i wish you’d been there.
last night
hotel utah
songwriter in the round
david greco
heather combs
unbelievable experience.
i know. it sounds a little silly, especially when you realize what it was--several singer/songwriters sitting on a tiny, gear-cluttered stage with a topless mermaid on the wall over their heads, in a divey, noisy bar with fabulous burgers and mediocre wine in san francisco. this kind of event happens in thousands of places every week across the country and around the world--independent musicians happy for a place to play and a few people to hear them.
one of my favorite places to be. and last night--last night was transcendent.
i’m biased, you say. yes, we all know that the rock star is my favorite singer/songwriter if you didn’t know that, just look to the right of your screen and it’s right there, in black and white. his songwriting is subtle and evocative, as finely, strongly nuanced as a pen and ink drawing, his voice is rich, smoky and warm, his guitar work so exquisite and distinct it’s always an equal partner, almost another personality, on stage, never merely an accompaniment. and heather combs--well, i admit it-- i have a little fan-crush on heather. her music is honest and raw, rough-edged and bold--painted with broad, thickly saturated brushstrokes on the acoustic canvas. sometimes tender, sometimes abrasive--always compelling. i can't get enough of her, especially live.
i read a quote recently--that a good artist comes out on stage and thinks here i am!, but a great one--a great one thinks there you are! that’s a good way to describe what happened last night. both of these songwriters came--as these two always come--to the stage anticipating, ready to meet us, the audience. it was like getting together for dinner with a dear friend you haven’t seen for a while--the impatient wait, then the pure delight of being together, the lavish and unabashed transparency in the deeply affectionate exchange of ideas and experiences; the complete loss of sense of time, the pure and total immersion in the moment. and they shared that with each other, as well. once one opened and spoke his heart, the other seemed even more willing, even more comfortable than usual in opening and sharing hers. each of them gave more and more, unstinting in their artistic generosity. and so it went, back and forth, round after round. building and growing and thrilling us all, until, as the saying about all good things tells us must happen, it came to an end.
my favorite artists are always ones who bring this to us--who come to give us the gift, not only of their music, but of themselves when they perform. these are the artists who draw us in through opening not just their heart-windows but the doors--inviting us into the place where we find our own hearts effortlessly opening in response. the music then is no longer words on a page, or even just sound and light waves to be produced by instrument and voice--instead, something more significant is created, right there in the room between, among, and within every one of us, performer and audience alike. it happened last night. it brought tears to my eyes then, and it still does now. it was moving, and transformative, and intense, and spiritual, and transcendent.
yes, that’s right. i said it was spiritual. without (and maybe thankfully so!) the trappings and restrictions, prescriptions and proscriptions of religion, notice i didn't say of faith, this was a time and place where the simple, true values and purposes of God were lifted up--healing for the wounded, love for the loveless, justice for the oppressed, restoration of the broken, freedom for the captive, homecoming for the homeless. the air in the room was thick with the presence and the power of it all. those of us who were there will never be quite the same for having experienced it, last night at the hotel utah.
i sure wish you could’ve been there.
