Dawn Xiana Moon: Melodic folk pop infused with passion and honesty. From Chicago.

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Friday, September 22, 2006

Connecting with a Musical Heritage

Tonight I got a crash course in traditional Chinese music. Growing up in white, middle-class America, I never had much exposure to the music of my own culture--admittedly, Singaporeans in general seem somewhat removed from the arts--and this summer I became interested in integrating elements from Chinese music into my own. I'd spoken to Kerry Leung, a local multi-instrumentalist, about music on the phone a few weeks ago and he invited me to a concert that he organized tonight at the University of Chicago's International House--and I am so glad that I went. The concert was actually rather educational; Kerry played a number of Chinese flutes, violins, guitars, and a stringed instrument called the pipa that resembles a banjo in timbre, giving a little history on each. Another local musician, Yunqing Pan, played the guzheng, which is descended from the same instrument as the Japanese koto. I'm excited to finally be studying this music.

So tonight was the official beginning of my Asian music project. I'm sure you'll hear the results not too far in the future.

^ Top | 11:16 PM | | |

Monday, September 18, 2006

Songs that Matter, Part II: Rich Mullins

Rich Mullins died a few years before I became a fan of his music, but I would have liked to meet him in person. Rich was a rarity--I like to say that 95% of Christian Music (CCM) is terrible, but he was in the 5% that is wonderful; not only was he an outstanding musician, but he wrote with an total honesty that wasn't afraid to question God (not entirely "kosher" in some Christian circles, where too often questioning is perceived as a lack of faith and perhaps almost sinful) or himself. He was also a firm believer in living his faith and putting words into action: "Unlike most artists in Contemporary Christian Music, Mullins did not consider his music his primary ministry, but rather a means to pay his bills. Instead, his ministry was the way he treated his neighbors, family and enemies. Taking a vow of poverty, he accepted a small church salary and spent the last years of his life on a Navajo reservation teaching music to children" (from the Wikipedia).

Two of Rich's songs are particularly special to me: Hard to Get and Hold Me Jesus. After growing up in church and taking it seriously for my entire life, I can usually give reasonable answers to theological questions--but sometimes life doesn't make sense, even after all the intellectualized mantras about trusting God and how God is love. Sometimes life feels like nothing more than a walking shadow, a cycle of pain. Sometimes you wonder: "Do you who live in heaven / Hear the prayers of those of us who live on earth / Who are afraid of being left by those we love / And who get hardened by the hurt / Do you remember when You lived down here where we all scrape / To find the faith to ask for daily bread / Did You forget about us after You had flown away?" But even in the questioning, God is there--and sometimes even though I don't have all the answers, even though it still hurts, his presence is enough.

^ Top | 3:18 AM | | |

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Songs that Matter, Part I: Over the Rhine

Over the Rhine is my favorite band; not only are they strong musicians, but they have an honesty and lyricism that is truly rare. It's not often that art moves me to tears--I never cry in front of people--but these songs have the capability to do just that, to leave me in a crowd trying desparately to stop the impending flood. I was fortunate to catch their performance at the Old Town Wine Crush on Saturday, and each of these songs, played live, resonated with me in a way they hadn't as strongly on recordings (the exception is "Etcetera Whatever," which they didn't play): "I Want You to Be My Love," "Born," "Etcetera Whatever," and "Latter Days."

Lyrically, "I Want You to Be My Love" is incredibly simple--it, and the rest of Drunkard's Prayer ("Born" is also a part of that album), are a departure from the group's usual literary quality. Yet knowing the story behind the songs makes a difference here; the stress of their musical career was taking a toll on Linford and Karin's marriage, and in an effort to save it, they "bought two cases of wine and decided we were going to put a bottle on the kitchen table every evening and start talking until nothing was left. The idea was not to get plowed, but to talk face to face deep into the night." The album came together from those conversations, that near loss. Thus there's something very poignant about those simple songs; for me, they express my own longing for another. I want so much to find a love that will endure, a love that's willing throw everything aside (they canceled most of a tour) in order to save our relationship, to have a relationship that is worth saving. And I want to learn to love without fear.

There's a line in "Etcetera Whatever" that I've held onto like a lifeline: "We're gonna be alright." Sometimes when I can't handle life anymore I've just sung that line to myself over and over, trying to believe that it's true, that things one day will be alright, in spite of everything that's crumbling around me.

"Latter Days" captures my longing to leave more than cliches, more than even a song--there are moments when even words fall short, when you have nothing left to give, when you're just a shadow of yourself. There are parts of ourselves that we hide, that we can't express. We're afraid, but we still want those parts to be known--to be known and yet loved.

^ Top | 11:02 PM | | |

Sunday, September 10, 2006

Eric Nassau

In such an internet-dependent age, it's not uncommon to have a handful of virtual friends--and once in a while, you're lucky and get to meet them in person. While I was on tour with Dan and Thomas, I heard a number of stories about Eric Nassau--how he instantly becomes your best friend, how his car quickly acquires a hippie smell, how he travels all the time and knows everyone. Eric and I had never met, but I felt like I knew him. And apparently he kept hearing about me from various people, and on Myspace he joked that we were the same person (we tend to play the same venues, and we know many of the same people). So last night I finally got a chance to meet Eric in person; he played at Uncommon Ground with Megan Palmer. It was good to hear both of them live, though I didn't have time to stick around and talk for long afterward. (Yes, he is indeed as cool as people say.) Megan accompanied Eric on violin and vocals during his set, and on hers (she's another singer-songwriter that plays both guitar and piano) he joined in occasionally on guitar and vocals. They'll be touring together for another week or two, so I'm sure audiences at the end will be in for an extra-special treat.

Random note: Eric's infamous beard was everything I'd heard it was: two dreads hanging to his waist, and instantly recognizable.

^ Top | 11:50 PM | | |

Friday, September 08, 2006

Sometimes I almost feel like a rockstar.

Yesterday was photo and press day. I did a test shoot with Dean Paul, an excellent Chicago photographer; for the first time in my life I had my makeup professionally done. Complete with a few fake eyelashes on the ends in order to make them stand out in the photos. (Incidentally, they're not as easy to get off as the makeup artist claimed; it took a half hour of work to pull the glue off my lashes without pulling the real ones out as well. I don't think I'll be doing that again in the near future.) Dean was a pleasure to work with, and he gave me a number of useful suggestions since honestly, I don't have tons of modeling experience. (For example, it's usually more interesting to create an angle with your shoulders rather than keep both of them straight.) The initial images on his website look good, and I can't wait to see the rest.

After the shoot, I drove out to Evanston to do an interview with Lisa from Lumino Magazine (we'd met a few weeks ago when I played a variety show in Lakeview); she's actually a musician in her own right with a long history of playing in bands. She made me some spaghetti and we ended up talking about music, art, and her crazy life for a while before actually getting to the interview. Let me tell you, Lisa has great stories. Somewhere toward the end of her 20 questions, Barry appeared to take some photos for the article. When we were done, the three of us hung out in Lisa's new apartment for a while--between the two of them, Barry and Lisa probably know the entire Chicago rock scene. We could probably even expand that quite a bit since Lisa's been writing about music for some time and Barry's done work for Rolling Stone and various festivals and tours. Anyway, after a couple of hours we realized that it was getting late, Barry left, and Lisa and I finished the interview. In the end, I was in the apartment for almost five hours. Time flies when you're having fun.

^ Top | 11:57 PM | | |

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

New Photos

I have talented friends. Thanks to the fabulous Rich Chang, there are some fantastic photos of last week's concert at Silvie's Lounge on Flickr. I've also uploaded a few of the shots to the Photos: Performances page for posterity.

^ Top | 11:30 PM | | |

Monday, September 04, 2006

The Guitar Story (or: A Belated Post about a Birthday Present)

It was well-known that I didn't have a functioning guitar to call my own, a problem when I gig constantly; I'd gotten by with borrowing guitars from friends for the last three years, which is a testament to their generosity, though not a permanent solution. But before I left for my Midwest tour Bryan told me that when I was in Lansing, Mich., I needed to stop at Elderly Instruments to pick up my birthday present. Now, Elderly is to acoustic musicians what a candy store is to a six-year-old. But he was cryptic--I was given an order number and the instructions, "Set aside an afternoon and choose well."

When we got to the store, Thomas wandered off to get his guitar adjusted and I found out how much the gift certificate was worth: enough to pay for almost the entirety of the beautiful Larrivee acoustic-electric that I ended up leaving with. I'd already had a good idea of what I was looking for, but I spent some time talking to the guys in the repair shop about pickups and playing through all the Martin and Larrivee acoustic-electrics in my price range; since I figured that I'd spend more time playing with the guitar plugged in than not, I ran them all through an amp before hearing them unamplified. After two hours of playing, one guitar stood out.

The guitar was the best kind of present: both exactly what I needed and exactly what I wanted, both fun and functional. Thanks, Bryan.

^ Top | 10:55 PM | | |

Friday, September 01, 2006

Jamba Juice

Sometimes bookings come about in the most random of ways. I was wandering through Craigslist last night, checking out the musician postings, when I saw that Jamba Juice was looking last-minute for performers for their First Annual Back to School Party. Since I had one of the slots free, I sent my information to their general manager and got an email back a few hours later: "Love the music, I may have actually seen you at Caribou once."

Afternoon the next day, I played for a crowd in the University of Illinois-Chicago area and had my first Jamba Juice (pretty good stuff). The only unfortunate part of the gig was that I'd lugged my keyboard out for the concert and when I set it up I got an error message I'd never seen before. I still don't know what's wrong with it, and it won't play--it's likely that I bumped it somehow and jarred the internal wiring; although I have an impressive case, it doesn't actually protect as well as it should. Luckily I have a couple of weeks before I need to use the piano again (I'm playing at Uncommon Ground on Sept. 24). But the effect of the problem was that for the first time in a long while, I played an entire set on guitar. I think my last guitar-only show was in December, and that only lasted a half hour, as opposed to an hour. As compensation, the audience heard a couple of songs I haven't played in a while, as well as two improvised songs (the topics I was given were love, beer, school, guitar-playing woman, blue shirt and blue jeans, croissant, and football). That makes 12 concerts this month if you count the day-of cancellation in Canton, Mich.

^ Top | 8:04 PM | | |