Stream New Songs, Entire Set
We can accumulate lots of snapshots over the course of two or three years: Travels, holidays, family, friends, even strangers we meet along the way. Each photo can be wonderful in its own way, calling up a specific memory or feeling; but that doesn't mean that all of the photos hang together as a thematic whole. Life just isn't so neat. So it is with songwriting, apparently.
Like a photo album called Songs, 2011-2013. That's how River City Extension frontman Joe Michelini described the collection of songs he's written over the last several years. For River City Extension's upcoming LP, Deliverance, Michelini has culled ten tracks from that collection, all of which hang together on the theme of deliverance from self doubt.
Michelini played The Wonder Bar on October 12th, opening for Glenn Tilbrook in front of a hometown crowd. He gave us some lovely snapshots, like "Jackie," which won't appear on Deliverance.
He performed "Deliverance, Part 2," written during his current tour. "Part 2" because, as the year went on and the snapshots piled up, the first "Deliverance" no longer fit with the other songs on the record.
I first heard "Indian Summer," I think, back in January during Michelini's solo set at Asbury's Berkeley Bar. He played the song again at The Wonder Bar, and it brought to mind my own picture of an intimate show on a snowy night by the beach. He closed last Saturday's set with yet another new song, "I'm Not There."
We also got some pictures from an earlier time. Michelini performed acoustic versions of "Today, I Feel Like I'm Evolving" from 2010's The Unmistakable Man and "Golden Tongue (Thanatopsis)" and "Ballad of Oregon" (during which he strummed his guitar right out of tune but soldiered on) from last year's excellent Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Your Anger. And, at one point, he let someone else's photo speak for him, covering We Are Augustines' "East Los Angeles."
River City Extension will be back in Asbury Park on November 27th for their fourth annual "Simple Gifts" Thanksgiving Eve show with Kevin Devine, Those Mockingbirds, and Harper's Fellow. It will be an opportunity to, once again, flip through the photo album with the band.
While you wait for that, you can stream Michelini's entire October 12th set below.
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