Two and a quarter years ago, with the US edition of Im Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen about to come out, I had the crazy dream of going on the road with my book and a ukulele, reading and singing Leonards songs. The uke, if Im honest, was as much a security blanket as anything. Something to hide behind during performances (well Im almost that small!). And good company on what turned out to be a self-organised, self-promoted (some of you will understand how odious that last bit is) almost never-ending tour - a bit like a puppy but with nothing to clean up. I was deleting some old files and I came across this one. I thought, if I was going to do this tour, I ought to do a Youtube video. I called my friend Un Humano,and asked if he knew someone whod shoot this video, oh and could he bring the violin player hed worked with on a great album by Annie Girl & The Flight. Id like to shoot at night, I said, in my bedroom. He turned up mid-afternoon on the hottest day of the year, with a video recorder, a violin player, a viola player and Annie Girl. It was the first time I had met them. I swiftly printed off a few more chord sheets. We all piled into my bedroom, closed the black-out curtain and lit candles to make an artificial night. Annie sat beside me on the bed, Matthew Szemela (violin) and Charith Premawardhana (viola) sat on the floor, all of us sweating pints from the heat. The next door neighbours had thrown open their windows and were blasting mariachi music - wonderful, but not not so much when youre trying to record. So Un Humano went next door and offered them $50 to turn the music off for an hour. I seem to remember they did it for free, otherwise I still owe Un Humano 50 bucks. And this was the first thing we recorded. Just one take. The viola still makes the hairs stand up on my arm. And you might notice from the footage that Matthews violin solo made me cry. I had to lean my head back and try to get the tears to run back inside again before coming back in for the last verse. And Annie became a good friend. We played together a lot after that. Shes going to be playing at the Chapel in SF this Saturday with her band - you should check her out. So here it is, the first Songs from a Bedroom video, which led to a tour, which in turn led to my new album, Sylvie. I dont often post twice in on day, but I just wanted to share this. Have a great weekend everyone. https://youtube/watch?v=zvXCqNIFPVU&feature=youtu.be
Posted on: Fri, 07 Nov 2014 21:40:08 +0000
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