The perfect cherry on top of my triumph yesterday was a MySpace bulletin from David Mead saying that he’d be playing at the Living Room last night. The Living Room, like most of the great tiny venues in New York, is located on the Lower East Side[1], just down Ludlow from Houston[2]. I was going to be at the Mercury Lounge last night to see my friend Elizabeth play trombone with one of her many bands. Fortunately her show was at 10 and David’s at 11.
Some background on David: he’s probably my favorite solo singer/songwriter in the world. Originally from the South, he moved up to NYC, then down to Nashville, and has moved back up recently. In addition to writing lyrics with smooth sophistication, he also composes melodies that grab you instantly. As a direct result of his immense talent, he’s not well known. I have all his CDs. Check out the tunes on his myspace page. If he were a movie, he’d be endlessly quotable: “trapped in the orbit of your rolling eyes,” “the lonesome weight of truth,” “and miles will make you notice / all you dream is real.” Here is David’s online lyric archive.
And, on top of it all, his journals are very entertaining and elegantly written.
1.) Let’s make a list of these tiny Lower East Side venues I’ve been to thus far, all within a 4 block radius of each other: The Living Room, Arlene’s Grocery, American Underground, the Mercury Lounge, Piano’s, Rockwood Music Hall.
2.) Scene of Tuesday night’s trucking maneuvers.