Yup, 'tis my blogcentennial, this being epistle one hunnerd since my inaugural blast-oma over 3 years ago winging its bit-torrential way to...to...well, who the heck knows who is indeed actually scanning these screeds at the hour of...come out come out whoever you are and meet the young lady who fell from a Morgan come out come out come out to show 'dem come out to show 'dem buffalo gals won't ye come out tonight come out to...

Whatever the case, upper or lower open and shut, I hope you, Dear Readers, are busy being entertained (or at the very least, bemused) by the dot-dash jot 'n joshin' jolt of my electric biro...

Finger picking Up where I left off last time, went to see Piers Faccini, the highly touted transplanted UK singer/songwriter now living in France, at Joe's Pub last Wednesday night, where he made his NYC debut in the unenviable and inevitably tough 7pm opening slot...and despite a mostly indifferent drinking crowd there to see the headlining Wood Brothers (Chris Wood, from Medeski, Martin and, plus his brother, plus... had to miss 'em unfortunately), anyway Piers was damn good, I was particularly taken by the guy's overall gravitas and Grace in the face of having to compress his set to 20 min. or something coupled a crowd not really paying too close attention, preoccupied as they were with the serious business of whatever-- he just got on with it, soldiering through his set manfully which had many fine flashes of promise, of brilliant things to come in a more relaxed, spotlighted setting... good also was his take on (ducks and) Drake(s), nicking the best aspects of that seriously cultured well-weathered anglo approach and applying it to the (witch)craft of singersongwriting in his own write...a very good band ap-piered with him too, nicely turned-out bass and drums surrounding deft acoustic finger-picking that really caught fire during an Ali Farka Toure tribute--keep your eyes and ears on Piers Faccini, he deserves your full attention...

Friday night it was Gods and Monsters' turn at the Bowery Poetry Club--a good, on the edge of great risk-taking night for us generating real fire onstage to warm up the chilled-out crowd (well, it was in the 20's outside), revamped set-list, and the debut of some new tunes hitherto not in our book, including "Hot and Cold Everything" ("that's just the way that it is...."--bittersweet, 'jes like life)...btw, Jerry Harrison just laid down a lovely keyboard part on a studio version of this new composition of mine at Sausalito Sound, he's producing and playing throughout on our studio followup to "Coming Clean", as well as on our upcoming live DVD--in fact Jerry, E.T. Thorngren, and Matt "The World's Most Patient (jewish) Engineer" just sent me a slew of excellent mixes they just did up taken from our CMJ set last November, mixes that will appear in all their five point one surround sound glory on our upcoming live album ...in the Bowery Poetry audience was my friend distinguished high-art photographer Mark Lyon just in from Paris with his nephew--Mark has a very hot new book of photos out entitled "Pure" (ISSUE inc.)--also in attendance was the lovely Deenah from Secret Salamander, percussionist Lee Farber from new club sensations Ultrafine, avant-gardener instrumentalist Robbie Lee, whom I saw deliver an excellent solo set at The Stone last week-- plus Leigh Lust and his buddies, Leigh is a hip a&r man for Atlantic and an old friend from my late 80's days playing on WNYU FM's "New Afternoon Show" where he would often dj (I also met current musical compatriots Jason Candler and Colleen Murphy, a/k/a DJ Cosmo down at WNYU...and then there's Doctor Hugh Foley, who I'm saving for a future blog)--also indahouse Friday night was a Canadian couple who had motored all the way down from Ottawa to come and see Gods and Monsters perform: "We heard that you were playing, and we just had to come and see you!" Yeahhhhhhh!!!

Sunday I played at one of those enchanting places New York seems overflowing with but that one never actually seems to have the time to explore until summoned by empirical fiat; namely, (this time out), The New York Buddhist Church, up on Riverside and 106th, check it out here (http://www.newyorkbuddhistchurch.org)-- a very beautiful House of the Spirit presided over by the genial Toshikazu Nakagaki, the Buddhist Chaplain of Columbia University (and a fine shakuhachi player)...the occasion was a celebration of (what is this thing called) Love, entitled "Broken Open--A Pre-Valentine's Day Love Ceremony", I opened with a solo acoustic instrumental version of "Hurly Burly" and later sang "In a Forest" ...quicksilver wit Zero Boy did a hilarious human beatbox spoken-word shpritz on relationships (somebody sign this guy quick, he's up there with Robin Williams, I'm not kidding), Dr. Erminia Guarneri, author of "The Heart Speaks", gave a fascinating talk on cardiological and emotional affairs of the heart, the lovely Susan D sang beautifully, there was much more, much crazy love abounding for sure improving this shining hour, my friend Adam Phillips, founder of the Breakthrough Project who sponsored this event, acted as chief celebrant throughout, making with the word and the good cheer and good vibe, guiding us at the end in a lovely communal singalong of Dean Martin's immortal "That's Amore" :-)

Yep, to borrow a bissel from Cindy Adams--only in New York, kids...only in New York...

I'm back up to Morningside Heights on Sunday afternoon to play on Columbia University's radio station WKCR in a tribute to the recently departed Alice Coltrane--whose transcendental mystic spirit, like that of her revered late husband, lives on in the hearts of many, many folks round the world...her harp playing and compositions have touched and moved me deeply since I was a boy...and I am honored to be able to give some of that feeling back in her memory.

xxLove

Gary

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Posted By Gary Lucas to Gary Lucas at 2/16/2007 05:14:00 PM