November 2003 Journal...

The record's done, and we're starting to line up the horses all in a row. It's called "Back in the Circus." I'm in love with it. It's intimate, rich, really feels like a record. The vibe and concept were part of revisiting one of my earliest characters from one of my earliest songs  "damn everything but the circus" and it grew from there through the last song "No Net Below." There's something about the trapeze! I even went to trapeze school here in New York to get some pictures for the album art work. I'd forgotten how much fun it is to hang from your ankles!

Now I'm working on the idea for a different kind of show we'll put up when the record hits the stores on February 24th.

We're going to do a run of dates at the Anspacher Theatre, here in New York, starting March 11th through the 21st. It's in the Joseph Papp Public Theatre complex. It's a small, intimate, funky space where I think we can try some new things. More theatrical lighting. Dynamics and shifts between solo/duo/band. There's not a bad seat in the house so we'll be right in your laps!!

The inspiration came this spring and summer when I did a few gigs solo, and a few with another vocalist, and delved into some of the songs I haven't done in years revisited the catalogue as it were, and loved the range it brought back. It forced me to notice the themes and variations in what I've been doing all this time.

Tickets won't go on general sale until after the first of the year, but we're going to put a limited number of tickets on sale through the web site earlier. I'll let everyone on the e-mail list know as soon as things are worked out. Buy them early if you can and bring friends, I think it's going to be a really special evening. I don't know if we'll be able to afford to bring the entire show on the road  so if you don't live in New York, and you were looking for an excuse to visit.. maybe this is it!

We also plan to record and film the shows so that hopefully by the second week we'll have enough footage to create a new DVD and perhaps a CD version as well. I thought you all might like to have a shot at another live performance for keeps (one that I approve). Hopefully, we'll be able to cull footage and performances and release that later in 2004.

Other than that, the leaves are already past prime. The chill is settling in the air. I have that fall nostalgia and angst; I think it comes from all of those back-to-school nerves from when I was a kid. The smell of the earth turning, sound of the school bus downshifting for the steep hill up to our street.

Cheers,
Jonatha