Anaïs Mitchell and Bonny Light Horseman Bring a Little Romance to Webster Hall on Monday Night
Anaïs Mitchell/Bonny Light Horseman – Webster Hall – 02/14/22
For many, Valentine’s Day is a time for romance—hearts, flowers and love songs. But for others, it might feel like the opposite, perhaps a day to go anti-romantic, commiserate about love lost or worse. For those in attendance at Webster Hall on Monday night, there was opportunity for both sides of the love coin to land facing up, as the same band played two sets, two different ways. First up, Bonny Light Horseman, a sort of folk supergroup, a band of if-you-know-you-knows who just happen to fit together in perfect this-should-be-a-band! fashion. Led by the trio of Anaïs Mitchell, Eric Johnson and Josh Kaufman, they opened with “Deep in Love,” Johnson and Mitchell finding harmony imploring, “Don’t you break my heart,” Kaufman’s guitar twinkling brightly. “The Roving” continued the theme of perhaps opposite-of-love songs, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t an air of romance in the music. Mitchell’s and Johnson’s voices don’t feel like they should fit on paper, one Capulet, one Montague, so to speak, but throughout the opening set, on songs like “Blackwaterside” and the intricate interplay of “Jane Jane,” they sounded positively star-crossed. With Kaufman’s guitar, JT Bates on drums and Michael Lewis on bass (and saxophone), the band played as if struck with Cupid’s musical arrow, very much meant to be.
After a short break, the same band minus Johnson returned, this time backing Mitchell for a headlining set of her own material, largely off her just-released self-titled LP. Anyone in the audience worried about not getting any truly romantic songwriting on a Valentine’s Monday had to be feeling the love as Mitchell opened with “Real World” and then “Brooklyn Bridge,” singing lines like “I wanna dance in your real grip / Feel your real hands on my hips / Taste real whiskey on your lips / When we kiss in the real world” in the former and “I wanna take you by the hand / I wanna tell you everything” in the latter. With Mitchell, it’s not just what she sings but the way she sings them, almost like she’s passionately exhaling the lyrics into the air to be inhaled in small bits by the audience so they circulate throughout everyone’s body. Those are some love songs. Kaufman’s guitar cooed long wails in accompaniment, Lewis’s sax matching Mitchell’s cadence on “Brooklyn Bridge.”
Johnson returned to beef up the sound and add more of that harmony for the middle stretch of the set, which included a run of songs from Mitchell’s Hadestown, ending with a strong duet on “Wedding Song.” The set closed with new material, finishing on “Little Big Girl,” Kaufman on piano—his third instrument of the night—the band’s chemistry continuing to the very end. For those who hadn’t gotten their fill of romance, the three-song encore was enough to send everyone’s hearts aflutter. “Now You Know” was quintessential Mitchell, words and melody intertwined with a voice that embodied it all, a love song perfectly matched to the moment. Back as Bonny Light Horseman, they debuted their cover of Dire Straits’ “Romeo and Juliet,” a nicely folked-up version of another spot-on song for the moment. The show closed with one last Bonny Light number, “10,000 Miles,” a love song whose tale might not have a happy ending, but with the vocals completely in sync and the players in full musical embrace, the love story of this Valentine’s Day show was undoubtedly sealed with a kiss. —A. Stein | @Neddyo
Photos courtesy of Sachyn Mital | www.sachynmital.com
By: Jill Riley for The Current
Date: July 29th 2020
[Transcript]
How did you end up on a Taylor Swift record?
Well, because of Aaron [Dessner]. You know, I've worked with Aaron for the last couple years, in Big Red Machine, Lone Bellow, various other sessions he's been hiring me for. And I've done a few things for him since COVID began; we've been, you know, we're always texting and talking. He's a very inspiringly creative person who just is really constantly making things, and it's pretty incredible. So he, yeah, contacted me at some point and was like, "Hey, I've got this special, fun little project going on here; can you record some drums on a few songs for me?" Because obviously, we're all recording remotely at this point. So yeah, it was very hush-hush, the whole thing, and obviously not really letting out any information as to who this person was or anything like that, and so yeah! You know, you do these things and you send them off, and you don't really know what it's going to end up being or what it's going to be like, and then, sometimes, I guess, apparently, it's a Taylor Swift record.
So was there some kind of code word, like "Operation blah blah"? I mean, did you even know that it was a Taylor Swift song when you started recording?
No. I didn't.
So what did you get? You got like a music track?
Yeah. You know, I mean, that's how they set it up. I mean, obviously, there's... whatever! There's a lot of reasons that would be set up that way; I don't need to go into that. But anyway, yeah, so he just said, "I can't really tell you who this is." But you know, I know Aaron pretty well; he's become a close musical brother in a lot of ways in the last few years, so I know when he sends me things, I've learned his aesthetic - not that I always know what he's going to do - but just that I can give him some things that he's going to - I know which things I do that he likes, so then you just, you know, like, yeah. I mean, there's a lot of this going on; it's like, someone sends you a song, and normally, we'd be hanging out in a studio talking, and maybe I'd even be listening to the artist sing the song while I'm, you know, maybe not a finished vocal, but like, something's there; you know, when you're at the studio, usually there's something to play to or something like that. So this was a really different experience! But really fun. And then he contacted me very early in the morning on Thursday [July 23] and was like, "Buddy, it's Taylor Swift." And I was like, "I can't believe…" (laughter) My 15-year-old and my wife were both, you know, aware that I had done this something for Aaron for somebody that's, you know, we're not allowed to know who this person is, whatever, and they were like, "Oh my gosh, what if it's Taylor Swift? That'd be so cool." And they were right.
That's great! I love hearing the insight on that because, you know, I have seen you as a live drummer with a number of bands and artists. But kind of to get that inside view of what it's like to be a session drummer, and it's not unusual for you to get sent something or just called into a studio. Or you get something sent to your studio, and it's like, "Hey, can you play on this?" I mean, that's not a totally unusual thing in your world.
No, it's not. And I mean, honestly, during quarantine, you know, for anyone out there wondering how their favorite artists are still putting songs out and still releasing music, that's how it's happening. That's how it's all happening. I mean, I have a handful of friends who I know have gone to a couple studios and done actual physical sessions, but it's really interesting. It's really fun. There's some really fun parts of it for me, because I can sort of be here and I can spend all day, you know, whereas maybe normally that would be wasting someone else's time; I can really kind of get lost and go down a rabbit hole trying different things. Sometimes it just happens instantly, and I can't even believe how quickly I'm sending something back to someone.
And then specifically with Aaron, yeah, it's just like I know that if I've sent him like three or four takes of a song, he's going to grab what he likes and get what he likes, and if he doesn't, then he'll be like, "Hey, can you try this or that?"
Lately, I've been incorporating a lot more FaceTime into it, just personally, because, like, the first couple months of COVID, doing a lot of this was really fun, and then now, I'm really kind of seeking that conversation, because it's just, you know, it's just such a different thing from the live thing and feeling people's energy and feeling the energy of a song and being able to ask a songwriter while you're at the studio, like, "Hey, what's this one about? Where's this coming from?" and all that.
And then also, just the musical, the technical information, too. So yeah, it's really fun, but I've been able to do a bunch of work for a bunch of different, fun people during this, and like I said, it was just sort of, I still kind of can't believe it. (laughter)
We're talking about Taylor Swift's new record, "Folklore"; I'm talking with Twin Cities drummer JT Bates about playing on a couple of the tracks, so "epiphany," "seven" and "the last great american dynasty" are the songs that you play on. So when Aaron Dessner sent you those tracks, what kind of direction did he give you? He probably knows you well enough where he's like, "Hey, can you come up with a couple different things on this?"
Yeah. It was a little different. I mean, I don't know how familiar you are with the Big Red Machine stuff, but on that record and a lot of that music that I play on, he's got so much drum programming going, that a lot of times, from me, he's looking for the opposite of that; sort of like the more live activity, "action" sometimes they call it, or smearing things, where I'm not maybe trying to play exactly - you know, because there's a machine playing the beat, so maybe I can be more of a color, more of a texture, things like that. But he did say, kind of out of the gate on this one, "This is going to be more of a poppy sort of thing, so not really looking for the Big Red stuff." And so, like, on "the last great american dynasty," he was like, he just really wanted me to kind of get in; there's a beat that he programmed, and I'm basically just doubling that, just to have, it kind of fills it out in a different way when there's live drums.
[On] "seven," that one he definitely was like, "You'll know what to do on this one." It was kind of a straightforward thing. But then, you know, texturally on that one, we did a little back and forth of trying out different dynamics of the drums, you know, because - and again, that's stuff that, if we were all in a room, would be like a five-second decision, but this was like, I do something, I email it to him; he texts me back. You know, it's like, whatever.
And then, "epiphany," he was like, "Yeah, I'd just like a little bit more of an orchestral sort of thing," so I did a couple different things and then they ended up just using actually just one part of it, but used it throughout.
And that's an interesting part about working with a lot of modern producers, is it's so easy to grab just a certain part that they like or something that grabs their ear, and then, so you might do a lot of work, and then they might just use one little part.
Just like a little… (laughter)
But that's fine, too. And that's something that I've learned: How to be really comfortable with [that]. And it's a really great, unattached feeling, you know, to just be like, "Well, here's a bunch of stuff; you're going to use what you're going to use anyway, so if you want something more specific, you'll tell me." That's the great part about Aaron; that's like how he included so many of his good friends and collaborators and our other good buddies on this recording, and friends and family of his and stuff. You know, it's like he knows, he sees people's strengths that way and understands how they could be an asset to a certain song or to a certain vibe or a texture or something like that.
You mentioned friends and family, and I'm really impressed by Aaron Dessner's ability to keep a secret from you, because when it comes to my close friends, I just feel like if I was pushed even just a little bit, like, "Come on, Jill; what is this?" I'd be like, "OK, here's what it is, but don't tell anyone!" But that's pretty impressive.
There's, you know, yeah. You want to get called back for more of these things. So there's partly that, there's also just, you could tell he felt funny, when he did call me, I mean, he was like, "Oh, man, I can't even…" Obviously, there's contractual stuff for him, so it's like, he's not going to, you know, anyhow. So and then, of course, I was really curious, but I know Aaron pretty well, and he's a kind of to-himself sort of fella, and so he's not someone I would bug like that anyhow. But yeah. I mean, I was definitely curious, but I'm also good at, I've learned over time, just waiting for surprises or whatever…
All will be revealed. (laughter)
It's like, "He just worked with Michael Stipe. Let's see… who could it be next?" That was another crazy one! I played on that song too for him, and it was like, "OK, man, I guess we're playing with Michael Stipe. Great!" You know?
[...]
If your daughter gets to return to school this fall, she's going to have a reason to brag about her dad. Of everything that you've ever done, now she's going to have a reason to brag about her dad.
The one cool thing I did, yep! (laughter)
JazzX5 es un minipodcast de HDO de la Factoría Tomajazz presentado, editado y producido por Pachi Tapiz.
JazzX5 comenzó su andadura el 24 de junio de 2019.
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