All photo & video credit: Pamir Kiciman
Cat’s Cradle Back Room hosted a unique double bill on a lovely October evening, with Rafael Green performing Nick Drake’s Pink Moon (1972) and Georgia Moon performing Joni Mitchell’s Blue (1971). Each artist performed their album in full, joined by a few fellow musicians. The venue’s intimate space was the perfect setting for the early Sunday evening show.
Despite its name, the Back Room features a large stage, packed for this occasion with multiple acoustic guitars, a pedal steel, a dulcimer, congas (borrowed from percussionist Cindy Jones), a mini drum kit, an electric bass (after a mishap with a double bass), and the resident, worn upright piano — a living room feel, enhanced by a couple of lamps, sunflowers on a side table (Georgia walked in with her own multicolored flowers), and low, warm lighting to set the mood.
Rafael has played Pink Moon for three years in a row and always wanted to perform it at Cat’s Cradle. October is his birthday month, so this time the gig was also a celebration. After hearing him play the album in Justin Ellis’ living room at one of those performances, Georgia half-jokingly suggested they collaborate on a double bill: “Justin and Rafael both thought that was a clever idea, and Justin spearheaded the booking and promo process.”
Rafael’s high school English teacher, Felice, introduced him to Nick Drake’s music. “The first thing she showed me was “River Man.” I was completely hooked by how mysterious and melancholy it was,” he recalled. Then he found “Things Behind The Sun.” It captivated him. “It’s so enigmatic and mystical the way it opens with that C#sus2 chord that then becomes C#minor.”
Although Blue isn’t Georgia’s favorite Joni Mitchell album, it was the first one she heard in high school. “I had grown up watching The Last Waltz with my parents, and I knew her from her performance of “Coyote” in that film. There weren’t many female artists represented on the CD rack at home, so she stood out.”
The Appalachian dulcimer appears on four of the ten tracks on Joni Mitchell’s Blue. Already a multi-instrumentalist, Georgia learned “mountain” dulcimer just for the show. Skillfully alternating between dulcimer, guitar, and piano, she interpreted the songs with sensitivity, conveying how deeply Blue resonated with her as a teenage girl grappling with the same vulnerability Joni Mitchell expressed on the album. “I could sing along quietly to her songs in my bedroom while I taught myself guitar,” Georgia remembered.
Georgia’s voice has a lovely quality: the warmth and slight huskiness of her lower register carry into her higher notes, which never become piercing. She navigated the big swells of Joni’s vocals and traversed the album’s vocal waves fluidly.
On some songs, Allison Thompson and Sosha Rockwood sang backing vocals; Justin Ellis (Slow Teeth) played bass; Rafael Green played acoustic guitar; Rob DiMauro (many projects) added auxiliary percussion; and Simeon Berkley (Mystery Ranch) played pedal steel.
Future events with a similar format could benefit from a facilitator or low-key MC at the mic to smooth transitions between songs, share a story or two, and keep the audience engaged as musicians change tunings or switch instruments, taking this burden off the artists. For performers, silence and inactivity on stage can be powerful, but they can also heighten self-consciousness and create pressure to start the next song.
The songs on both albums are mostly the interior reflections of the original artists that create a listening experience of introspection and quietude. For Georgia, the albums “pair so nicely together with their shared themes of love, yearning, and longing to belong.” And Rafael prefers “not to think of meanings as certain. The thing I love so much about Nick’s lyrics is their dreamlike quality.”
Another similarity that played out on stage was the unusual tunings in some of the songs, eliciting comments from the players, including renowned cellist and Rafael’s mother, Nancy Green, who sat in for an extra Nick Drake song to close out the night. Appropriately, it was “Cello Song.”
Rafael’s teacher introduced him to Nick Drake around the same time that she was assigning novels by Juan Rulfo and Jorge Luis Borges. “There’s a magic and surrealism to Nick Drake‘s lyrics that evoked some of that literature which I was really into at the time.”
He feels Pink Moon is sincere and timeless. The guitar parts on the album had a huge influence on his playing and writing. Asked about what’s easy and challenging about a gig like this, Rafael said: “What the right hand is doing is the hardest part. It takes endurance. The easy part is that it’s a short album! About 35 minutes.”
If his right hand was straining, it didn’t show. Rafael is clearly steeped in this music and practiced in interpreting it. Playing various acoustic guitars with finesse, in a more classical position and often with his eyes closed, he connected with the songs internally and drew the audience into that experience. “I aspire to someday write songs that are hypnotic enough to stand up in a solo context like the songs on this album.”
Pink Moon features only Nick Drake’s vocals and acoustic guitar on all songs except the title track, which includes piano. This gave Rafael a chance to showcase his warm voice and how it’s able to weave in and out of intricate melodies and layers of meaning in the songs.
It was a resonant evening of songs and a perfect way to close out the weekend before a new week began.
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