Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
From Tom:
We had never played in Kent before so it was incredibly satisfying to get such a fantastic reception and a sold out audience. Top to bottom everyone involved here were great. Tom, the promoter mentioned that he didnât really have to advertise the show before it sold out and also mentioned that we couldâve done two. It is something we are seeing on this run of muliei-nights and smaller venues. Nothing better than walking out every night to a very appreciative full house. Next time, to paraphrase Ernie Banks,âletâs play twoâ.
From Tom:
Well -we made it thru another border crossing, which we usually do but you never take it for granted. Sometimes it doesnât take very long and sometimes, like Montreal last year, they send the whole bus thru a metal detector. And sometimes a member of your team gets turned away because something from 1969 suddenly shows up on their record. But none of that happened this time so all is good until the next one.
On the show front our social media person posted a reminder about these Toronto shows which were taking place in a place called the Opera Hall. With a name like that she assumed and posted that the show was at the âbeauifulâ Opera Hall. Well a few people from Toronto quickly corrected her. One said âbeautiful?, not exactly -in fact itâs a s**tholeâ. Well what do you really think? In truth it was a grungy rock club that apparently used to be a opera house at some point because it sounded absolutely great. So in that aspect it was a beautiful opera house.
From Tom:
Night 2
After an afternoon of watching the news of yet another horrible terror attack in Brussels, where we just were in late January, it had created a bit of a somber mood backstage. Given that, I donât think we couldâve been in a better place than to be in Boston, where they know all too well what it is to go thru such a tragedy. But Boston showed the rest of the world how to get thru such an attack, and you could feel the strength in the room again on Monday night. Lucinda started with World Without Tears as a dedication to both the people of Brussels and Boston. Night 2 was a completely different set list, as always, but in almost every case where Lu was given the choice of songs she chose the darker -Seeing Black, a blistering Atonement, and Unsuffer Me. I think that was her way of getting a little catharsis and every one was right with her all night long. Boston strong indeed.
From Tom:
Night 1
We donât ask Lu to do 4 nights in a row very often as itâs just too much wear and tear on her voice. But sometimes we just have to. Tarrytown was the fourth show of 4 in a row so a quiet night off in Boston was just what the doctor ordered, before two sold out shows at the Paradise. There certainly was a lot of energy and anticipation in the room on night 1 -it felt like a Saturday night, but as a friend of mine told me, âitâs always Saturday night in Bostonâ. Enough said. Great version of Bitter Memory with Lu and Stuart improvising the longer guitar ending -with Lu just telling him to keep going. Fruits Of My Labor got a big response as did Change The Locks. Of course the version of Woody Guthrieâs I Ainât Got No Home with the newly discover4ed Trump was a big hit. That was followed by the one two punch of Joy and Rockinâ In The Freeworld, with Lu noting that although she wrote Joy as a âloveâ song, ever since the protesters in Wisconsin sang it a couple of years ago it has become a protest song.
From Tom:
Iâve done it again -fallen behind on keeping these setlists up. In there interest of catching back up here are all 5 of the setlists from New York. The idea on this tour was to play smaller rooms and do multiple nights and so far itâs been a smash success. Itâs a lot less wear and tear on Lu and I think we all like to be in one place for a few days. But it also seems like the audiences appreciate the more intimate shows. I guess you would call that a win win situation. So many highlights over these 5 nights I wonât even attempt to name (remember) them all. Weâre getting to break in a lot of the brand new songs. Dust is quickly becoming one of the centerpieces of the setâand itâa little different every night. These residency shows allow us to change the sets every night even more than we usually doâand lets us dig deeper into the catalog. By my count we did 61 different songs in these five shows-and there was a still a ton of great things we didnât get to.. Lu loves to be able to do of songs we donât get to do very often. Itâs always great to have some time in NYC and this time we caught some good weather. I should mention that we had a great dinner on the night of at Peasant. Just incredibly good. Thanks to everyone at the City Winery for their fantastic hospitality. And thanks to everyone who came out and made these shows great. We are well aware that they sold out very fast so we just might have to come back soon and do it again.
From Tom:
Iâve probably said it before but one of the best things that happens on tour is the people you meet and sometimes we are lucky to cross paths with some amazing people. This night in Tarrytown was one of those nights as we had Woody Guthrieâs daughter Nora Guthrie in the audience. Nora is an extraordinary woman an runs the Woody Guthrie archive and estate. A couple years back It was Nora who sent a copy of the original lyrics to House Of Earth that Woody had typed out on yellow letterhead in 1947 and which Lu eventually wrote the music to. Nora had sent along a note to Lu saying âI just discovered these lyrics and you were the first one I thought of as someone who could put music to his words, but I understand if itâs too risquĂ©â. Not only did Lu put the music to Woodyâs words but Nora eventually invited Lu to perform the song at the Kennedy Center in DC. Nora introduced Lu that night and said â I think this will be the first time a song about a prostitute will ever be sung at Kennedy Center -and Lu is brave enough to do itâ. Of course we eventually recorded a full band version for the Ghosts of Hwy 20 album. Lu has also been doing the version of Woodyâs song I Ainât Got No Home In This World Anymore with the lost verse that mentions Donald Trumpâs father, who was Woodyâs landlord in Brooklyn. Talk about strange American history. You canât make this stuff up. And letâs just say the apple didnât fall far from the tree.
We also got to meet one Luâs favorite new singers Sharon Van Etten. Needless to say with Nora and her husband and Sharon we had some great conversation at the pub around the corner from the venue.
And a big thank you to Tarrytown for the second sold out show in less than year. We really appreciate it and we donât forget it.
Atta boy Mr. S. Was your trip across the border filled with warm and fuzzy interactions with Customs?
Enjoy your visit to my hometown from 1994 to 1996. 8)
