Jacob Lawson

The fall of 2015 flew by and somehow we’re already in the second month of 2016.  How did that happen?!!!  I guess it might have been that when time is so filled to overflowing you just don’t have time to count the passing minutes.  Here are just a few of the projects that consumed my time in the past months:

Mike Flannery came to my studio to have me produce and record his vocals for his upcoming solo album.  Mike and I go way back and have collaborated on all sorts of work, but this took things to a whole new level.  His songs are great, his delivery kicks some rear end and his arrangements and production are just cool.  We had a blast and I hope everyone has an equal blast when they hear the record.

The Jubilus Concert Series in Gainesville, FL were kind enough to invite me to perform the Ravel Violin Sonata as part of their fall concert.  Since the vast majority of my work over the past many years has been outside of classical music it was a wonderful challenge to learn this amazing piece and a pure joy to perform.  I hope to get to do so again sometime soon!

Scott Killian and I co-composed and performed the music for the wonderful Red Bull Theatre Company’s reading of The Man of Mode at Playwrights Horizons in New York City.  A silly comedy, FANTASTIC cast and lot of good music made for a fun little project.

There were many, many other gigs, big and small, that made the fall fly by, and then near the end of the year several of my longtime collaborators received some much-deserved critical acclaim:

Carol Lipnik, whose album I produced last year, received a glowing review in the New York Times.  She performs every Sunday at Pangea in the East Village, but will also have a residency at Joe’s Pub in New York  the first three Thursdays in March.  I HIGHLY recommend you check out one of those shows if you possibly can.  Her voice and songs are mind-boggling.  I’m going to try to make an appearance, but it’s still up in the air if I’ll be able to get there.

Gustafer Yellowgold, the brilliant brainchild of singer/songwriter/illustrator Morgan Taylor, was nominated for a Grammy for Best Children’s Album for their record “Dark Pie Concerns”.  I was, of course, delighted for Morgan and his crew as we’ve worked together for years.  However, it took me a few days to realize that I had played on several tracks of the record!  Sometimes one just looses track of these things.  Keep your fingers crossed that Gustafer takes home the prize Sunday, and just in case you don’t know who Gustafer is I’ll leave you with this.  It would take a while to explain that Gustafer is from the Sun and his best friend is Slim the Eel and he likes to wear clothes made of cheese (just listen to records, you’ll learn all about it) but this video shows a baking project gone wrong, featuring strings by yours truly: