Joseph Arthur

Good morning everyone! I’m back at the controls of this blog after a few days in New York City. It was only my second visit there, but the second visit in four months and I have to say that I am tightly caught in it’s grasp, I absolutely love it there.

Both this visit and the last was precipitated by buying tickets to see Joseph Arthur. Two Sisters and a Show hit New York City! I know many of you know of and have heard him, but for those of you who haven’t, Joe is originally from the Akron, Ohio area, which is very close to where I grew up and even closer to where I attended college (Kent, Ohio). It’s nice to have someone local out there making it creating phenomenal music. I’ve found this nice little blurb (I love that word) about him though, that’s worth sharing here:

“Joe is one of those rare writer-performers where you get the sense, whatever your belief, that something greater is being channeled through his music and voice…Like Patti Smith, Grant Lee Phillips, Thom Yorke, he trances, and the voice, the meaning, becomes bigger than him, bigger than a few pop chords or words strung together. It touches something very deep and universal.” – Michael Stipe (for the LA Times)

He’s picked up residencies in both New York City (at the City Winery) and in Philadelphia, PA (Tin Angel) in February and March, as well as some others in Austin, Atlanta, Nashville and Asheville.

One last mention, during Joe’s shows lately he has been painting live, and 100% of the proceeds from the sales of the paintings will be going to the victims of the earthquake in Haiti. We watched as he painted two large scale canvasses during several songs, including “Invisible Hands.”

FUN DOUBLE PLAY from Two Sisters and a Show! The first clip below was taken by Ady this past September at the City Winery in New York City, and the one below that was taken by the woman who sat across from us at our table. I suggest playing both videos at the same time (and syncing them up*, the second video has about 30 seconds at the start of Joe and Emily getting the loops set up) for a very unique viewing experience, indeed. As a side note, this is the show where we first learned of the amazing Emily Wells. One other thing we learned that night: stay away from the (overly delicious) Gavi wine!

*Edit: I’ve got it, set the top video to the 3 second mark, then drop to the bottom one and set to to the 53 second mark, press play on top, then on bottom, fiddle around to get it synced up precisely right, and let it roll!