other venues around town.

Of all the sprouting incarnations in town, I must say my favorite is definitely Sub Rosa, a "secret society of friends and strangers" at the Lizard Lounge. Hosted by the deliciously talented Rose Polenzani, Sub Rosa is an ever-changing musical performance of originals and covers by Rose's community of songwriters and players, with one guest stranger chosen to play a couple of songs and be interviewed by Rose. One of the things I love most about Sub Rosa, is that there is very little, if any, rehearsing. When there is magic, and there often is, it is real and it is unforgettable. (here is a video from youtube, for your enjoyment.)

Speaking of the songwriter community and of musician friends, last night I went to see Chris O'Brien at Atwood's. Chris is currently at work on his second record, after much success surrounding his first full release, Lighthouse, in 2007. Chris was a Finalist on "A Prairie Home Companion" for the People In Their Twenties Talent Contest, and was the 2007 New Artist of the Year on WUMB.

I was really loving Chris last night, though he is already a high-energy performer, he came into himself even more with the cast of players who accompanied him on stage. If you have ever seen Josh Ritter with his band, you will probably remember the mustached bass player, Zack Hickman. This man has unstoppable momentum, and a sharp, elegant style made all his own- and well, he is ridiculously awesome at everything he does. Also playing, newer to Josh's band, guitarist, Austin Nevins. Austin is among my most beloved local players and he's someone you just want to be around for his humor and for his very essence. These two have a dynamic onstage chemistry that makes for an always impressive sound. Charlie Rose played banjo, and Mike Piehl was on drums- you could not go wrong. It was a blast.