Wrapping it all up

Well, I wrapped up my fifth live recording in a year and a half yesterday. Grey November Day has now joined The Wine and the Song, Mighty Grace, and Carpenter's Gothic in post-production, and together they will be released as a four album set, Sky Above and Earth Below- the follow-up to last year's Evergreen. In the process I will have met my goal: to put as many of my songs as possible onto CDs in live settings so that both my catalogue and my credibility are established. Hooray..

As for last night: to be honest, I really thought that my first set was a little sketchy, and I felt like I was down 3-0 after the first period of a critical game. But that being said, I always feel poor about my performances on a recording night. I get nervous in ways I never do for an ordinary gig. In reflection, I may have to drop a couple of songs, but that always happens. On the other hand, an extremely warm audience responded with great enthusiasm to some of the tunes, so what the hell do I know, anyway?

I came out of the first set feeling peeved at myself, but determined not to lose the whole game. Thankfully, I had a great bunch of musicians to help me put it over the top: Sarah Ternoway on bass, Gregg Lawless on lead guitar, Scott Vernon on drums and Aengus Finnan even joined us on backup vocals for one tune. With their talent and energy and my dogged insistence on pulling the damned thing off in the end, we managed to really fire it up for the second set.

We closed with a barn-burner version of one of my goofiest tunes, "The Old Man's Workshop," complete with mixed-up lyrics, audience interaction, train-wreck ending and all the great emotion that makes live performances so much fun.

I was reminded a couple of times that I should do more goofy stuff. I was reminded about 30 times that people really listen to lyrics. And I was reminded continually, all night long, that music matters immensely to people, and that it's best heard in small rooms with a crowd that cares and musicians who can make it feel real. I reminded myself that it had all been worth it, and that this manic year and a half of effort and ego and fire and frustration had payed off in the end, on the last night, in a good place, with great people.

Just remind me not to do any more of these. Studio, here I come...

Brief Update!

The last couple of entries have been super-long, in part to make up for me having neglected the diary quite a bit lately. So this one will be short.

I spent Monday evening in producer Mike Nunan's basement studio, finalizing Carpenter's Gothic, which will be released in early fall, and giving Mighty Grace a first listen. I'm really pleased. Carpenter's Gothic is honest, tough and a little bit mean, quite a departure from Evergreen but not out of step, in my opinion. Mike calls it ballsy. Mighty Grace, on the other hand, is the widest musical range I've covered, yet it also seems to stay within theme really well. And because this is the first project where Mike has been involved from day one, the sound is truly extraordinary. I feel that I'm finally getting this live CD thing right, and working with Mike the producer and Scott the drummer has made it possible.

In other news, I put a good 12 hours work into my deck and shed over the weekend. I'm going to add digital photos at some point soon; people must be thinking I'm constructing the Taj Mahal. But the truth is, the more you get into the little details, the longer stuff takes. So the revamping I've done this spring to get the shed built and the benches re-configured and the front of the deck finished and the fence re-boarded and my picnic table turned into wainscotting and then re-built has all taken almost as much time as building the deck did in the first place.

I'd say something philosophical about that, but can't think of a phrase right now. The best addition I made this weekend was a 14-inch by 2-inch by 8 foot barnboard plank, which is now sitting across two of my grandfather's old nail kegs and supporting a bunch of potted plants at the edge of the deck. My theme of gradual and beautiful organic decay has crept out of my artwork and into my yard.

I'm just sayin', is all...

I had a successful "reunion" concert with Scott Vernon on drums last night. He was sharp, as usual, and it was great to play together again after a few weeks apart. We played a mix of tunes from Evergreen, the impending Carpenter's Gothic, and the recently recorded Mighty Grace. A good time was had by all, I guess, et cetera.But what I'm really thinking about today is the Ben Harper and Jack Johnson concert I took in on Monday.

Notwithstanding the hour and twenty minutes it took to get into the Molson Ampitheatre, it really was a tremendous show. Carpentry, in fact- by which I mean, music made by building simple frames of words and melodies on top of a solid rythmic foundation, without unnecessary complexity but with real concern for the beauty of the space that is created by the song. As in a barn, or a church. Or a shed for that matter.

The thing that interests me about these two musicians -and about David Gray, too- is that while they get very little airplay, and while they're often considered "roots" musicians after a fashion, they pack stadiums. And their fans are 18-40 years old. The music is honest. There's no sell-out involved. And they rock.I'm just sayin', is all...

Guest Entry

Here's a guest entry to my diary: Alissa Vernon, longtime fan and incidentally the wife of percussion partner Scott Vernon, was so inspired by the Mighty Grace recording session that she wrote it up. Even though I'm techically her boss at work, I secretly suspect her of being sincere in her praise. But you can judge for yourself:

"Hey Newland fans, I'm just coming off a great weekend that involved a trip to Parry Sound to see David's latest live recording in a renovated turn-of-the-19th- century CP rail station. (You haven't lived until you've heard two guys jam with a roaring freight train passing by 15 feet away.) I gotta say it's a shame that at 28 I'm just getting introduced to Georgian Bay, it's gorgeous! But having spent most of my life as a Maritimer, the Canadian shield might as well have been a million miles away - I had Peggy's Cove and the Cabot Trail, after all.

Though a trip to Parry Sound from Toronto in cottage traffic may seem daunting, rest assured that it's totally worth it. We stayed at a fabulous B&B (Mariner's Rest with Julie and Edmond Lea), walked around the lakeside fitness trail, and took a jaunt to nearby Oastler Park — plus the concert! Rumor has it that David's planning on launching this third live CD (Mighty Grace) in Parry Sound once production is complete (sometime in early 2004). Even if it's the dead of January it would be a worthy adventure - the cross-country skiing is great (I'm told). Watch the website for details. And in the meantime, take a road trip to one of the other summer dates. What's the summer for if not travelling to see folk musicians?"

Feeling like eleven bucks

Mighty Grace is sounding mighty good... yesterday, Mike Nunan (the producer) played me back three tracks from the recording we did in the train station- including the one where Scott and I just jammed with a freight train rolling by. Listen! I'm really pleased with the way the acoustics of the place got captured, and looking forward to getting this project into CD form.

Meanwhile, I'm fighting off exhaustion, which is probably no surprise. After work yesterday I spent about 3 hours working on the bike shed I'm building in the back yard. Actually, carpentry counts as relaxation, but it still makes me tired, which hardly seems fair. After that I had Riverdale Roots at the Oasis, which is now officially becoming a jam session. A piano player named Dwight was the unwitting first participant in what I hope will be a weekly roots session. After that I had hockey. For the record, 11.30 on a Tuesday night is too late to be playing hockey, but that's no excuse. The Nomads lost, in a valiant struggle. Had we won I'd feel like a million bucks. Instead, I feel like eleven bucks. So it goes.