2008: On My Knees On My Feet On My Cover
Well here's to a great 2008 ... and that rhymes. But this new year has not come as a step up the latter this year and I wonder why. Has my life taken on some kind of recurring rhythm, a plateau of small changes as I settle into my artistic middle age? A duo tour of Spain each January followed by a new album and then a birthday show at New Morning in Paris in March has become the Murphy method for starting the new year right.
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September Song - September 30, 2007
This weekend I was supposed to go to my 40th High School Reunion which was held out on Long Island, New York near where I grew up in Garden City. I didn't make it. Not that I didn't want to go and live in the escapist land of déjà vu sleepwalking for a few days, seeing those same faces I walked the school halls with suddenly reappear but I had, as Robert Frost said, miles to go before I sleep...
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As Hot As The 14th Of July - July 2007
The French celebrate Bastille Day on the 14th of July like Americans do Independence Day on the 4th of July. Always seemed like more then a coincidence to me that revolutionary fervor gripped both these peoples in the hottest of times. But these two countries – one I was born in and the other I live in – celebrate nothing less then dark, glorious, bloody revolution every summer and both with a plethora of fireworks, which no matter how exciting they may be basically simulate the sounds, and lights of bombs bursting in air and blowing everything and everybody to smithereens.
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Not Dark Yet - February 5, 2007
As Bob Dylan says in "Not Dark Yet," "Can't even remember what I came here to get away from..." and I feel kind of that same way about my life as an expatriate in Paris these past 17 years. In fact, this year is significant because it marks the time when I will have lived longer in Paris then I did in New York City. I'm a fool for love but also for numbers - everyone knows that beneath the romantic musician lives a stone cold mathematician - so I'm always adding things up, figuring them out, trying to balance it out.
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Message From Santa Elliott - Christmas 2006
Ho! Ho! Home Again! Well, its finally getting a little frosty up here on the North Pole of Paris and I'm wrapping presents for both the naughty and nice and thinking about this past year and all the shows I've played and all the fine people I've met and how much I have to be grateful for. I'm especially thankful for my musical partner and guitarist extraordinaire Olivier Durand who has always stood by my side through thick and thin.
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Coming Home Again … Soon - October 22, 2006
Today I take the train to Le Havre to continue working on the mixes of my new album Coming Home Again. I'll be working with Florent Barbier my trustworthy engineer and, of course, Olivier Durand who helps with the creative decisions along the way. Its been a long road as we started recording new material as much as two years ago. The most difficult part is to decide which songs to include and which songs to keep sleeping...
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Summertime... - June 20, 2006
For me the summer began on the 10th of May when I sang the folk standard "Buffalo Gals" with Bruce Springsteen and his incredible 18 piece (I think) Seeger Sessions dixieland & folk orchestra (my description). Great, great concert and from the incredible reaction at Bercy arena in Paris you would have thought that Bruce was singing his greatest hits with the E-Street Band. My old pal Garland Jeffries was on stage with me as well and we were both touched by Bruce's generous introduction before we came onstage when he referred to us as "blood brothers" (in French!) and said it was an honor to share the stage with us. And truly the honor was ours as well. The three of us all share such common roots: geographically, culturally and musically and there is a wonderful and warm sense of friendship that surrounds us. I first met Bruce Springsteen after a very early show of his at Max's Kansas City in New York in 1972 and it was also in Max's that I would hear Garland Jeffrey's "Wild In The Street" played constantly on the club jukebox. Amazing to think that we're talking about events from 35 years ago! And yet the music we all made back then continues to beat in our own hearts and so many others. And yet I still feel the best is yet to come ...
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Tomorrow - March 7, 2006
Tomorrow, my virtuoso guitarist Olivier Durand will pick me up around noon in a rented Citroen Sedan after driving down to Paris from his hometown of Le Havre and I'll throw my suitcase, gig bag and Taylor guitar into the trunk and we will drive east to Strasbourg – about 4 1/2 hours – and play that night at the Laiterie, where I've played before. Along the way we'll stop to eat something and probably won't talk too much during the meal and then I'll drive for a while and we'll listen to Dylan and the Stones and Tom Waits in the car and try to find a political argument although its getting more and more difficult as we're both basically on the same side. Then the day after that, we're off to Germany for 9 shows in 10 days and I hope my voice will hold up. I'll bring along some special tea my wife recommends and some homeopathic medicine and I'll try to keep the shows down to an hour and a half and I hope the fans will understand ... and I hope I'll be able to stop myself from not going on for three hours or more. Because once I get started ...
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Change Will Come - January 20, 2006
Just back from five sold out shows in Spain with Olivier Durand, and we played for over two and half hours each nigh. I can still see the faces of the fans in the front row. They’re my inspiration and my motivation to do something special each night – they look at me and I just want to do the best I can for them. Its magic! And now just as one year of touring ends another begins so quickly for us. It seems just yesterday that I was saying something about this being our last show of 2005 and now I was saying these are our first shows of 2006! Everything changes – everything stays the same. What will change?
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Better Days - July 2005
"Better Days" has always meant so much to me as a great song and a philosophy for life. I clearly remember the first time I heard it on the radio when it was released as the first (I think) single from the Lucky Town/Human Touch double album release and aside from just loving the groove of the track I thought my friend Bruce really sounded contented and on a personal level that was really rewarding. I sang "Better Days" for the Light Of Day benefit album that was put together by Sal Trepat and Bob Benjamin and then I presented the CD to Bruce before his show with the E Street band in Madrid a few years ago.
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