So, I just got a Christmas card featuring the smiling faces of my favorite people in the whole world, my niece and nephew. I’ve gotten several Christmas cards so far, and more will probably roll in in the next few days. If I squint it looks like my fridge is wearing a party dress (el oh el).

If I don’t squint, I see pictures and words from a lot of people whom I love and who love me. I’m not a Christmas card sender; I don’t have kids or even a kitten to take pictures of, and if you want to see a picture of me, you can check out the homepage. Go ahead; I’ll wait.

Anywayyyy. I love getting Christmas cards, because they’re a reminder that even though zomg the holidays are sooo commercialized and Walmart opened at 10pm on Thanksgiving and being anywhere near Rockefeller Center makes me want to do people physical harm, I love Christmas. Because I have people to celebrate it with, whether in person or spirit. And, whatever your feelings on religion, that’s evidence of a force in the universe greater than myself, to which I’m grateful. We are so lucky.

So here’s my Christmas card to everyone. Enjoy. Merry Christmas.

And also, here’s this:

So, Greg and I recorded a cover of “Someone Like You” by Adele. I know; so did all of Youtube. But ours is the best one. Without further ado:

Hope you like it.

Hey, here’s a thing. It is a very rough demo of a song that I wrote. It doesn’t have a title yet. Some of the words might change. The audio quality is poor. This is clearly premature. I’m sorry. I get excited. Please enjoy marginally, and get pumped for the real version, coming as soon as possible. Then when it does and people are like omg this is so good, you can be all like, pshh I heard the demo already. whatevs.

Or maybe that whole thing won’t happen. I don’t know. I’m already annoying myself a lot in this post. But at least I posted something. Cookie time.

xoxo.

Last Friday night I went to a short set performed by Nate Campany, at (where else) Rockwood Music Hall. I hadn’t seen him perform in a while so I was muy excited. Suffice to say he didn’t let me down.

What strikes me about Nate Campany as an artist is that he very much seems to be in tune with songwriting as an entity that understands both its creator and its audience.
His lyrics are intelligent and wry, his melodies well-constructed and accessible without being formulaic. Each of his songs is like a perfectly constructed piece of Shaker furniture. It’s straightforward and unostentatious, serves its purpose and is completely satisfying. His songs remind me of rocking chairs. Yeah, I said it. Unpack that one.

Like so many other artists I have written about, what draws me to Nate Campany’s music is primarily his lyrics. His songs often circle around traditional themes of relationships, both romantic and otherwise, but the vantage point from which he views them is unique. Drawing from a canon of metaphors that reflects his Midwestern upbringing and love of history, his lyrics are at times as tradition-bound and straightforwardly ‘lyrical’ as a Romantic poet. However, the lyrics ultimately always return to the present, ground themselves in the immediacy of emotion. And this, of course, is the payoff, for the listener.

For example. I walked in to the show a few minutes late, just in time for the final verse of “I Could Sing”. He waxes poetic about (among other things) ships, but ultimately returns to the real object of the song, in a way that is disarmingly concrete and corporeal.

I could sing about the sea
Of hidden treasures in the deep
I could sing of sunken ships
But they don’t haunt me like your hips
So I’ll sing a song about your hips

It’s as if he’s shrugging his shoulders saying, “Here’s what I can do, but I’d rather just tell you simply.”

Another song he often performs is “Audrey”, where he laments the fact that the world he knows is not worldly enough to win a French girl’s affection. It’s not easy to romanticize a buckeye, especially in a room full of New Yorkers, but Nate succeeds in this.

What can I give you that you’ve never held
The brown of a buckeye removed from its shell
Cause one tiny seed by itself all alone
Would look lost in your hands after all that they’ve known.
Audrey.

Here’s that song (I think I was at this show).

What is hard to know from the videos is that his delivery is achingly sincere, to the point where it is almost a surprise to me that he’s an accomplished songwriter for other artists, like the Click Five and Tyler Hilton. Not that I doubt his versatility; his songs, though thematically similar, range from straightforward love songs to tableaux, like one song where he retells and reframes the story of the prodigal son. It’s just that every time I hear him sing he seems to be pulling the words straight out of himself. His demeanor is, though in no way shy, unassuming and casual. He often asks several times during his set if the audience has questions, which usually solicits some random obscure piece of historical fact about Ohio or the Civil War. The contrast between his stage banter and the tone of his performance is such that the air in the room changes when he starts to sing. His voice, like his songs, aches, and even his physical presence changes, turns inward slightly. You can’t doubt his sincerity when he sings. There’s a part of me that doesn’t trust someone who can sing a whole song with their eyes open.

The interviews that I’ve read, like this one, all seem to emphasize that Nate Campany is essentially a pop songwriter, a person who genuinely loves pop music and wants to make good pop music. The above article provides the quote from Campany, “‘I’m trying to make pop music smart again’”. I think that’s a noble and valid goal, and I think that in the way he approaches songwriting, he’s definitely achieving it. To that end, I’ll share with you what was my favorite part of the set. Toward the end, Nate announced that he was going to do a cover. He started picking a chord progression on his guitar and eventually started to sing. To my absolute joy, he was singing a cover of Robyn’s “Call Your Girlfriend.” omg. As we know, I love Robyn, and i love love love the song “Call Your Girlfriend”, so much that I recorded it myself. Nate’s version of the song was slow and plaintive, bringing out the sadness and desperation in the lyrics that is not as apparent in Robyn’s dancey version (not to insult Robyn, because, as I said, love.). I wish I had a flip phone so I could have recorded it and made this post all Clare-multimedia-y, but alas. You’ll just have to imagine how cool it was, and imagine me freaking out in the corner with my Malbec and notebook.

UPDATE: Thanks very much to youtube user Robyniwitz (whose name is also Robyn), who saw the post and provided this video that she took of the Robyn cover from the show. The “Audrey” video is also from her channel. Thanks Robyn!

So yeah. Nate Campany. He’s awesome. I’m wondering when his next album is coming out. I’ll leave you with the music video for the song “Stockholm, Paris, New York”. Enjoy.

Here, for your further enjoyment, is the original. Please note both that it kicks ass in general, and that Robyn is basically a gleeful 4 year old who’s decided to put on a dance show at her parents’ Christmas party after consuming too many cookies.

For the record, this is a song by the Troggs called Any Way That You Want Me. I love it a lot. Some of the members of the Troggs are dead, so I hope they don’t roll over in their graves. Most of them are alive though, and doubtfully have clarefrancesleonard.com on their RSS feeds, so we’re cool.

1. The Toadies – Possum Kingdom
In hindsight, I probably shouldn’t have been listening to this song as an eight year old, and the lyrics present some… interesting questions vis a vis feminism and sexuality, but I can’t help thinking this song is very seductive. If I were going to intellectualize it and make myself feel better about liking it, I’d say that the honesty of the lyrics, the singer’s repeated imploring to “make up your mind”, is refreshingly direct and thus opens the door for an honest and measured answer from the female object of the song. If I wanted to sound legit, I’d say something like that. As it is, I think the song is sexy. Sue me. Additionally, they have a girl bassist, which is awesome.

2. Sponge – Molly
Following with the theme of girl-as-tragic-figure-who-has-fallen-from-grace-because-of-lust (I’d theorize that this was a preoccupation with mid-nineties rock, but I’m pretty sure you could replace ‘mid-nineties rock’ with any time period and genre of music, or art in general, and still be right), we have the song Molly by Sponge. I thought that the lyrics of the hook “sixteen candles down the drain,” were completely deep and brilliant as a child. I clearly didn’t entire ‘get’ the song though, because I remember suggesting to my sister that she feature this song at her sweet sixteen party. She didn’t think that was such a good idea.

3. Red Hot Chili Peppers – My Friends
This one time, in middle school, a boy I had a crush on randomly started singing this song at recess, and I was convinced that we had some kind of cosmic connection, and that if he liked this song there must be some level of depth to him that no one knew about and only I could possibly understand and god and the universe were conspiring to bring us together and it was only a matter of time before we had a moment and he just knew that I was what he’d been waiting for in his empty shallow life. Given that, sadly, things didn’t work out (I know, right? How could that have failed?) it’s surprising, perhaps, that I still love this song. But I do.

4. Better Than Ezra – Good
Now, to bring up the mood a bit. I always thought that the sentiment expressed in this song was very mature and nuanced. Maybe I’m over thinking.

5. Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit
Now, I realize that this is kind of obvious, and also that this song predates the others by a few years, but I have a cool story to tell about it, so hush. My siblings and I were in the car on our way some from somewhere with my mother. She had to stop to buy some milk so she parked the car in the grocery store parking lot, left it on and went inside. My oldest sister was sitting in the front and turned on the radio. The song was just starting, its intro chords getting louder through the speakers as my sister raised the volume. My brother turned to me and said, “Babe, don’t let mom know we’re letting you listen to this.” The combination of hearing something so different from what I’d heard before, and knowing that it was forbidden for some reason but at the same time sort of okay because my brother and sisters said it was, was overwhelming to my five year old mind. The four of us sat their, just listening, until my sister saw my mother returning to the car and changed the station to Lite FM or something. Without sounding too bombastic, I think that moment changed something in the way my head processed music that never went back.

Thanks, mid-nineties. I miss you.

But seriously, I like this song. I think. It’s hard for me to say whether or not I actually like it, and how it stacks up to the others, because it’s so fresh (fresh like new and just completed and I haven’t had any distance to observe it, not fresh like Will Smith). But, there are some things I really do like about it. I think the best way to put it is that it’s my version of honest. It represents the way my thoughts actually come together in my head, which may be good or bad, but it’s me. I think that’s why I like it; it makes a lot of sense in my head. I hope it makes sense in yours.

Just in case you need a little hint, here are some things the song may be about:
a) flirting
b) drinking
c) being fairly decent at a and b
d) Catholic guilt
e) the emotional consequences of a through d
f) you.

Probably not f. Sorry.

So here’s the song:

And here are the lyrics:

I sharpen pencils to construct my eyes; Im outlining a stencil that’s much smaller than I realize. But the girl that I become is almost beautiful to some. In this cathedral, where every whiskey is our offering, my need will draw me to you like a moth to flame. But I know just which smile to throw to guarantee I won’t be going home.

I careen headlong into the weekends. Instead of being strong I sacrifice myself. At every turn I’m further deep in. Maybe I should tone it down tonight.

The night transforms me: I’m a wide-eyed angel drunk on you. You adore me, ’cause every word you say is ground I lose. And the girl I turn into is a savior, now, to you. But in the morning, you use words like “girlfriend” and “mistake.” I’m mourning–not for myself, but for the vows I break. And I don’t know the lines to say to absolve this all away.

I careen headlong into the weekends. Instead of being strong I sacrifice myself. At every turn I’m further deep in. Maybe I should tone it down tonight.

I didn’t ask for this–to live and die by who I kiss.

I careen headlong into the weekends. Instead of being strong I sacrifice myself. At every turn I’m further deep in. Maybe I should tone it down tonight. And everyone is drinking through their demons. And maybe I have more than I would like. I’m sorry, Mama, I’ll try to be better. Maybe I should tone it down tonight.

Serious thanks go to my friends Karl and Emilee, who, respectively, did the recording, and bought us pizza and poured me a glass of whiskey to “sooth my voice” after she listened to me sing the same 10 words 23 times. In addition to providing food, shelter, and audio production to starving artists, Emilee is a crafty minx. Please check out her beautiful creations on her blog. Thanks also to Greg who plays guitar on the recording, because I write songs I can’t play.

FYI this is just a first version (Karl is going to do some audio magic), but I just want to get it out there. Additionally, should you be so inclined, take a trip down memory lane and listen to Numbers Game and What’s Worse. More to come, hopefully sooner rather than later.

Thank you for listening to my song; I hope you like it.

via myspace.com Blake Robinson photography

I just really like this song. It’s a perfect example of a musical dynamic that I really like: the whole one girl, one boy, one voice that veers toward classical and one that’s more rugged thing. It makes me want to write duets.

Laura and Will’s Reverb Nation page says “They are working on an album to be released in 2011.” I would totes buy that ish. To listen to some more music by Laura and Will, you can visit their Myspace Music page. Here’s the video for “Summer’s a Ghost.”