All Night Long
Year of Kings. Day 216. We played music all night long, in the house where Craig grew up, on a dirt road, up in the mountains. Kevin Moloney came back from Las Vegas and U2 and we laughed and danced and drank and made up songs and played long lost originals and old favorites. All was good in the universe.
Year of Kings. Day 217. We’re on the move. Growing. Glowing. Trying to listen and feel and be real. Be colorful. Live a colorful life.
Year of Kings. Day 218. January 11 - playing at The Orange Peel with Aunt Vicki and Fashion Bath. Super excited to be part of this local showcase.
Year of Kings. Day 219. We try to create weather systems on stage. We try to create multipliers. Magnifiers? Intensifiers? What I mean by this is - if I’m enjoying myself I’m gonna let everyone around me know. If I’m having a great time I’m gonna let Craig know. If me and Craig are having the best time, then Bayla and Colleen are gonna be having the best time, Kyrie and Merlin are gonna be having the best time… and then the audience is gonna be having the best time too!
Year of Kings. Day 220. Year of Kings. This is the year when we take off the brakes, cast aside our fears - and go for it. Best songs, best shows, best recordings. And then the ghost of Sinead O’Connor walks into the room. Someone who is beyond real. Someone with massive passions. And massive anger toward her mother, the church, the system. Her ghost walks into the room and sits down at the table and smiles - who are you? What is your truth?
Year of Kings. Day 221. We run and run and run. We dance and dance and dance. Music is scared and profane. Music is light and heat and truth and laughter. And we’re always so grateful to the people who play music with us. Thank you - thank you - thank you!
Year of Kings. Day 222. We opened the door to Irish ghosts. When we reformed Dark City Kings part II we wanted it to feel like Irish pub music. Not sound like it - we don’t know how to play Celtic music. But to feel like an Irish pub band that starts just entertaining itself in a corner and then slowly expands thought the night - and by midnight the scene is very raucous and people are dancing on tables, dancing on the bar, making out… We opened the door to Irish ghosts - and they came waking in and sat down with us.
Year of Kings. Day 223. I hope the music reflects the mountains. We don’t want to impress you - we’re not that impressive - but we want you to feel the wildness, the same wildness of the wind running through the trees, ice in the branches, coming upon a deer in the forest. We want to reflect this idea of life.
Year of Kings. Day 224. I’ve been away for the holidays. I don’t mean to be a dork, but when I’m driving back and I see the mountains for the first time, my mountains, heading east on US 40, well, not to be a dork, but my soul sings. It looks so wild, but I’ve lived here long enough, walked the woodland trails, wandered along the ridge lines - and now the wild feels like home.
Year of Kings. Day 225. Back in town and getting locked in. Two weeks from now - we’ve just played the Orange Peel with @_aunt_vicki and @fashionbathasheville. Three weeks from now we’re setting up for @citizenvinyl to start recording with @kevin.moloney.music - the producer of Sinead O’Connor’s first two albums. So - yeah - this is happening. I’m going to spend a lot of the next two weeks trying to convince you all to come out on January 11 to see the local music showcase at the Orange Peel. These are kind of rare beasts, only happen about once a year, and it’s really fun to see what the local scene is creating.
Year of Kings. Day 226. I have a feeling. We’re going to set up at Studio B of Citizen Vinyl on January 19 - then lock into the studio for January 20 and 21. I have the intuition that Kevin Moloney wants us to be creative in that space - not just recording the songs that we’ve got in our bag and have played live a million times. He wants us to catch that lightning, grab that magic in the moment. (Shhhh - so I’m packing my bag of tricks - chord progressions, riffs, lyrics, half-written songs, quarter-written songs, stories, lines, ideas….)
