Birnie Blog

Merrily James

My good friend Alex Hayes from the Party Down is gigging with Merrily James, an artist that I wanted to share after listening to her. Really enjoying her voice. Have a listen below and visit her website, facebook, or reverbnation to check her out.

Leonard Cohen (1992)

I’ve always kind of been in love with this interview of Leonard Cohen by Paul Zollo on the art of songwriting. Had the pleasure of reading it again a couple of weeks ago. Enjoy.

We are sitting indian-style on the second floor of Leonard Cohen’s home in Los Angeles. On his bookshelf are many books that he’s written himself, including two novels and several volumes of poetry. An unearthly rain is exploding outside as he scans countless notebooks of song, endless revisions that span decades and which fill thousands of pages within hundreds of notebooks. For every verse that he keeps, there are untold dozens that he discards. When I mention that a lesser writer would have been happy with simply two of the six verses that he wrote for the stunning “Democracy” from his album, The Future, he answers, “I’ve got about sixty.”

His tower of song isn’t really that tall, only two floors that I can see anyway, but to him it’s both a fortress of solitude and a factory, a place where he says, “I summon every version of myself that I can to join this workforce, this team, this legion.” It’s here that he gives songs the kind of respect bottles of fine wine receive, the knowledge that years — decades even — are needed for them to ripen to full maturity. Quoting from the Talmud he says, “There’s good wine in every generation,” referring to the new songwriters who crop up every few years. But his own work has extended across generations and decades, packing as much brilliance into 1992’s The Future as he instilled into his first album in 1967. “I always knew I was in this for the long haul,” he says, but somewhere along the line the work just got harder.” 

Read More

Oak Street Sessions

There’s theoretically only one rule about the Oak Street Sessions: No Redos.

After performing with a number of bands over the last few years, this project really originated out of a desire to return to the roots of my love of music. I grew up just sitting down at the piano and playing whatever songs came to mind, most of the time late at night and in the dark of my living room in my parents house.

I was pretty indiscriminate about my choices of songs; some were classics, others pretty annoyingly cliche, others were songs that were on the radio at the time, or songs that I just happened to know. It wasn’t so much about the songs themselves as it was an opportunity to create my own version of them that I felt was authentic to my own voice and style. 

Sometimes there were moments of real innovation, and other times pretty much atrocious disaster or silly humor. Driven by momentary improvisation and mostly just fooling around, it was the search for immediate authenticity that made it fun; the challenge to think on my feet and see what might happen.

Which brings me back to the rules of the Oak Street Sessions. 

Read more »

A City Night-Piece by Oliver Goldsmith (1765)

In honor of Rope, now playing through February 12th.

The clock has struck two, the expiring taper rises and sinks in the socket, the watchman forgets the hour in slumber, the laborious and the happy are at rest, and nothing now wakes but guilt, revelry, and despair. The drunkard once more fills the destroying bowl, the robber walks his midnight round, and the suicide lifts his guilty arm against his own sacred person.

Let me no longer waste the night over the page of antiquity, or the sallies of contemporary genius, but pursue the solitary walk, where vanity, ever changing, but a few hours past walked before me; where she kept up the pageant, and now, like a froward child, seems hushed with her own importunities.

What a gloom hangs all around! The dying lamp feebly emits a yellow gleam, no sound is heard but of the chiming clock, or the distant watch dog. All the bustle of human pride is forgotten, and this hour may well display the emptiness of human vanity.

There will come a time when this temporary solitude may be made continual, and the city itself, like its inhabitants, fade away, and leave a desert in its room.

What cities, as great as this, have once triumphed in existence; had their victories as great as ours; joy as just, and as unbounded as we; and, with short-sighted presumption, promised themselves immortality. Posterity can hardly trace the situation of some. The sorrowful traveller wanders over the awful ruins of others, and, as he beholds, he learns wisdom, and feels the transience of every sublunary possession.

Read more »

Raquel Rodriguez EP Release

My close friend, collaborator, and supremely talented guitarist Jamey Arent plays on Raquel Rodriguez’s new EP, just released in the new year. Hoping to make it out to LA this year to do some songwriting with him. Also Oberlin alum Tim McKay playing sax on the album. Have a listen to the new record:

And check her out online at her blog/website, facebook, and a sweet youtube channel, particularly this video of her and Jamey:

Ben Howard

Another artist I’ve been enjoying recently that I wanted to share: UK folk musician and singer Ben Howard. He’s mostly been around Europe, but is making the jump to the US in 2012, with a tour and playing at SXSW. Interesting to note he’s on the same label as Nick Drake… another personal favorite.

Also: One of my favorite songs, The Wolves. Love it.