You may be familiar (possibly very familiar) with my original holiday song “Blue Lights”—and the various iterations of it, including a track on my 2007 CD of the same name and a live recording from a concert I did in 2019. The latter was released during the pandemic as part of my EP Dream: Live Recordings from the Map Room (referring to a former stage at Bowery Electric in NYC).
I always sing “Blue Lights,” which involves my parents' wartime romance, if I’m doing a show anywhere near Christmas, and that happened this past December 2, at Berlin Under A in the East Village. So to wish you a happy holiday season, below is a video of my performance of that song with a great band put together by Adam Tilzer, who’s produced my last several singles, most recently “Mild December.” The first-time-ever live version of “Mild December” leads into “Blue Lights,” so I've included it as well in the video. (Adam and I are working on a new single, having nothing to do with holidays or winter weather!)
The band: Adam on guitar, Danny Bradley on drums, Tomoko Omura on violin, and Ann Marie Nacchio on bass and harmonies.
I think my somewhat timid explanation of the inspiration for “Blue Lights,” after we finished, brought out the chivalrous side of my friend Steve…but you can hear what happened at the end. (Yes, that really was Steve.)
Photos by Allyson Smith.
If music could indeed soothe every savage breast, as suggested by the 17th-century playwright William Congreve, we would be living in better times. But for many of us music is not only a salve but a light, a refuge, a rocket to the center of our own hearts and others’ too. My dad sang to my mom on their first date—and the rest is (personal) history.