Call and Response

I love playing shows. There are a lot of reasons why -- self-affirmation, catharsis, hearing applause, hearing drunk friends shout out "Woo!", free beer...the list is pretty long and it's topped by plain ol' enjoying the act of playing and singing.


The other people in the room help me to pull a better performance out of myself. It's funny because I used to think that the stuff that I was playing on my couch at 1:00am was better than the crap I ended up delivering to the public. Maybe there's a reason for that too...

I've been low on new songs for a while now and I've been sustaining my live show on original matieral that I have written at different chunks of time in the past. (Times filled with a lot of self-pity and heartbreak, which led to high songwriting yield. Hmm. Go figure.) This older material has grown along with me and changed as I have changed and in certain cases has become completely re-imagined from the original incarnation.

Much of this is directly due to playing the songs live in front of folks like you, who, whether they know or not, have directly affected my life and my life's work. The audience causes me to look at myself more deeply and ask myself questions which I would have never thought to ask while sitting on my bachelor's couch all unshowered and unattended. It's very much like being single for a long time and then meeting The One -- all of a sudden, you are looking way more intently at the way you are projecting yourself because you are no longer the only person who has to deal with you.

This is the definition of interdependence. This is the call and the response working together in harmony. It is a fine line to tread for anyone claiming the lofty title of "Artist" as you must resolve the inner spirit with what turns the crank of your audience.

I played last night at Grumpy's Bar in Montreal. It's a place where I frequently play and it's always a good time. Something about last night started all of these thoughts which contributed to this posting. It wasn't anything specific, but every moment on stage made me feel connected to everyone in the place. From the people quietly listening and politely clapping after each song to the folks who tried to talk over my shit (I play louder for you folks especially) there was an undeniable feeling of Chuck Woolery Love Connection with all of you.

And I decided that you deserve some new stuff even more than I do, so consider that a resolution!