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July 10th- 14th: Sleepless in the City

It turns out Sunday is the one day a week that New York slows down. While Lydia and Maddy shared a late brunch with their Ithaca family, Kate and Emilie relived their past, singing and playing pandeiro on the subway like they did in Brazil. We all reunited in McCarren park in Williamsburg where we shared some tunes with new and old friends, passersbys, and even a hawk that landed in a nearby tree. Our music attracted strangers who would come take a seat, listen and chat before heading on their way. We sang Salaam and out of nowhere popped two Israeli kids on a razor scooter and a bicycle, thrilled to hear us singing in Hebrew. We sang happy birthday to the younger sister Mia, and agreed that was a perfect way to finish our concert in the park. For dinner, Kate, Emilie and Victor had their very first New York Bagel and we went to sleep early in preparation for the days to come.

Monday night was our first show at Shrine World Music Venue. We were warmly welcomed by the staff and the place quickly filled up with our friends and some unexpected guests we had met through various travels and along our journey here. After soundcheck, we huddled together on stage to take a breath and carry out our tradition of dedicating our show. That night the show was for the people and community of Harlem.

Shortly after drinking piña coladas, it was time to drive down to a second impromptu show at Silvana, but we did manage to catch a few minutes of thirteen-year-old Gibson Malone shredding it on guitar. We caravanned with friends to the venue where we played a whole new set, and ended the night with an epic and much needed dance party until the wee hours of the morning.

Tuesday was our quintessential New York day. I have to admit, it started a little rough when Lydia realized Emilie and Maddy had made an executive decision to leave her beloved purple chair behind in the gutter the night before. But we all cheered up once we hit the streets on a mission to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. We started from St. Marks Pl and Victor led us through China town and little Italy where we ate fruits we’d never seen before and Lydia found a new and improved chair that she strapped to her back for the rest of the day. We stopped to watch some break dancers near the bridge and Victor and Jessi got dragged into the show where a sexy shirtless man did a flip right over their heads. Kate wrote our name on the Brooklyn Bridge and with tired feet we rode the train back to the east village to prepare for our show.

We dedicated the show at Piano’s to Emilie’s brother Matthew, commemorating the eleventh anniversary of his passing. Once again, we were pleasantly surprised by the friends and family that appeared in the upstairs lounge to share the evening with us. Ithacans, Pitzer kids, a long lost cousin and many more. After the show and some more piña coladas, Maddy, Lydia, and Emilie headed to the upper west side to spend a night with a childhood friend. We made a pit stop in Times Square and drove through the glittery flashing streets with the mini van doors open and Emilie in awe at the iconic scene.

On our last day in New York, we all convened in Little Senegal to share a big Senegalese meal of Thiebujien, Mafé and Yassa. We shared communal plates and saturated our taste buds with flavors until we were almost too full to walk Victor down the street to the subway where a heartfelt goodbye marked the beginning of the next leg of his journey– back to Brazil for the first time in a year and a half!

We spent the afternoon recording at Shrine Studios (our dear friend and epic host Jesse Starr’s basement). We stripped down to minimal amounts of clothing in the heat of the windowless basement to record Texas Rain and All That I See, a new song sung in French by Lydia.

That night, we returned to Silvana for our last hoorah. We were blessed to be joined by Katie Westmoreland, the talented artist that designed the cover art of our album! We dedicated this show to ourselves, and during our two hour set had the chance to share the stories and memories that brought the songs into being. Then came some more piña coladas and epic dance party number two. We could have stayed all night, and some of us nearly did, but morning eventually came and we had to pack up two houses of our scattered things and make it out of the city and into the green hills of Western Massachesetts before the traffic.

New York made us feel at home amid the chaos and energy. We made new fans and had the chance to meet each other’s friends and loved ones. We had too much fun and not enough piña coladas. We wished we had more time, but deep down we all knew it was time to get out of the city that never sleeps, knowing that we’ll always be welcomed back.