![]() Working with another songwriter takes you to places you never would have gone alone." "We had a Zoom co-writing session, and I remembered what she'd told me that night of my 40th birthday. "Lori likes to write off of titles, taking a good phrase and turning it into a whole song," Erelli said. On the record, the tune begins with a folk-music intimacy, but swells into room-filling rock. The title was something McKenna had said, pulling him aside and reminding him his friends were giving him a keepsake moment. ![]() McKenna had helped introduce Erelli to co-writing during the pandemic, and one of their Zoom sessions resulted in "You're Gonna Wanna Remember This." When Erelli had turned 40, a bunch of his fellow musicians threw a party-show for him, where they all performed songs he'd written. Keira Knightley on 'Boston Strangler': 'Love song to female investigative journalists' It is simply his humble tribute to a fellow musician. I just hope I dealt with his passing with a sense of grace and respect."Įrelli said he doesn't know if Steve Earle or any other members of the family have heard the tune, and he hasn't tried to contact them. It is always a heavy moment when I play that song live, a pretty powerful moment for a lot of people, it turns out. It was a time of asking, 'Who am I? Who was Justin?' I didn't know him, but I admired his work, and it was a meditation on how something like that affects us. "It evolved into a general meditation on loss, at a time when I had experienced a big loss of my own. "I started that song because, specifically, I had been inspired by his passing," Erelli said. But Erelli had never met the younger Earle. It is a powerful song about doing your best and leaving your mark, and how much someone was loved despite their demons. It is rather an elegy of sorts to Justin Townes Earle, the talented songwriter son of Steve Earle, who had his own array of problems and succumbed to them in August 2020, at age 38. The title cut to the new album is stunning, a starkly evocative number reminiscent of Bruce Springsteen's legendary "Nebraska" album, but Erelli's tune "Lay Your Darkness Down" is NOT about his own vision loss. But coming out of the pandemic, and my own RP diagnosis, I've felt the need to commit myself even more intensely to the live performance experience." In my experience, it hasn't been a case of audiences roaring back after the pandemic, and there are various reasons like inflation or changing habits. Music fans' habits have changed also, where they don't seem to go out as much. A lot of venues that played important roles in my career are either out of business now or in trouble. ![]() "This time I'm committed to almost immediately touring these songs, fully invested in playing them onstage every night I can. Everyone heard the record, eventually, but it took a couple years for the songs from 'Blindsided' to take on their own identities. The pandemic made that aspect of the art feel less alive. "When you can do that, the songs change and can become whatever they want to be on a given night. "With my last record, 'Blindsided,' I never had a chance to really take it out on the road and let those songs evolve," Erelli said. Mark Erelli is performing Friday night at The Crystal Ballroom in Somerville. Being able to play these songs live is what gives them wings. For this kind of storytelling that I do, an essential part of it is having people witness the processing of emotions through music. We need to be together, and that's something the pandemic really took away from us. if we survive, it'll be together.' It is a concept that is so profound, and yet so basic we are a social species. "I think the first line of that first song says it all," Erelli said last week. It is a superb appetizer for the rest of the album, which delves into some deep emotional territory, but always returns to the theme and feeling of hope. The album opens with "Break in the Clouds," an effervescent folk-rocker whose optimism is palpable. As a lyricist, Erelli specializes in smart lyrics that include stick-in-your-head turns of phrase, yet are relatable to every listener, for a marvelously accessible and affecting blend. ![]() The new album, "Lay Your Darkness Down," was released in February on Soundly Music and includes 10 new songs, all featuring an inviting scaled-down rock sound. ![]()
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