What visiting a place will do to a song lyric
I played my first gig in NYC this year, and it changed my life.
No, one gig in NYC didn’t become “my big break”; what it did was change my entire feelings of so many of my favorite song lyrics, songs about NYC.
A direct address like Jim Croce’s “New York’s Not My Home” or a simple street reference in the Lumineer’s “Hey Ho,” I can finally see it.
And feel it.
Visiting a place is a powerful experience. Nothing can take the place of it. A picture, a movie, a live stream…There is nothing like
We live in a new world where online learning, Stageit concerts, Internet video conferencing are exciting ways to experience something new. But no binary code is going fully replace the feeling of standing in the center of Times Square and feeling the pulse of the city, or having coffee in Greenich Village in the same cafe Allen Ginsburg would have sat.
Bob Lefsetz recently wrote about Youtube this year, saying that the road was where a new act used to grow; but now it’s on Youtube. Go on on the road and risk playing for only 10 people? Nonsense. Post a video instead…
I don’t disagree with his theory about the importance of video streaming, but there is one point that’s being lost: How powerful of an experience it is to be one of those ten people to see something live from a fresh new artist. It’s way different in hitting all of your senses than 10,000 watching a video. Playing a music or hearing music live is not a replaceable experience, from the small folk club to the large venue.
The Internet is being praised, and I will continue to praise it. But don’t forget, the computer screen doesn’t replace the ground or sky.
Playing my first show in NYC with Leah Taylor!
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