Musings on Performance

This Saturday,at an event sponsored by MNORML,I will be giving my first solo performance in over 2 years. My last solo performance was held at the Mercury Cafe in Denver. It was received pretty well by the audience,but I remember feeling a little off during the performance..a little feverish with dizzy spells. Little did I know at the time that I had cancer. I would find out 2 months later. I'm feeling much better now.

I look at any type of live performance as akin to skydiving. No matter how much one knows or rehearses the material,anytime one steps out in front of the audience,it becomes it's own experience to be shared with the performer and audience alike and one never knows what's going to happen. It's all in the moment. Scary and thrilling at the same time, That's the magic of performance.

With solo performance,that feeling of being without a net is heightened. No actors to bounce things off of..no bandmates to hide behind. The show flies or fails because of YOU.

I always admired the late Spalding Gray for his theatrical monologues. It was his personal input that led to the development of my own monologue Black Hippie Chronicles.

Saturday's performance is not a monologue,it's more of a weaving of poetry and stories into a coherent narrative,but I feel Spalding Grey's spirit in its preparation.

Looking Back-Moving Forward

On more than one occasion,I've been known to take a moment in order to reflect upon things that have transpired as one moves forward. Now is no exception.

This time I'm reflecting on the fact that in one week marks a year since I pulled up stakes in Denver and returned to Minnesota. It was a move I had not expected to make..after all Denver's got the Rocky Mountains,medical marijuana and the Denver Broncos,and the weather is generally a lot warmer..

Life has certainly taken some crazy turns for me,and in particular since that crazy day in December of 2009 when I learned the words Non Hodgkin's Lymphoma would be a regular part of my vocabulary for the foreseeable future. Life has not been dull since my return,but I gotta say with each passing day,it becomes clearer to me that I made the right move for myself in returning.

Since returning,I have been blessed being able to resume my life as a writer and performer. While most of my energy has still been devoted to healing and getting resettled,I've had the opportunity on a couple of occasions to sit in with the Stevens Brothers Band,and last December collaborated with Dhanny Boldt and Serdar Guvenc with a spoken word/music experiment we call The Project.

It has been my experience as a writer that in some way the things that are written reflect what is going on in the writer's life at the moment... Recently pulled out some of the older writings,and couldn't help but to notice the anger and angst present in life at the time it was written.

Life now is not what it was then,and much has transpired in this past year. I've continued to survive cancer. In a few months I will be a grandfather. I am now connected to a wonderful woman to whom I hope to grow old with.

The Project both lyrically and musically reflect some of those changes. Old material is covered in different ways and then there's the new material.

For one to remain in the past,one risks becoming a relic..One must always move forward



Link to David Daniels with the Stevens Brothers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cBPGJcAS4A