Photo by Nariposa

In two weeks time I have travelled over 3,500 miles to perform Twilight & Ghost Stories. The first performance, on July 19th, at San Francisco’s Hemlock Tavern was a cramped, frenzied, artistic success that included a wonderful ensemble of musicians including an interesting substitution: cellist Alex Cort and his wife gave birth to a boy early in the morning of the 20th and, quite understandably, he was unable to perform. In Alex’s place, percussionist and composer Andrew Pompey took on the Deagan #330 marimba that he and I purchased only hours before the concert. Arranged by Ellul’s Joel St. Julien, the performance was part of the Mission Creek Music and Arts Festival and included a stellar ensemble of musicians all of whom deserve many thanks for what could be considered a thankless endeavor.

Joel Brown-Tarman and bandmate St. Julien were pitch perfect contributing monome cut ups, vocals and guitar textures while Vijay Anderson propelled and shifted time whenever he was called upon, once matching up in a spirited duet with good friend, trumpeter Kris Tiner. Matt Davignon seemed to get inside the spirit of the piece and provided elements that musicians with bigger egos could not themselves create and Andrew inaugurated the marimba by adding skillful, sensitive accompaniment.

Only a few days later I flew from Long Beach to Austin, Texas for a performance that I will not soon forget. Living in Southern California it can be easy for me to forget the hospitality shown to strangers in other parts of the country. The city of Austin left me stunned.

The performance was organized by Aaron Mace who runs the progressive music co-op called The Church of the Friendly Ghost, on July 29th we would conduct a free open rehearsal and on July 30th we would perform the piece in full.

Along with drummer and provocateur Chris Cogburn, Aaron applied and was approved for a grant from the MetLife Meet The Composers Fund that was able to pay for my travel and some promotional expenses. The performance took place at the wonderfully intimate Salvage Vanguard Theater which felt very similar to the lovely Electric Lodge here in Venice, CA. where we premiered 40 BANDS/80 MINUTES!

From Nick Hennies and his wife Meghan who housed me and took me to Barton Springs to Alex Keller lugging all of his recording equipment around just in case we might need it to Chris Cogburn keeping me company the last few days in town, I could not have been better taken care of.

And the musicians. What an incredibly wonderful group of people. Diane Cluck and Ken(’s Last Ever Radio Extravaganza) rode 41 hours into town by bus and provided a certain grace so important that the performance surely would not have been the same without them. It’s not just the tone of Jon Doyle’s clarinet that strikes you, there is a genuine good-naturedness to his personality that defies trouble. At a certain moment Nick Hennies haunting vibraphone interlocked with Doyle’s woodwind and the cello of Steve Bernal for a brief trio of master musicians. Singer/songwriter/philosopher Bill Baird (aka {{{Sunset}}}) earnestly put himself into the piece and, occasionally threw caution to the wind, once meeting with the voice of Diane Cluck and strumming a ghostly chord that the two of them rested on. Instantly recognizable, Aaron Russell’s electric guitar shimmered and sang with all the character that one would expect and engineer and sound designer Alex Keller focused unwaveringly on an ancient reverb coil that he exposed to all manner of feathers, paint brushes and screwdrivers.

Seated to my immediate left, Chris Cogburn manipulated, resonated and coaxed sounds otherwise unheard from his drums. A well known improviser and curator of Austin’s No Idea Fest, Chris and I met in Llano, Texas in the spring of 2007. Before parting company we had already begun talking about working together and when the opportunity to perform Twilight & Ghost Stories eventually arose Chris championed the idea and worked with The Church of the Friendly Ghost to make it happen. Nick Hennies took all of the ideas I had in mind and on record and immediately helped put together the crack ensemble. William Meadows and James Laurance worked their magic on the live and audio recordings and the talented Leah Ross filmed the entire piece in HD without a crew, just her camera and the music.

The performance of Twilight & Ghost Stories requires that each musician in the ensemble is assigned a light. When the light is on the musician can play music, when the light is off they must remain quiet. Prior to the first performance of Twilight at the Next To Last Fest in Athens, Georgia I asked the festival founder Will Donaldson to help me put a light box together that would allow me to do such a thing. The light box itself has a total of five switches, however, there are eight plugs for lights- some switches control two plugs and some control one.

Aside from playing acoustic guitar, I was able to put my trusty light box to the test and although things were under control in San Francisco (seven total musicians) I was faced with some very interesting challenges in Austin (ten total musicians). The challenge, as I learned during rehearsal, is that it can be difficult to create certain combinations when required to turn on two musicians at the same time: what if you only want one? A trip to Home Depot and a few extra lights helped solve half of the problem, however I ended up simply unplugging certain lights to ensure that the correct lights were turned on in combination with one another.

I doubt that I will ever forget the generosity of time and spirit shown to me over the last few weeks. The hugs and handshakes from each musician I have been able to perform with has been an experience quite unlike any other. I am already looking forward to the memories of Twilight in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.

FUTHER READING
Interview and Austin Review at Tiny Mix Tapes
Photographs from Austin Performance at Flickr
Feature on NPR Station 90.5 Program Texas Music Matters
Show preview at Austinist
Recommendation at Austin Chronicle
Recommendation at Austin-American Statesman
Feature at Austin Sound