I spent the first part of the weekend with my Woodsist family in upstate New York, closing out the first night of Woodsist Festival. From my years in Woods and as a solo artist I have performed at countless Woodsist Fests on both coasts but enjoy this upstate chapter the most. It felt significant getting to headline one almost ten years after the release of my debut solo album Harlem river, which was released on Woodsist records in 2013. Being at Woodsist Fest feels like being home. If you’ve never been I couldn’t recommend it more - and am sad to miss the second day as I leave for the airport to head to New Zealand.
In 2019 my friends in Woods recorded an album with the late great David Berman under the moniker Purple Mountains. This album was anticipated to be the mighty comeback of the indie rock legend after retiring from music ten or so years previous. Purple Mountains was met with much praise and enthusiasm but shortly after the albums release, and right before the national tour in support of it, David tragically died by suicide.
Berman has long been one of my biggest heroes - one of all of our heroes - which is why, when he wrote Jeremy asking for Woods to produce his first album in over a decade it felt like an impossible dream. This would be like…I don’t even know…if Bob Dylan wrote Springsteen an email in the middle of the night asking him to produce his comeback album, or something.
My first ever vinyl purchase was the Silver Jews album American Water when I was fourteen years old which was only the beginning of my journey as a Jews enthusiast. A few years later Bermans book of poetry, Actual Air, became my introduction into reading poetry and still stands as one of my favorite collections today, if not my favorite.
What a gift, and how significant, to have had someone lead me to both vinyl and poetry.
Needless to say, Bermans death was a gigantic blow to the music community at large but especially to Jeremy and Jarvis in Woods who had just worked with David in such close proximity for the year leading up to his death.
Since then, Woods often incorporate one of Bermans songs into their sets at their annual festival and were kind enough to ask if I’d sing the Purple Mountains song Snow Is Falling In Manhattan with them at both the fest and the pre party.
Snow is one of my favorite songs off the Purple Mountains album and is a perfect example of Bermans strength as a writer - to take something as universal as snowfall and make it feel like it belongs to you.
It also has one of my favorite Berman verses ever written which is a perfect example of his water tight lyricism:
Songs build little rooms in time
And housed within the songs design
Is a ghost the host has left behind
To greet and sweep his guest inside
Stoke the fire and sing his line
Here’s a recording of me learning the song alone at home, below the paywall. It was hard to sing as low as Berman, but I did my best.
*Photo of me and Jeremy by cbruno1983 on Instagram