all hallows' that ends hallows

Hey Hartlist,

Please enjoy this pre-taped installment of The Chrysalis, #56: HALLOWEEN (video version will post to YouTube and FB at 4PM today)

Wednesday, December 22, 7PM join me for a Winter Solstice Show @ the Rockwood Music Hall Stage 3!

So how was your week?

oh, not much, just your average thursday. (photo by nicole walker)

We were lounging (ok, some of us were in plough pose) in the Cutting Room greenroom listening to Chris (bass) try out skeleton jokes and counting the seconds til we were told to meet the sound guy onstage “at 9 sharp”, and Matt (fiddle/mandolin/vocals) said, “Guys.”

oh yeah remember the band photo shoot from last week? We have joined the rich history of musicians-smiling-against-a-wall-in-Brooklyn. L to R: Chris Nattrass, Matt Gelfer, me, Nick Stephens, Danny Ursetti. photo by Zack Delaune.

Matt is sort of the de facto MD of this outfit and we turned to him expecting a note or a reminder. Instead, he said “… this is a really cool band.”

And so it was (is).

Gerard, sound guy at the cutting room: “You guys sure do have an interesting palette of timbres… It’s like a female led Fleet Foxes.” I’ll take it. (At the piano: david kornfeld, back on keys and harmonies, who flew in for this.)

Reader: we totally did the ‘everybody; hands in’ gesture before we headed to the stage and it was not my idea. On the way up, this sentiment was also uttered, “I feel bad for anyone who isn’t here”.

And I say that not to be a jerk to those who missed it (video coming), but because that was a new feeling. We had really rehearsed and prepared for this show; I had sung through the set nearly every day for a month (which, it turns out, DOES help), and the cutting room honestly has the best sound I’ve ever had.

They also have a smoke machine. (Surprise! Very bad for the singing voice, very good for photos.) At one point I looked at David and truly thought he was on fire. (He WAS… but not like that.)

matt and I encored with the irish traditional ghost story song ‘she moved through the fair’. Look at the mist descending haha. Also appreciated the flickering lights and reverb during this portion. oooo.

Friends, it’s All Hallows Eve today, a time (in my life anyway) of shedding old skins, saying goodbye to old habits and relationships and whatever else isn’t working (I decluttered my kitchen and my closet!!)… and preparing to welcome in the new. If you celebrate the Old Ways at all, you know that this is a New Year of sorts for many people. I can’t think of a better way to mark a new chapter than (really, maybe for the first time) giving my all to promoting, preparing for, and playing a show with all the right people and treating it as if it were going to be an epic event… and then HAVING IT BE AN EPIC EVENT… BECAUSE OF THAT.

Magic. It’s what’s for dinner.

Anyway, speaking of out with the old, I’m also about to leave my house on Halloween for the first time in I think 15 years. I usually host a dinner and a ‘summer’s end’ ritual for a select group of friends, but this year it was time for a change… and I got hired to read tarot cards at a baby shower in Brooklyn. (Nervous! What if someone asks me to read for a baby? (Again?) What if I’m actually just a giant fraud and don’t know how to do this? What if what if?)

As you can see, the shedding will continue.

Every year on Samhain I also pull one of the Major Arcana tarot cards for the year ahead and it’s always very telling and bears itself out. This year was The Sun: enlightenment, clarity, healing, and growth. And despite …. well, everything, I say: indeed. Thank you.

May you have a beautiful Eve in whatever way suits you. (May I suggest consider what’s no longer working for you, and writing it down and burning the paper. ) May you see dogs and babies in costume. May you have treats, laughs with friends, cakes and wine. May your collaborations be stunning and may you have everything you need in your monitors, loud and clear.

love

rebecca