[dar-list] new dar blog

[BornALittleLate at aol.com]

posted to myspace earlier today.
Thursday, May 31, 2007


Spring Is In The Liver
"Spring is the liver," says our yoga teacher. It's a  time to twist and
stretch and wring out our organs, and this year we added  a big container of
de-tox
powder to this special season, which meant we'd  have to go off dairy, wheat,
soy, sugar, and caffeine for three weeks. Oh,  and alcohol. We just finished
it. It was only a little hellish.
I  wasn't sure how I'd deal with gigs. I'm used to a few sips of wine before
I go out and sign CDs, for instance, even though it gives me purple teeth  in
everyone's photos (Sorry. Your teeth look really white,  though).


Pre-tox, in April, those halcyon days, I visited  Saratoga Springs, a
gorgeous small city with dressed-up old houses and a  classy, dressed down
Main
Street of mostly indy businesses, and played at  Skidmore for their great
Earth Day
celebration.

In Bellows Falls,  Vermont, I did a fundraiser for the Bellows Falls farmer's
market, which  is more than just that, as most of them are. I got to see my
old manager,  Charlie Hunter, and his studio of great paintings. Charlie
brought a  concert series to Bellows Falls, so it's no surprise to me that the
town
is doing so well. When music is one of the cornerstones of a small town
revival, somehow you get a Main Street with cool restaurants, a good  general
store, a functional, renovated old theater, and even an  independent
bookstore.
Who doesn't love finding these human-scale,  progressive towns with good
cappuccino and adequate hardware  supplies??


After Bellows Falls I was home for a little while  and we had a birthday
party for Stephen (three) with four kids and eleven  adults. We grilled, we
drank,
the kids ran wild. It was  great.


And THEN, the live DVD. It was like a prom, but, if I  remember correctly, I
didn't have my own hair and makeup person for my  prom, and Shawn Colvin
didn't help me find my dress. I knew Shawn was  going to be up in New York and
she
consented to take me on a whirlwind  shopping trip. I tried on everything.
Shawn was supportive, sympathetic  (the low-riding capris were saddening) and
inspired. Many thanks to my  fashionista sister and her patience.


Woodstock, where we  filmed the DVD, was really at its stunning best. There
is creek running  behind the Bearsville Theater where you can practically see
the dancing  wood sprites, and the guys from _WDST_ (http://www.wdst.com/)
(particularly Noel) brought the coffee and  good vibes from their station next
door.


I paid my respects at  the Strawberry Fields-like homage to Albert Grossman,
who was given the  title, "The Baron of Bearsville."
I said to Mark from Allaire Studios,  "But he's not really buried there, in
the woods behind the  theater."
Mark said, "Oh yeah, he's buried there."
And I said, "But  isn't that illegal?"
Mark said, "Oh yeah, I think so."
Baron indeed.
Mbr>
I performed with Ben Butler on guitar, Mike Visceglia on  bass, and Steve
Holley on drums. Woodstock Films filmed. Jeff and Christen  provided
management
and stage flora. And the extra wine.

Many  thanks to all.


I did a solo set, then brought the guys up. And  we dragged Jules Shear up on
stage to sing Echoes (which he co-wrote). The  Woodstockians were an amazing
crowd. Many of them had, I'm guessing,  homesteads, organic farms, and llamas
to take care of in the morning, but  they stayed through a second encore of
Comfortably Numb, which I even  started over.


On Sunday, we visited the _Woodstock Animal  Sanctuary_
(http://www.woodstockfas.org/) , run by my friend Doug and his lovely wife,
Jenny. As  Doug says,
turkeys look like their heads are inside-out, and when they're  not afraid of
being slaughtered, they're very friendly, and you can have a  really nice
X-Files moment with them, caressing their nubbly brain-like  heads. Stephen
said
he'd prefer to go to a store and buy an animal toy,  and it felt like he was
exposing us somehow.


Still, Michael,  Stephen and I drove home with stars in our eyes from such a
wonderful  weekend.


The next weekend, while de-toxing, I went to Fall  River and Lexington,
Massachusetts, and they did it for me! They made  de-toxing and performing
easy.
The Narrows in Fall River is a volunteer  run coffeehouse and gallery and it's
worth a trip. Somehow, confirming _Ryan  Fitzsimmons_
(http://www.ryanfitzsimmons.com/)  as the opener slipped through the cracks. I
asked  if they could
still call him, and he ended up speeding down from  Cambridge, peeling into
the
driveway, and jumping onstage. And then he  crushed it, in the words of a rad
friend. Genuine, talented, and  charismatic.
The Joyful Noise in Lexington was a reunion with Scott  Alarik, who spoke and
sang beautifully before the show, and who is the  Bard of the Boston Globe,
ennobling folk music and "deep community," and  Marilyn, who was there from
WUMB. Great sound, and great space. Thank you  David and Gail, and David. And
Amy
Putnam.


I found two pictures  backstage of a woman named Pamela who had bought
tickets for the show, but  had died before. When I saw that she had requested
"After
All" at an  earlier show, I knew she had committed suicide. I dedicated
"After All" to  her again, and to her lovely friends, and then mentioned,
crassly
perhaps,  that people who really like that song should probably get some help.
Perhaps that put a damper on the song, hm? But I did it for Pamela (not  that
she avoided getting help. It looks like she tried very hard.). I  needed
therapy to get me out of my clinical depression when I was  twenty-one. A song
alone can't do it, I learned.


I had more  gigs after these, but I'll leave it at that for now. I'm off for
almost a  month, and I'm headed off to the woods (or cafi, or my favorite
museum up  the street) to finish writing my next album.

Happy Liver,  Everyone,

Dar
PS: I don't believe in nuclear power. I just read  an op-ed in the NY Times
saying we need nuclear power in our anti-global  warming strategy. The
National
Renewable Energy Lab recently wrote to my  friend Harvey Wasserman and
confirmed that our energy could be 99%  renewable by 2020. There, my de-tox is
complete.



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