that perfect song, that perfect moment
sometimes music is amazing
i don’t usually listen to music when i work or write. no matter the kind of music, it’s too much for me. hearing any music immediately overwhelms me. it completely takes over my whole being. it springs my mind into a million realms all at once. it just doesn’t work for me to do much else when it’s on. i have learned to drive with it on, but my driving record probably reflects what a struggle even that is. about the only thing i can do while i listen to music is ride my bike… or listen to music.
all that is to say that today, as i’m writing this i’m listening to "new ways" the latest album by canadian artist leif vollebekk. it seems to be working for me.
back in july some dear friends from NYC stopped by my house here in western mass on their way to acadia in maine. they had rented a #vanlife kind of vehicle and parked it in my driveway for a few days. one of the evenings, they decided to cook for me, on their simple outdoor camp stove. as the sun was setting, we gathered folding chairs around the open back of the van, and there i sat in my yard, watching them prepare a meal. i exhaled. we were doing something that felt novel at the time: spending quality in person time with beloveds.
one of my friends had a little speaker and put a playlist on… just random things he’d come across that he liked, that he assembled into a… mood. and now here we were just soaking in that mood. nobody was talking much. the sunset, the food, the music, the friendship, the cuteness of the van was enough.
then a song came on that just floored me. it was leif vollebekk’s “into the ether”. the song is simple. it has a deep pocket and a plaintive, raw vocal. it aches in just the right way. hearing it for the first time, i felt like i could finally cry for everything we’d lost, and yet i was so happy for everything i had in that moment.
it is so rare for me to hear an artist i don’t know anything about and fall in love. it is the finest pleasure. it overwhelms in the best possible way. and it imprinted the moment on me forever. now, whenever i play that song (which is alot) i can conjure that exact mood, the exact light in the sky, that feeling of an open heart sprawled in a camp chair, underneath the giant hemlock that frames my driveway.
you certainly have moments and memories like this too. most people do. i know i am not unique or special, though again i do have to say it hardly ever happens to me. somehow i’m always in the way because i know too much: the person singing the song is a friend or (god forbid) a colleague that i don't have a good relationship with (it happens). or the song reminds me of another song. or i think i wrote that song already. or or or or… whatever!
i know many of you have some really important memories of hearing songs from my debut album distillation. first dates, senior years, breakups, weddings, starting careers, concerts with loved ones still here, and loved ones now gone. i know this because you have been generous enough to share these personal memories with me over the last 20 years since distillation first came out. these are precious things, to you and to me. i can’t tell you what an honor it is to be the song on the speaker at that moment, to give you what has been so beautifully given to me, time and time again.
this saturday we’re gonna celebrate all those feelings around a campfire during a special livestream broadcast from my house. it's the 10th episode of Cabin Fever, if you can believe it. my pal dave chalfant, who produced distillation, is gonna join me. we’ll play all the songs from the record, swap some stories of what we remember from making it, and hopefully give y’all a chance to conjure up some of those precious memories of your own.
just a few tickets remain, i hope you’ll join us!
x erin
¡ME GUSTA! : SOME OF MY FAVORITE THINGS
here in the pioneer valley we are the luckiest because we have Living Radio Legend Monte Belmonte creating culture & community for us daily on WRSI. a few days ago he came over to my place & we taped the next conversation in our 20+ year friendship. we talk distillation 20th, cabin fever 10th, and how we have both grown up.
enough of this anniversary talk! have a listen to a brand new poem & song from me, performed lakeside at my home away from home, the smashfield snakehouse.
an astonishing essay that begins as a history and praise of my favorite color orange and then goes... well, you'll see
for those of you born in the 70's, one of your most vivid memories is likely that of the challenger tragedy. this documentary series on netflix brings back *all the feelings*
and finally, also for those of us for whom 'oregon trail' was a two color nearly DOS / TELNET game, there is this exploration of the cultural significance and legacy of carlton, from the fresh prince of bel-air.