Last week we drove to New Orleans to see a friend of ours play a concert at The Saenger Theatre. I texted Nels Cline to see if he could put us on his guest list for the show and after party and he responded with a quick thumbs up. How did this life happen to me, I thought.
During the show they were in the middle of playing "Impossible Germany" when Nels just disappeared as he played the guitar solo. How does he do that?! My mind wandered and thought back about my journey to this night. I was thinking of the 3 year period in Brooklyn where I dedicated myself to becoming an artist and learning all the things to make my first record "So Long". Seriously, I did not grow up playing music and I had the audacity to think that I could do it. I did have something powerful trying to come through and I needed a vehicle or a canvas to set it free. Childhood tragedy and nothingness turned me into a raging wannabe artist and I put myself in front of the work and just powered through, night after night, day after day. It added up. It was the hardest, most insecure years of my life up until that point. It felt foreign, everything was new.
The record came out really good and we stumbled onto our sound. It was fresh and combined many kinds of music we loved. Although, at this time, I had let go of my love for New Wave and was exploring a more roots kind of sound. We began to make our home made packaging with the brown paper from banana boxes. My daily routine would be going to the the cafe ordering a coffee from the dude Kyp from TV On The Radio and then hitting all the bodega's for the brown paper to make record covers. We made so many of these records and stuffed the CD in it and sent them off into the world.
It didn't take long until we got word that our little record was buzzing and gaining traction in places like Toronto and right there in ole New York where we were living. It wasn't exactly a buzz in my neighborhood in Williamsburg but more a buzz in the music industry, which I guess was better. My friend John Ellis was on tour with Charlie Hunter and Norah Jones before she became a star. John was always super sweet and took me serious as I began my quest to make music. When he got home from tour we sat and listened to the whole record and when it was over he said, "how the hell did you do it?" A guy named Sean was their tour manager and Norah's manager at the time and he loved the record and wanted to manage me to help me get started. It didn't take long before he led me to another manager and we began to really put together a live show. Think about it. I had just made my first record and never played a live show. I had a lot to learn. The buzz was buzzing and folks wanted to see me live. I guess that's why I titled this one "Impossible Journey", cause it sure felt that way.
And then out of the blue, the whole band boards a plane to Nashville with only 10 songs to play Bonnaroo music festival. As the van approached there were huge lines of folks waiting to get in. We went in through the artist entrance, onto the artist lounge area. My stomach was in knots, but I was excited when I stepped out of the van. There was an excitement in the air, with a crowd gathering and there he was Mr. Bob Dylan, just hanging out. Tweedy and Dave Matthews were talking to him and Danny Clinch was around with his camera. He was about to do a photo session with me before my show. How the hell did I get here?!
