Williamsburg Live Songwriter Competition

It goes on among the first 50 applicants selected to perform at the 4th Annual Williamsburg Live Songwriter Competition 2007.

Andy Guthrie at Lucky Cat
Tuesday Nov 6th, 2007
8pm
245 Grand St (btw Driggs and Roebling)
Brooklyn, NY 11211
Subway: JMZ to Marcy Ave.

It Goes On - © Andy Guthrie 2007

I heard one call them gays like us and them in suspicious ways
Can’t go on, it goes on
In this romantic age epics spun around tiny waves
Can’t go on, it goes on
Clearing humans from land to make spectacles for ants to rake
Can’t go on, it goes on
Untouchable like our souls we’ll wait to grab and hold and subordinate
Can’t go on, it goes on

It is all anti-human when it needs death to prove it
The people are dying every day
And the sun comes and sets the other way

I heard one about the homeless like liberty my liberty they owe us
Can’t go on, it goes on
And how about that one that old tired cliché no work all pay ruins my countries great day
Can’t go on, it goes on
Frozen in fear and cutting imagination progress while sharing needs no illumination
Can’t go on, it goes on

Behold imageries of religion
Bloody erotic and quite human
But still the people we are artistic
As each situation can be poetic

I heard one about the brother so similar looking down on the other
Can’t go on, it goes on
Us and them with killing on the mind, saving babies killing babies that’s fine
Can’t go on, it goes on

I heard one and I let one speak
How could you go on in a place so bleak?
Where reality will be defined by the biggest killers
And the humans we all know more our triggers

Empire, empire, how long do you last to terrorize the world leave no good to pass?

Dominie's Hoek Solo Show

Photo by Amy Stein

I've been playing at Dominie's Hoek quite steadily for the past two years. It's been great that Justin the bartender/booker and bass player for Ghostrunner appreciates my music and asks me back. Dominie's Hoek is in Long Island City located along the East River across from Manhattan and below the Queensborough Bridge. The view from the pier is gorgeous and there is the most excellent French restaurant a few blocks down from from the bar. I will be joined this evening by Jann Klose who is a successful singer/songwriter living and working in New York City and with whom I will be sharing venues with next summer in Lyon, Hamburg, and Berlin.

Andy Guthrie Solo at Dominie's Hoek + Jann Klose
Saturday Sept 29th
8pm
48-17 Vernon Bouldevard (btw 48th and 49th Ave)
Long Island City, NY 11101 - ph: 718 706 6531
Subway 7 to Vernon Boulevard/Jackson Avenue

Louisville, The Rudyard Kipling, Soapbox Sirens

Photo by Mark Garfinkel

I had a great time in Louisville and would highly recommend any musician checking out the scene there. I was able to travel and perform there by the graciousness of the formidable Soapbox Sirens - a group of musicians, singers and performance artists who host musicians in Louisville finding them a place to stay and perform. The first night was a pot luck at Angie and Chet's house of Gypsy Switch and then off to the Hideaway Saloon to play with Gypsy Switch and Heather of Soapbox Sirens. Thursday was an impromptu jam session at Kri's house where I was staying, Friday was performing at Nick's workplace - Kaleidoscope which is a home for mentally retarded, and Saturday was a concert at the Rudyard Kipling with members of the Soapbox Sirens and more. The Rudyard Kipling was most likely a boarding house built in the late 19th century in the old Louisville section of town and is now a bar/restaurant and performance space. It is quite a gem, red brick very beautiful and a great feel to it. It's been in existence for about thirty years and is known in Louisville as just The Rud. I was very relaxed playing for all of these talented people I met in Louisville so it was a blast. After the gig we headed over to the Alternative Bar and caught the end of the Troubadour's set and we all sat in. It was just great the openness of the scene there.

To me Louisville reminded me a bit of New Orleans because of the way it is situated on swamp in the Ohio River basin, but was also reminiscent of Pittsburgh which is not too far off in the midwest and is where I grew up. I enjoyed waking each morning to the crescendo and decrescendo of the Locusts it was quite beautiful but maybe for the locals they don't even hear them anymore. I look forward to returning soon and I look forward to introducing everybody to the scene in New York.

Solo Show at Joe's Pub

Photo by Amy Stein

My first solo show at Joe's Pub was a great success, a beautiful audience at one of the best venues to perform and see a concert in New York City. I even sang a song in French called out by one of my favorite bartenders - Vicci from Sarabella, did a mostly light-hearted version of Racist, explained the Platt Amendment with a Cuba Libre and in general had a grand old time. So somehow I have been invited back for a second show. I hope again that everyone can make it and that I recapture that excitement of my debut there. Here are the details and don't forget to invite three hundred of your closest friends:

Andy Guthrie Solo at Joe's Pub
Saturday, August 25, 2007
7 pm - 8 pm
425 Lafayette Street (btw East 4th and Astor Place)
New York, NY
Subway: 6 to Astor Place

Greetings From France

Photo by Matthias Crepel

I have been in Lyon playing a series of shows. The first concert was Saturday, July 21, night at a very cool club, Modern Art Cafe, on the top of the Croix Rousse neighborhood. The Croix Rousse is an 18th century neighborhood set on a steep slope over looking the Saone and Rhone Rivers.

The next week I played four straight nights at the studio of Gedeon Sillac. During these concerts I would start playing solo and then invite musicians from the area (bass, drums, guitar, and kora) to play with me. With people listening from the streets, their windows, the studio itself and all the cd's I sold it was a huge success.

I met a lot of people from the neighborhood one being the wonderful photographer Matthias Crepel who took the picture above. Gedeon Sillac who holds many concerts throughout the year at his studio, is a painter, sculptor and lutier. It was really a great experience that any musician would be lucky to have.