"Cover of Clouds" - The 10 Dollar Song

One for the road: “COVER OF CLOUDS”

A 10 Dollar Song 

Hanging on the wall in my home studio is the vinyl artwork of Joni Mitchell's Clouds. It’s a self portrait of the songwriter holding a flower. It has followed me here from my teenage bedroom wall. I found myself in the studio on Cape Cod for three days last year with friends Jon Evans (Tori Amos) and Dave Brophy (of course) and a new song called “Cover of Clouds”. The song morphed into 7 minutes with intro, overture and an extended coda. A piece of music dedicated  to the artwork and music that has been with me my whole life. A love letter to her reign in my consciousness.

Now it’s all recorded but I find myself standing before the abyss of our unrelenting cascade of content, partially paralyzed. The prospect of sending this particular song out there - another precious work amongst thousands of precious works - relinquished to digital platforms with a prayer seems disrespectful. And why must 100k new songs a day be subjected to an often unfulfilling and ceaseless conveyor belt that largely lacks the true connection creators foster in the work? How could I best infuse and extend the care intrinsic in the creating and recording aspect of this particular song into its release? What I truly wish is that I could simply play it for you one at a time in person. That is absurd right?

Our job as artists is to stay connected and filter the world genuinely -  the reason why Joni persists. But when we all crowd under the same spotlight all the time, indulging an algorithm, sometimes, love gets lost. This vast and wondrous sea of content with every creator trying tastefully to beg our community to click, swipe up, bringe, stream, create videos to a sound can end up drowning out the art. I want something different for this song.

So here is what I am going to do: This spring, I’m embarking on an 18 city tour. I’m going to bring  “Cover of Clouds” along with me. Every night it will be waiting on the merch table, in an antique discman with a pair of headphones waiting for you. Anyone at the show can come to the merch table and offer whatever you like ($10 or 10 cents) and take the discman, headphones and listen for 15 minutes, before or after the show. This will be the only place and time to hear it. It will be your choice and a singular moment to commit to a listening experience. Accompanying the discman will be a journal with artwork, song credits and lyrics, in which you can, if you desire, leave your name, date, place, reaction, recipes, doodles, and dreams.

It is where this song belongs. And honestly, I can’t wait to share it with you.