Hosting a house concert

Over the years I've hosted occasional live-in-the-living room concerts with top-notch artists--Peter Mulvey, Louise Taylor, Jennifer Kimball, Stephen Fearing, Sons of the Never Wrong...and most recently Galitcha, a group from Ottawa that mixes Indian folk and Bollywood songs with elements of western folk and jazz. Every time I experience music in this down-home environment, I feel so privileged. Even people who love acoustic music get so few chances to hear great instrumentalists and a singers in a room, without the sonic hyping of either a PA system or a recording studio, and without the separation of a stage.

Some artists have told me they find house concerts a little too intimate--the audience is literally at their feet, dead quiet, and not hidden by stage lighting. But for musicians who are comfortable being this up close and personal with listeners, the interaction before, during, and after the show can be exhilarating. And for the audience, not only is the music itself often a revelation, but there's a palpable sense of supporting creativity. When you buy a CD or a 99-cent download, you may have a vague notion that a portion of your money goes to the singer, player, or songwriter. But at a house concert, the creator is right there, singing and breathing and strumming and greeting you afterward. The human connection--the thing we miss the most in this atomized age--is real and immediate.

Jewel on performing, 2001

"My dad was really good at it. He was always the one who would tell stories and make up songs on the spot about audience members. We’d do the four hour-long sets, and we would walk around between sets and talk to everyone. I was really shy and stiff onstage, real self-conscious. And then I went through other phases where I’d been onstage so long, at age 14 or 15, that it would get way too comfortable--you’re too relaxed and you don’t have any respect for it. You’re not entertaining; you’re just like in your living room.

"I think when I started playing my own music, I came into my own, because I get lost in the emotion of the song--I don’t have to think about it at all. I just learned to have a rapport with the audience and talk and tell stories and joke around, and I began to enjoy that as much as singing."

From the book The Complete Singer-Songwriter: A Troubadour's Guide to Writing, Performing, Recording, and Business

Music festivals for families

My story about great music festivals for families--Strawberry, Kerrville, Vancouver, Old Songs, and others--appears in the Summer 2007 issue of Travel + Leisure Family. A longer version of the piece, with more fests plus info on music camps, will be posted soon on the website.

Duncan Sheik on putting Steven Sater's words to music, 2001

"Usually when I write, I write music first and then words later, whenever they come to me. So it was a little bit of an adjustment, but once I got into the process it became very natural. In fact I really enjoyed it, because it becomes this kind of fascinating puzzle, how you can make a line of text work as a musical phrase, and how you can take the structure of the given text and make that work as a musical structure in terms of the whole song. It became its own little adventure each time.”

From an interview for Acoustic Guitar. At the time, Sheik had recently released Phantom Moon, on which he put Steven Sater's poetry to music. They've continued to collaborate since, notably on the current Broadway musical Spring Awakening.

Chris Whitley on songwriting, 2005

“I’m quite a limited musician, so I feel like I have to trust my impulse.... What I’ve been looking for is a way to break down my own rationale, my own way of judging what I do. I don’t want to make something that’s not worth buying, but I want it to feel like a human’s lifted their head right off or something, or opening their self."

From an interview for NPR's All Things Considered (listen to the story here), in the summer before Whitley died of lung cancer. At the time Whitley was mastering the CD Reiter In, released last year by Red Parlor.

Whitley has been very much on my mind lately. Rounder is releasing Dislocation Blues, his CD with Australian guitarist Jeff Lang (look for my review in an upcoming issue of Acoustic Guitar). And I've been performing "Big Sky Country" live. Though I've loved Whitley's music ever since Living with the Law, I never attempted to perform it before. Took me a while to find my own take that didn't feel like a watered-down version of his playing and singing. But now it feels so great to play that song, and the words have taken on a whole new meaning.

"Meet your maker in the big sky country...be kissing time good-bye."