2/24/2020: I was out on a school night to see Kamasi Washington at Big Night Live! I don’t usually listen to much jazz music, but my dear friends Beren and Andrea (friends who I met many, many years ago when I was living in Israel on a Kibbutz) got me tickets to go see this fantastic show in a very cool venue. Thanks for coming out with me Lisa Gilinsky!
2/7/2020: Grateful for the uplifting and inspiring Shabbat Nariya (Shabbat Sing Out) at TBZ. This has felt like a particularly heavy/long week and it was wonderful to welcome in shabbat with community.
Here is just one of the meaningful psalms that we raised our voices to:
“Ya’aloz sadai v’khol-asher bo
Az y’ran’nu kol-atzey ya’ar”
“Let the fields and all that is in them be happy, and then the trees of the forest will burst in song”
1/25/2020: Driftwood at City Winery. I’d never heard this band before, but I listened to one song before buying the tickets (only $16!) and decided that I liked their sound (they are described as an americana/folk rock band). City Winery is one of my favorite venues; dining service before/during the show, intimate setting and overall great vibe. For the last song of the night, the band came onto the floor and played between the tables. Thanks Anna Simmons for driving on a very rainy night. It was so much fun! Love their sound!
1/24/2020: I went to the Narrows Center for the first time (very cool venue) and got to see one of my all time favorite bands…Entrain! Back in the mid-late 90s, Rob and I used to see them every Thursday night (during the summers) at the AC. Such a fun band full of horns and percussion- you can’t help but dance the night away. We loved them so much that we had them play at our wedding! Rob had other plans that involved snow so I met up with my sister-in-law and her friend for a great night of music, dancing as well as a trip down memory lane for me. Enjoy this short video clip.
1/5/2020: As many of you know, I love listening to music, talking about music, writing about music and best of all going to listen to live music. Over the years I’ve made countless mixed tapes/CDs for friends and family and before we moved from MV, I had the opportunity to be a guest DJ on WMVY which was an experience of a lifetime. My parents were influential in introducing me to much of the music that I still listen to today. When I was 5 or 6 they took me to see Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris and then when I was 8 or 9 went to Government Center to see/hear Andy Pratt perform on the plaza. I was mesmerized and enchanted. This music thing was amazing!! Flash forward to countless concerts in the 80s and 90s (The Go Gos, The Police, The Fixx, Flock of Seagulls, David Bowie, The Motels, Squeeze, The Violent Femmes, Thompson Twins, Beastie Boys, Corey Hart, Multiple Lilith Fairs, HORDE Festival, Newport Folk Festival, Bruce Springsteen, Bare Naked Ladies, Steely Dan, Sting, Big Audio Dynamite, Marc Cohn, Ben Folds Five, and many, many more) and continued through the 2000s with Rob and then our kids too.
This brings me to 2020, which is the year that I will turn 50. In celebration of this milestone, I’ve set an intention to enjoy live music all year long. My goal is to enjoy music from 50 different bands/performers in the coming year. This past Friday was performance #1. Once a month, my temple (co-sponsored with Moshe Kavod House) has an AMAZING Friday night Shabbat celebration called Shabbat Nariya. This past Friday Rob and I went to the shabbat sing out and had the opportunity to gather with community and “raise our voices, move our bodies, catch our breath and gather strength as we created a circle of sound to welcome Shabbat.” Since there is no cell phone use on shabbat, I could not capture the amazingness of this evening. Picture the sanctuary with every seat filled and with voices booming as we all welcome in shabbat together. Magical.
I tried publishing this post on July 9th, but WordPress would not allow me to save/publish. Here is the post…a few days later.
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It has been over a year since my last post.
Too busy this past year; looking for a job and planning a major move for my family.
But the music still moves me and sometimes in the most profound ways. I have been struggling to process the events of the last few days. I’ve been reading the posts on facebook, which there are many. I have been uncertain about what to say myself or what to share that others have written. I’ve been sitting silent. Unclear on where to my find my voice. When I was driving home yesterday, I heard a cover of the amazing Stevie Wonder song, “Love’s In Need of Love Today”. It is a version that I have never heard before and I was immediately drawn in. An intense wave of sorrow rose up through my body and then came trickling out in soft gentle drops from my eyes. For now, this is my message and I share this song with you.
Once again I find myself apologizing for taking so much time to get back to writing about music. It is certainly not for lack of ideas or inspiration. I’ve been intending to write about the song “Old Pine” by Ben Howard for many months. Last January I sent myself an email message with a link to the lyrics to this song as a reminder that I needed to include the words of this song in my post. Well, this past weekend provided me with the push that I’ve been needing to get myself blogging again.
I was fortunate to go a very special overnight camp on Cape Cod with a wonderful group of girls/women. Last year it was the 50th anniversary of the camp and one bold camper/friend organized a reunion. I was only able to stay for the 1st night, as I had a wedding to attend that weekend, but how amazing it was to reconnect with so many inspiring women from my past. This past weekend I was able to stay through the weekend which meant that I did not have to miss campfire. For any of you who have gone to overnight camp, I’m sure you can agree that campfire is one of the most special times at camp. The songs, the rituals and the smells all become cemented into your soul in a powerful and emotional way. After my oldest camper year in 1985, the camp became co-ed and campfire became a slightly contentious issue that had to be sorted out. Wingate had her way of “doing” campfire and Kirkand had his way. The camp director at the time moved swiftly and with precision to appease both sides and come up with a solution that planted the seeds for a new set of traditions, rituals and songs for a new generation of campers. And what I learned this past weekend, is that even within our Wingate community, that there were different campfire traditions through the years. There were songs that some older campers sang that we never sang when I was there and vice versa. Which leads me to this song….
When I first heard “Old Pine”, I immediately thought of camp. The lyrics grabbed my sentimental side and wouldn’t let go. And it made me wonder… “what do they sing at campfire these days?” Had contemporary music made it onto the song sheets or were people still singing “Fire & Rain” and “Leaving on a Jet Plane”? If newer songs have a place in current campfire traditions, I am sure that people must be singing “Old Pine” somewhere.
Read the lyrics first and then take a look and a listen to the song.
My Musical Muses 