Amanda Palmer And First Days

Amanda Palmer is currently on tour to promote her new book The Art of Asking and she stopped by The Cedar Cultural Center last night to read some excerpts, play some songs and chat with special guests Dessa and Kevin Kling.

It was a lovely evening filled with humor and insight. As a musician, it was especially interesting to hear Amanda and Dessa talk about how they do it and get through the obstacles of this business, as well as just life.

Performing "In My Mind"

Amanda performed some songs throughout the evening. She opened the show with "In My Mind" - which never fails to make me well up - and then hopped onto the piano for rocking solo rendition of "Runs in the Family". She's an incredibly gifted and aggressive pianist and for a moment I thought the piano was going to get pushed right over.

 Performing "Runs in the Family"

She read from her book. I would have liked to have purchased it last night, but the line was long (as she was also doing a signing) and it was Sunday night and late and I had to work today and blah blah blah. But I will get it.

At one point in the evening, she asked for the lights to be completely turned off and for everyone to close their eyes and did an incredibly moving version of her tear your heart out song "The Bed Song" - to which someone yelled out afterwards "EVERYONE IS SOBBING NOW!"

Speaking of yelling, that woman was fine, but someone actually had to be kicked out. Not sure what was wrong with her (drunk, high, not right in the head), but a woman was having a conversation with herself loudly throughout the interview portion of the show. Once it was called out by someone and Amanda and Dessa had to address it, the woman got up and left. But came back towards the end of the evening and stood in the back and started to talk again until she was physically removed from the venue. So weird.

  Dessa.

 Amanda, Dessa and Kevin Kling.

Amanda also performed her song "Ukulele Anthem" at the end of the night that turned into a singalong, I wasn't expecting that. But it was fun.

She's such an amazing performer and gives off so much warmth. I enjoyed just listening to her talk about whatever she wanted to talk about. She's a good storyteller.

In other news, today is Robbie's First Day Anniversary. It was 2 years ago today that he came into our lives. I'm so lucky to have him. He's such a good boy (even though last night when we got home from the show, we discovered he managed to get into his food cupboard and had taken his bag of food back to the bedroom - but, unfortunately for him - he couldn't get the bag open). Tonight, Matt and I will take him on a walk to celebrate and I will give him lots of extra cuddles.

I took this picture this morning, He did NOT want his picture taken. So many outtakes.

Recording Days 11 and 12

And it's a wrap!

It took twelve days spread out over 5.5 months, but the new album has been recorded. We spent this past Sunday putting the final final finishing touches on the album (including trumpet on one song! so excited for some brass on the album!) and now it is complete and I LOVE it. I listen to it and I cannot believe these are songs I wrote and that I am a part of. The band has made it something I could never have thought possible. There are amazing musicians who worked on this album...and then there's me. Shawn, Bart, John, Colleen, Laura and Mike...all worked so hard to make this what it is and I am so completely grateful for them and all that they have done.

So what's next? Well, it has to be properly mixed and mastered. Then I have to get actual CDs printed. I'm still aiming for that late May 2015 release date. I think it can be done.

Stay tuned...

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Here's a little bit of it for you to hear...



Stay tuned....