An evening to remember in L.A.

Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times

Joe Henry performed last weekend in L.A. .It was a first show, after several cancelled shows these last months.

During the show he revealed that he had to deal with a stage 4 cancer diagnosis.It was a period of dealing with the shadows of life.

"You don't examine a shadow by shining a light on it," He explained to his audience. 

As a symbol for it all he put a top hat upside down on stage, while he walked on stage hatless...

“There are times in life when a wind knocks the hat off your head and you have to chase it down the street, dust it off and reset it.” We can read in an article in the LA Times. 

But he is OK now, his treatment seems to be doing what it was designed for, and during the concert he presented some new songs that came from that period. 

Just like it is for everyone, the news shocked me, and left me also a little numb. I am glad everything is falling back in to place. It is a tougher chapter in this book we call life. I think Joe knows how much warmth I am sending him and everyone close to him. (I truly wished I could have been with all of you at Largo at the Coronet last saturday.)

Paul Zollo, who was in the audience wrote the following : 




Wit Love,
Stefan.

My first listen to 'There is no other'

What you will be reading is actually an experiment. I am typing my stream of thoughts during my first listen of this album. I also feel it honest to not edit too much of all this. You will be able to read this within the hour after I have done listening to it. 

This could possibly become one of my strangest posts, but I was thinking, that maybe there is no more honest way to write about a record. 

OK, here we go.  

With high expectations it is only right now that I'm hearing this album for the first time. 'Ten Thousand Voices' has just begun, and I'm immediatly struck by the clarity of the recording. It genuinly sounds like Rhiannon and Francesco are standing in front of me, but strangly and in contrast with that fact : Rhiannon's chanting takes me away in to an imaginary reality.

These songs are taking me, like a Gypsy, around the world. It is the untouchable proof that there is beauty all over the world, and if all this beauty comes together, magic happens. It truly is overwhelming ! If you sit down with this, and listen actively, then "Where are we ?"  Yes, I am sitting in my livingroom, and I know this was recorded in a studio. But these are physical facts. Where in this world is my mind ? A word of advise : Close your eyes when you listen to this record. It will put a spell on you.

I don't know how close these recordings are to the ideas Rhiannon and Francesco had, but it feels so genuine, so true! I believe every sound I hear.

Wow ! 'Pizzica di San Vito' is shaking me out of my mindstream. I didn't see that one coming. It feels like a I'm being pulled into a dance, where my bones are not yet accustomed to. Neither can I resist it. The same thing happens with the piano in 'Black Swan'. I just thought I absorbed that song, and then that Piano happens. It's amazing.

I really love these Arabic influences. You know something ? This album is really hypnotising me. How do you do that Ryan and Joe ? How do you put this atmosphere on tape ? And I know you'll say something like : "It takes musicians like Rhiannon and Francesco, and magic happens !" . But how do you channel that magic in my livingroom, in my mind ?

Oh wait, 'Little Margaret'. The fullness of that sound.... I'm letting it all come in, but that sound is going through my entire body. It has something to do with the frequency of the instrument that is interfering with the vains in my body. It's making them tremble. I already had that with the first single 'I'm on my way'. That song is the authority walking in the room, and you can do nothing else then accept it.

All that is left is Amen in 'He will see you soon'.

What have you recorded back in Ireland ! Were all the elements of th Universe exactly in place those days ? This is amazing !

It's quiet in the room now, but not in me. It doesn't let me go.

That's my favorite word to use about an artist