I've been a longtime fan of Peter Hammill, whether in brooding and introspective songwriter mode or going for more ambitious and/or grim topics with Van Der Graaf Generator. His career has been a real treat to explore at a relatively slow pace, and provided some key inspiration for some of my first songs. While I don't like all his material equally (and it encompasses such a wide range that it would be difficult for anyone to accomplish that), at his best he can create a pretty immediate mood through his choices in vocal delivery and general phrasing. Bucking the expected trend of someone who's been recording for 40 years, he's made some of the best albums of his solo career in the last decade, and this tune is from one of them, Incoherence. My version takes equal grounding from the original recording as it does on the recording from his live album with violinist Stuart Gordon, Veracious.

Stuff in March

Going to keep this brief and workpersonlike. Apologies for the brevity:

An Historic has a few gigs upcoming. Tomorrow night (March 2nd) at 1175 Chapel St New Haven (AKA Taco Hut Records HQ), I'll be playing a solo set on a bill with Chris Capello, José Oyola, and Brian Abraham, starting at 7:30. Ring the buzzer for apt 605. Next Friday, I'll be participating in a musical Round Robin with Clara Engel, Valerie Kuehne, Spiff Wiegand, Lucio Menegon, Elime Sorbsel, Beninghove's Hangmen and Upholstery. The venue is The Spectrum 115 23rd St, New York, NY. Two days later I'll be back in New Haven, hosting Clara Engel and Valerie Kuehne on the local stop of their "Draws Blood 2012" tour. This evening features the debut of Dr. Historic, which is a stupid name mashup to indicate Dr. Caterwauls playing all An Historic songs, as well as short sets by Sam Perduta and José Oyola. An Historic plays later in the month at a TBA location in New York on March 21st

Broadcloth has two dates coming up - first in Northampton, MA on March 14th, and later in New Haven (with our friends Prehistoric Horse - Valerie Kuehne, Lucio Menegon, David Grollman). Details for both are to be announced.

Besides the upcoming Dr. Historic thing, Dr. Caterwauls will also be playing at Best Video in Hamden on March 22nd at 8PM, and March 25th at the John Slade Ely house as part of a fundraiser for the New Haven Oratorio Choir between 4-6PM.

So that's March for ya. April will be a bit slower but will also feature some debut performances of music I'm really, really excited to play. More on that as it comes.