April 26, 2023
It’s the window seat. It’s the upper level of the train. It’s a steady flow of green past the glass until it’s a burst of yellow – yellow as if the earth were wearing a jacket made of lemon peel. Canola fields. They come into view like the white at the end of a roll of film. A medieval church steeple protrudes from the hills. This is Normandy. I’m in Normandy. How did I get here?
Not a month ago I posted that I would be performing in Paris. I heard from an artist on Instagram asking if he could put together a show in which he would open for me in the neither small, nor big city of Caen, Normandy. With the experience of an American, of a New Yorker, of a songwriter, of a vessel for music who’s embraced cutting her teeth on life spinning about in my psyche, I accepted. I’m off the train and there is Val. He recognizes me before I recognize him. We walk to the venue. I have coffee. He rolls a cigarette.
Portobello Rock Club smells like a bar. It has a real stage and vibrates at the perfect frequency of grunge. Val, his friend Amandine and I are biding time together, stretching, showing each other what graphics are on our socks, watching people stream into the club from the upstairs window. 21:00… Val goes on stage. I peer out from behind the bar hearing the enchanting solo piano chord changes of his song Ana (releasing in June). There are 60 people with eyes glued to the stage. I pause for some neural pathway rewiring. This is an unexpected moments that tears down preconceived ideas and defenses. I see my life flash before my eyes, realizing how all of it has led me here and how none of it matters anymore.
The stage then houses me. As I create the first violin loop people snap along. I mean within seconds of there existing an audible tempo in the room everyone is right inside it with me. At times during the set the audience is singing along, most people having never heard my songs. We are laughing, they are bearing with my English, supporting every endeavor I venture on. By the end of the set they ask for an encore. And another.
Afterwards I stand by the bar to witness nearly every person in the room approach me to thank me.
What a thrill to know the vibration of that evening lives on in Caen: the first time I played music in Europe. In celebration on the following day, Me, Val and his friend Ju ventured all the way to the top of the Mont Saint-Michel, which has been a subject of inspiration for me for 4 years. With gratitude and amazement, I thank Val for his hard work in stitching the evening together, his friends who welcomed me, the Portobello Rock Club for their hospitality and to the audience in total who was ready for music.
Read a review of our show in English / in French.
