Peace Prayer

a little something from Bar 82

In spite of the rain, a number of people made it out to our show at Bar 82 NYC earlier this month and it was a really great night.  Hopefully we'll be playing there again before long.  Here's a little something in the meantime:

stu-stu-studioooooo! and Bar 82 NYC

So next week, we are booked for the very first recording session on the new album!  We'll be cutting basic tracks for the first song and I can't wait to start bringing this project to life!  What is not as exciting is that a lovely summer cold has decided this would be a great time to visit me, even though it's 102 degrees outside today.  I hardly ever get a cold but I haven't been able to sing much for the past couple of days and I'm trying to rest up and drink lots of fluids.  We probably won't end up using the vocals from this session on the final recording anyway, but the musicians need them for reference and to get the energy of the song -- and you never know when you're going to get something good.  So I'd rather be able to sing when the musicians are there!  On my first album Lovefeast we had drums, bass, guitars, percussion etc. all in the studio at the same time for "Silverback" and I had a cold then, too, and we couldn't use those vocals.  I'm really hoping that won't be the case this time but we'll work it out one way or another.

Another reason to rest is that in a couple of weeks, I'm playing a 40-minute set with Tim Daoust at one of our favorite spots, the back room of Bar 82 in the East Village of NYC.  We've been playing the way cool open mic there for a few weeks now and on Wednesday, August 3rd we'll be the featured act starting at 9pm right after the mic.  We've been performing all-acoustic so far but are aiming for a mix of acoustic and electric for this show, with lots of songs from Lovefeast plus a few other surprises.  I've really enjoyed exploring acoustic versions of the songs and I'm looking forward to doing more of that, but it's exciting to be moving into a fuller sound that's more like what's on the album.  Don't know how much time there will be for a sound check but we are ready to go with the flow whatever happens.  If you're in NYC stop on by!  There's no cover charge, and you'll get to see this:

Yeah it's a disco skull.  And if you come early, you might also catch some of the wonderful artists who play the open mic here each Wednesday from 7-9pm or maybe even play something yourself (signup is at 6:30).  We'd love to see you if you can make it out!

new song out now! Spirit of 76 (song for We the People)

It's America's birthday weekend, so what better time to release this new song -- a recorded version of "Spirit of 76 (song for We the People)" that's out today on iTunes, CDBaby and Bandcamp.

This one is a little different from the music I usually write and doesn't really fit with the material for the new album, so I decided to release it as a one-off digital single.  It was originally written to be performed live sometimes in the dance we've been making (We the People) but I thought you guys might like to hear it and I wanted to make a better, recorded version.

It's a simple song expressing hope for the ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity to shine through to people everywhere (not just in America).  I hope that you might enjoy it, wherever you are.  And Happy Birthday, America.


Lyrics, music, vocals, cellos, electronics: Lacy James
Cover design: Mereminne Productions
Lacy James photo used by kind permission of Bill Hebert
Liberty Bell photo used by kind permission of Tony the Misfit through Creative Commons

releasing a special one-off single this week!

For the past couple of weeks I've been working hard to get something ready -- just a little something that probably won't be on the upcoming album.  After spending all of yesterday locked up with the lovely cello lady above, I think it's finally done.

More soon! but if you want to be one of the first to hear this one-off single, everyone on my fanlist will be receiving a free copy any day now.  You can join the list in the right-hand column on this page, or here.

backstage pics from Re:Vision

We had a super time performing in the Re:Vision Series this past weekend in NYC.  I had wondered about having so many dancers on a smaller stage, plus myself wandering through them, but our piece worked well in the space after all.  I also really enjoyed the work of our fellow artists.  I'll have video and performance pics soon and will write a bit more then.  

A few more from behind the scenes:

dancers getting ready

Liberty lash

on the backstage "fire escape" - do we look scared?

with the wondrous and amazing Pacho aka AJP

red white and blue on 9th Avenue

song for We the People

The dance that we're making now is getting very exciting.  I think it's going to be called We the People.  The idea for this dance emerged from one of the songs that I am working on for the new album but the dance took its own direction, as dances tend to do.  So as it turns out, I have written another new song for the dance!  We showed the work for the first time last weekend at an informal studio performance in Philadelphia.  It was my first chance to tape the piece so that I could see how the song and choreography are working together.  They seem to fit, at least as one possible version of this dance, so we'll keep the song for our upcoming performances at the Re:Vision Series in New York City next month.  I'm still making some adjustments and I don't want to ruin the surprise for anyone coming to Re:Vision... so I'm not going to post too much more about the song yet.  I hope that maybe some of you will be able to come see us!  The dance is really exploding now, and I have such exciting dancers working with me.  I am very grateful to them.  They really inspire me.