Music.
My eyelids are heavy this morning; I spent the late hours of last evening at the Tractor Tavern watching
Damien Jurado, a local singer/songwriter who has had a tremendous influence on my musical tastes and my own initial explorations into songwriting. I stumbled across Mr. Jurado when I was in high school while watching UWTV--he was playing an in-studio on what is now
KEXP radio-- and I was amazed by his ability to fill out a song with just his vocals and simple chord progressions. Being a stubborn guitar student who didn't have much patience for theory or the ability to read music, I decided then that I'd abandon lessons and just start playing chords and writing songs like Damien. That decision mayn't have been the best... I've always had trouble communicating in theory language with other musicians, although I've gotten by fine enough thus far. That weakness is one of the reasons I've signed up for guitar and vocal lessons at SU for summer quarter. By the time fall travel comes around, perhaps I'll have learned so much I can just recruit students with song.
Anyway, I've seen Mr. Jurado perhaps a dozen times in the last few years and he never disappoints. I just wish he wouldn't play such late shows on week nights.
The slower pace of late spring/summer has allowed me to delve back into other musical goings-on here in Seattle. A couple Sundays ago I saw Ben Gibbard (Death Cab for Cutie) and Dave Bazaan (Pedro the Lion) play an acoustic show at the Showbox. I'm looking forward to seeing Rocky Votolato at the Triple Door in a couple weeks. I'm thinking about stopping by the
Georgetown Music Fest this weekend. And my
own band has been busy with practices and shows and recording. And every once in a while, as the warm weather and sun become more of a staple, my accordion player and I head over to Gasworks Park to serenade the downtown skyline and the boats on Lake Union.
It's a wonderful season for music.
P.S. I'm in love with Andrew Bird's
Armchair Apocrypha. Go. Listen to
any of these songs. Any fan of multi-instrumentation and whistling will be a fan of Mr. Bird's.