It seems crazy, I know, to have one of my World Famous in Bloomsburg release shows in Danville, which is like a whole different world from Bloomsburg. But Brews n Bytes has been one of my favorite places to play for years, and we don’t make all the way to Danville to eat as often as we would like.
Paul, Zeke, Anna, Mike
Mike Hickey played guitar on only 5 songs on the album, but the stage at Brews n Bytes is small, and Mike couldn’t make it to Release Party 1, so he (and Anna and Zeke) were the band today. He came prepared, with three guitars, a mandolin, and an autoharp. The combination of vocal, guitar, trombone, and autoharp (seen above during Creosote Covered Pole) is, like the Yeti, exceedingly rare, and documented only in blurry photos.
As in Bloomsburg, we played the album front to back – someday this will be a rare alternate bootleg version of the album. The day was cold and rainy, but the crowd was warm, friendly, and mostly dry. Every time I play at Brews n Bytes I think I should play there more often. As I do this time. Thanks, guys!
Last night was the premier of Our Town Bloomsburg on WVIA. Safa, Randy, and I went up to play Susquehanna (Here It Comes Again) at the end of the show. It was an interesting and overall positive experience , but what stands out for me was about 6 seconds of sheer terror. Let me explain.
In the early days of this song, I’d get confused with Verse 2 (which starts “the settlers used the river like a highway to the woods”) and Verse 3 (which starts “the settlers cut the timber down and floated it to port”), forgetting if I had done both or one or neither. Then for Flood Stories Too we needed a shorter version, so we took out Verse 3 and the chorus. Then I had to relearn to play it with that. For this show, they needed a song 3 to 4 minutes long, so I went back to the Flood Stories edit.
Safa, Paul, Randy on the telly
Playing for the telly was interesting. There are no monitors, no amplification, and so you’re singing into mikes, but you can’t tell what’s being picked up. Coming out of the first chorus, I launched into the next verse, only to realize I didn’t know what it was. What came out of my mouth was “Well…”, which IS how many of my verses start, but not this one. For what felt like a minute (on the tape, it is six seconds) I was totally lost at sea. Still playing the right chords, Randy and Safa still doing their parts, but absolutely clueless as to where I was in the song…”I’m cutting out one of the settlers verses…did I already play one of them? Have I done the next verse? I know I haven’t done the harmonica solo…”
It’s blinding up there.
In the time it took to play G – Em – C – G, it came back, and I launched into “there’s flooding in the winter when the ice chokes up the flow” and all was well again, we all locked in, and I think it picked up from there.
Being on TV makes us more white
After the song WVIA host Lisa Mazzarella asked us a few questions and mentioned the new album (as she had before the song – thanks, Lisa!). I didn’t say anything terribly stupid, which I will count as a victory in my first musical performance on the telly.
Doumbek closeup!
All in all it was a fun experience. My thanks to WVIA for doing the Our Town series and for letting us play there, and to Randy and Safa for being the band. And thanks to Lisa Herrald-Doerschler for taking pictures of her TV!
Hypnotized
This isn’t our best take ever, but if you’re curious, here’s the audio:
Digali – Erin, Paul, Zeke, Jeremy, Anna, Audra, John
World Famous in Bloomsburg is officially released. We had a lovely show Saturday night at the Moose Exchange Antler in downtown Bloomsburg. Thanks to Jeremy and Audra dePrisco, Erin Dietrick, John Huckans, Randy Moyer, Safa Saracoglu, and Anna and Zeke Weber-Loomis for being the band, and thanks to Oren Helbok at the Antler for hosting us at the Antler.
Little Birds – Paul, Zeke, Anna
Thanks to everyone who came and listened – we had a packed house, with two rows of kids (and a few grownups) sitting on the floor at the front, all the chairs full, and folks standing at the back. (And, I’m told, folks who couldn’t get in. Zoinks! I’m sorry about that – please come see another show!)
Creosote Covered Pole – Safa, Anna, Paul, Jeremy, part of Zeke
We ran through all 22 songs of World Famous in Bloomsburg with the band growing and shrinking from 9 to 3 to 1 to 5 to 9 (and so on, but not always an odd number). I added a solo take of “Something Good”, from Dry Ridge, my first album, and we closed with a rollicking version of “What I Should Have Written in Your Yearbook 1987” from Yuspe, the second.
Science Fair – Paul, Erin, Audra, John
Mostly Corn – Anna, Paul, Zeke
If you couldn’t make it and would like to buy a CD, come find me! If you don’t want a physical copy, uploading to itunes and all those other sites will soon be complete.
Line Line – Safa, Paul, Randy
Thanks to Heather Almer and Deb Huckans for the photos.
CDs are at the manufacturer! Lots of shows are on the way – Nov 22 at the Antler, Nov 25 at Forks Farm, Dec 5 at TreeFest, Dec 6 at Brews n Bytes. (See details at the upcoming shows page.)
When I was younger, songs written by others always seemed inevitable – they were the way they were, and the way that they had to be. Now I know that most songs involve tons of decisions, and up until the end, lots can be up in the air. For months I have been listening to this album critically, looking for problems or little things that could be made better. Now every decision made seems like the right one and the album seems as it should be. And, happily, I still enjoy listening to it, partly because it isn’t just me – there is good work by so many others on these tracks. Listening, you won’t know about all the earlier versions, but I’ll always remember how it once was and how it became what it is. I owe a big thank you to everyone involved, and to Jeremy dePrisco for having the patience and the focus to see it to the end.
It is an exciting time here. There is the new album, World Famous in Bloomsburg, which will be out in November. Last night I was the featured reader at River Poets in Bloomsburg. I played 3 songs, all of them classic Halloween-ish poems.
There was:
The Cremation of Sam McGee, by Robert W. Service, played as a happy banjo tune.
The Raven, by E.A. Poe, done as an early Bob Dylan song. (This took about 12 minutes, and would have been longer with a few good harmonica solos.)
Death, by Emily Dickinson, to the tune of the Gilligan’s Island Theme Song. (Try it! It works!)
Tomorrow, a mini-tour of northern Columbia County, starting with the Camp Lavigne Wine Festival from 10am-noon.
Then a quick drive to Forks Farm, where I’;ll play at the market from 12:30 to 2.
Paul Loomis 