Shows, Songwriting Class, Spring

I welcome you with gratitude to another Mutual Benefit mailing list “blast”. Below you’ll find some exciting upcoming shows in NYC + LA and info about songwriting/music lessons I’d like to teach if there is interest. I also contributed a piano instrumental to this compilation benefiting LA post-fire mutual aid efforts if you want to donate.

Here in the big apple spring is being a tease while I chip away at recording demos for a new collection of songs. Recording, deleting, staring out the window in a state of surrender, recording, deleting until something greater than the sum of my conscious abilities gets channeled into the world. Many of the upcoming shows are a chance to try out new material or new ways of interpreting older songs to let them grow and morph and be their own entities. I hope you can make it!

March 18

Rutgers Church in NYC

free with RSVP

I am thrilled to have been invited to perform a set of my new solo piano compositions before Erik Sutch’s live-scored short film Myself Two Seconds To Cry. I was really moved by the piece when I saw it last year and excited to be included. I think the acoustics of the church will make for a really beautiful show.

March 29

Native Plant Festival in LA

California Botanical Garden

free with RSVP

My favorite LA show-throwers + naturalists, Living Earth invited me out to do a performance for the Native Plant Festival. I believe this one is free too and the show will also include many friends and collaborators like Sonoda, Nighttime, and Barry Archie Johnson. If you ask me to play a show in a botanical garden, I will probably say yes.

April 5

The Owl Parlor in NYC

w/ Verboten + Raybody

suggested donation

Back home, this will be a very intimate one at Brooklyn’s Owl Parlor, one of my favorite places to see and play music. I’ll be playing with Verboten who are on tour and Raybody. It’ll be a fun low-key one.

Teaching Songwriting

I’ve been kicking around the idea helping others connect with their ability to write songs for a while. For the past half year I’ve been mentored by Concetta Abbate and I’m finally feeling ready to offer this. Although direct action is probably best, I have been increasingly convinced teaching people songwriting as a skill set for connecting with themselves and others and bringing full attention into situations is a way I can be useful in this politically overwhelming time. The details are below, please don’t hesitate to get in touch, I’m not too scary ;)

(read in a salespeson voice) Have you always wanted to write a song but feel intimidated? Do you harbor a wish to use the medium of sound or lyrics to express/understand yourself and connect with others? Or are you feeling blocked creatively? I would like to help you on the journey of writing a song!

I’m open to working with all levels of musicians or aspiring musicians since everyone has something to say and not everyone gets the same amount of encouragement throughout their life. 

The art of songwriting blooms from attentive observation of the external world along with excavation of the internal world which are skills that help in every part of life. It is a noble and healing pursuit and I want to provide a nurturing space to make it more accessible. 

Please email me at mutualbenefitmusic@gmail.com to inquire further. I’ll start off sliding scale with a preference for local NYC people but I’m open to using Zoom.

MISC

My bestie Liz Pelly wrote an incredible book about how Spotify/streaming has changed music and listening for the worse and what we can do about it. I am honored to have been involved at various points in the process and can’t recommend Mood Machine enough.

If you want more personal and frequent writing from me you can go to the settings here and switch to being a paying subscriber which helps me a lot. Or check out the archive here which is available for free.

A friend recently showed me this massive interview with the poet Jorie Graham and I was hugely inspired by the way she talked about attention, soul-making, different types of time, really the whole thing. I recommend it if you’re into that kind of thing.

And as always, you can buy our merch here, much of it is sent out by yours truly.

Yours Somewhat Truly,

Jordan