friends of friends
28 May 2007 by julietb
image of rosie, denison and sufjan by liz wong via her artghost blog
on thursday night i ventured out into the sultry heat of kings cross all on my own to catch a gig. i’d not been to a gig on my own before, it was a strangely liberating experience. no worry about the person you’ve invited not enjoing it as much as you’d hyped it, the ability to squeeze into a small space for a better view and cheaper rounds at the bar. plus i sort of felt like a proper music journalist (not much fear of that usually).
the gig was a bit of a double header by two friends, who are also friends of friends.
confused? get some clarity after the jump.
denison witmer is a friend of j tillman’s and any friend of jt’s is a friend of mine. he’s also a friend of sufjan stevens and he just so happens to be a singer in his own right. denison (it’s a town in texas as well as his name) is a gentleman troubadour in the truest sense. a gentle guy with a storyteller’s heart and a soft melodic voice perfect for lullabies.
last year for his thirtieth birthday he re-recorded all of his back catalogue acoustically and put 30 songs on a website for free.
as a gift to you.
on his birthday. which i think probably makes him a gentleman trouper-dour.
all he asked was for a small donation to one of two excellent charities in return for all that music (fear not, hl has paid its dues).
see? i told you he was a gent. his short set in the tropical heat of what quickly turned into a north london indie-sauna last week was more of the same pared down folking, denison’s patchwork pieces of song wrapping the audience in a blanket of hopeful acoustic tenderness. the words between his songs are gentle too, friendly, honest and endearingly self-effacing, years of practice in front of an audience have led him to be easy and engaging in the process of bearing his heart and soul onstage.
despite the comparative brevity of his set he came back on stage as one of rosie thomas’ friends a mere twenty minutes later. rosie thomas has the sort of voice i imagine i’ve got in the film of my life.
however since its the film of my life and not the life of my film i don’t.
she does.
and well, the world’s a richer place for it. now on her fourth album (self-released after a fair old stint with the seminal indie label subpop) i first encountered rosie’s charming, fragile, honey soaked blossom of a voice on hl favourite and her friend damien jurado’s records (and damien- if you’re reading still, we’re thinking of you). standing and soaring delicately but equally as forcefully around his voice on the ghost of david and cropping up again on subsequent releases, particularly 2003’s astonishingly beautiful, where shall you take me?
rosie thomas’ latest outing these friends of mine is a collaboration recorded in new york last year with two friends of friends of ours denison witmer and sufjan stevens (oh man, we are so well connected).
i’ve been thinking about this all weekend and the best way to describe the experience of hearing rosie’s voice is like a fragrance. it wends and winds around her guitar or damien, sufjan or denison’s voice, fitting so perfectly, utterly sympathetic to the other elements surrounding it yet unmistakably sweet and lingering like a lilac or jasmine bloom. and quite apart from that rosie might possibly be the sweetest thing in the music industry. charming, funny, cute and ridiculously well blessed with a redolent voice and talent for songwriting, honestly - her singing made my knees weak last week.
utterly devoted to what she does with a disarming hope and ardour untainted by four albums and years of touring; i’ve rarely seen an artist so enthusiastic for their audience, so keen to share themselves and their gifts with people they’ve never met. and she’s terribly funny too. all of which might sound uncomplicated but her songs are full of the frankness of those everyday battles, the pain of struggles and disappointments as well as delight in the joys and triumphs, they are hopeful, humane songs.
now, rather than post a track of denison’s who’s music you can hear for yourself here and support some really good work in the process (and i’d encourage you to do so), here is rosie.
and instead of posting anything from her last album, which i’ve spent a soggy bank holiday listening to on repeat and fits perfectly a lazy three days of bakewell tarts, movies, lie-ins, guitar playing and vodka tonic, here is a duet with sam beam of iron and wine from her second album ‘only with laughter can you win‘. as poignant and more vulnerable and honest than anything else in my itunes library. red rover is a song i often come back to if i’m feeling a little bit mopey since it’ll set me off in just the right sort of contemplative but hopeful melancholy. i can’t help but feel this post hasn’t done either of these artists or their respective albums any sort of justice but i’ll stop typing and let rosie and sam do the talking…