Audio Stream: http://www.rhapsody.com/stacey-earle/simple-gearle
Here is the scene…
I'm in Boston for a temp job and it is 1999. I am not a teenager, but I'm not a college graduate either. I have no one to hang out with and meeting people in bars is not my thing (or in other words I suck at it). I am still getting over the end of a long and painful relationship. I decide I'm going to walk around Harvard campus and pretend I go there to cheer myself up. I've got nothing else to do. I could go back to my closet of a room (oh wait… it IS a closet) and feel sorry for myself, but I did that last night.
I happen upon Sanders Theatre, this cool old building and I wonder if I can see the inside. It just so happens there is a folk concert featuring Christine Lavin starting in an hour. I wander in the vicinity until someone opens the door, and I go in. (I'm not a big 'folk music' guy, but why not. If it sucks at least I got to see the theatre, right?) I am the only audience member at this point, and it is surreal to be in this old old theatre seemingly mad entirely of wood alone. I breathe it in.
One by one an audience forms, though it is a sparse crowd. I sit on my bench alone. A woman with her guitar emerges on the stage. She is the opening act and her name is Stacey Earle. She starts to play and I swear I am in another world. "How could this one woman be so good?" I think. Song after song is so heart felt and thoughtful. She is beautiful in her performance. By the time she is done, I feel reborn.
Christine Lavin performs and she is good, but it is Stacey Earle's performance that still has my head swimming. I feel compelled to tell her how much I enjoyed her performance. I do so before I even realize I'm not one to just walk up to people and start talking. But that is what I did. Before I know it, I have purchased her album, she has signed it for me, and she leaves me with a smile.
I distinctly remember her performing many of the songs to this day. I remember this song in particular struck just the right chord with me at the time. Like it was exactly how I felt at that time in my life. So perfectly bittersweet. So perfectly honest.
Thank you for that memory Stacey Earle.
PS: The link above is to rhapsody.com, where you get a limited number of "plays", but I highly suggest that if you like the song you just buy the whole album. It is worth it. Also it is very likely to be one of my "Albums of the Week / Must Own Albums" in the near future.
Click here for more info on Stacey Earle – Simple Gearle – "Show Me How".
Or visit http://www.staceyearle.com/
The CD may be purchased here…
Stacey Earle - Simple Gearle
