The Lessons of Autumn 10th Anniversary Show
Originally, I had planned to have an extravagant "to do" for this event. I'm glad that it ended up being just me and an acoustic guitar, though.
On Friday, October 13th, 2006, I celebrated the 10th anniversary of the release of The Lessons of Autumn. The album is significant for many reasons. For one, it's a pretty good record. For two, it's the work that got my foot in the door. And for three, it's arguably my most personal album. It's so personal that most of the songs don't have an identifiable chorus...looking back, the thing reads like a diary from a bad time.
Back in August, I considered getting the original band together for the show. This would have been Nic Brown on drums, John Gillespie on bass, Mark Kano on electric guitar, and a few others playing violin, piano, and clarinet. I wanted to augment the evening with sax and trumpet, too. When I asked around, not everyone was available. Around September, I resolved to let the show be just an acoustic duo interpretation of the work. Up until about three hours before the show, this was going to be the case. Mark called as I was on my way down to Charlotte to tell me that he wasn't feeling well enough to play the gig. When we practiced earlier that day, we weren't sure if he would be feeling well enough by the evening. Such is the case with show business. The show must go on.
There was something cool about performing this album in its entirety by myself. Perhaps cool isn't the right word. Maybe it was more fitting. Yes, that's it. Because Lessons is such a personal record, it made more sense for me to perform it by myself. Although, the Mike and Mark duo rehearsal of the record sounded really, really good.
I started and ended the set with an attempt at playing the electric piano. "Birthday Song" isn't hard to pull off on the piano, but I'm not a strong piano player. I listened to John Hodge's boot of the show this morning and this didn't sound too bad. I started this particular song with an allusion to "I Fall in Love Too Easily," a standard that Miles Davis played in the 60's. He also played the lick at the top of "Sanctuary" from the Bitches Brew era.
Once I got to the guitar, things were comfortable. I played through the record making comments where necessary. Usually whenever I had to retune the guitar I made some comment about the next song. I remember the second half of the set being stronger than the first. I guess it took me a little while to get comfortable, as it always does. I was told that "Oceans" and "Milestone" were particular good.
I ended the set with "The Lessons of Autumn." I can't recall ever performing this song live with me playing the piano. So, that was a first. The song was written as a requiem for the story. I like the song a lot. I enjoyed ending the set with it.
The second set was an all request set. The only two songs that I selected were "Two Shadows" and "Where There's a Door," two newer compositions of mine. Everything else was by request. The requests were Building a Hole heavy, but there were quite a few selections. Thankfully, no one requested a song from Lessons. I hate it when people request songs that I've already played. I got a request for a song called "Information Junkie" that I hadn't played in about 8 years. I didn't have the lyrics, but we found them on the internet during the show. Technology has come a long way.
On Friday, October 13th, 2006, I celebrated the 10th anniversary of the release of The Lessons of Autumn. The album is significant for many reasons. For one, it's a pretty good record. For two, it's the work that got my foot in the door. And for three, it's arguably my most personal album. It's so personal that most of the songs don't have an identifiable chorus...looking back, the thing reads like a diary from a bad time.
Back in August, I considered getting the original band together for the show. This would have been Nic Brown on drums, John Gillespie on bass, Mark Kano on electric guitar, and a few others playing violin, piano, and clarinet. I wanted to augment the evening with sax and trumpet, too. When I asked around, not everyone was available. Around September, I resolved to let the show be just an acoustic duo interpretation of the work. Up until about three hours before the show, this was going to be the case. Mark called as I was on my way down to Charlotte to tell me that he wasn't feeling well enough to play the gig. When we practiced earlier that day, we weren't sure if he would be feeling well enough by the evening. Such is the case with show business. The show must go on.
There was something cool about performing this album in its entirety by myself. Perhaps cool isn't the right word. Maybe it was more fitting. Yes, that's it. Because Lessons is such a personal record, it made more sense for me to perform it by myself. Although, the Mike and Mark duo rehearsal of the record sounded really, really good.
I started and ended the set with an attempt at playing the electric piano. "Birthday Song" isn't hard to pull off on the piano, but I'm not a strong piano player. I listened to John Hodge's boot of the show this morning and this didn't sound too bad. I started this particular song with an allusion to "I Fall in Love Too Easily," a standard that Miles Davis played in the 60's. He also played the lick at the top of "Sanctuary" from the Bitches Brew era.
Once I got to the guitar, things were comfortable. I played through the record making comments where necessary. Usually whenever I had to retune the guitar I made some comment about the next song. I remember the second half of the set being stronger than the first. I guess it took me a little while to get comfortable, as it always does. I was told that "Oceans" and "Milestone" were particular good.
I ended the set with "The Lessons of Autumn." I can't recall ever performing this song live with me playing the piano. So, that was a first. The song was written as a requiem for the story. I like the song a lot. I enjoyed ending the set with it.
The second set was an all request set. The only two songs that I selected were "Two Shadows" and "Where There's a Door," two newer compositions of mine. Everything else was by request. The requests were Building a Hole heavy, but there were quite a few selections. Thankfully, no one requested a song from Lessons. I hate it when people request songs that I've already played. I got a request for a song called "Information Junkie" that I hadn't played in about 8 years. I didn't have the lyrics, but we found them on the internet during the show. Technology has come a long way.