i may be a bird in a cage but at least it's your cage

there are musicians i've loved longer, and musicians who have occupied more of my time this year, but in the end, when it comes down to it, i love mason jennings best, forever and ever amen. ten years, and he still sounds like my heart set to music.


memphis, tennessee *
nothing *
living in the moment *
butterfly
birds flying away
jackson square
i love you and buddha too
never knew your name
going back to new orleans
something about your love
soldier boy
be here now
new man *
darkness between the fireflies *
black *%
ulysses
fighter girl
don't touch my stuff +
sorry signs on cash machines
killer's creek
--
six feet under *
if you ain't got love *
perfect love
crown
--

*: solo
%: new
+: zach gill song


the new bassist's name is jonathan, and i refuse to learn the new drummer's name because mason will just replace him again in six months and after ten years, i am tired of learning drummers' names. i shall henceforth refer to all of them as not-chris-stock-on-drums as they are, in fact, not chris-stock-on-drums. maybe they can have numbers. i think this guy would be not-chris-stock-on-drums number five, if you count the two whose names i can't remember, plus noah and brian, who were around long enough for me to almost care. mason did "birds flying away", which would have been plenty for me from the doesn't-usually-break-them-out-live-anymore catalog, but then in the encore he did "six feet under", a song i have never heard mason do live before, not in ten years and close to two dozen shows. he's so funny and charismatic on stage, and he still plays the piano like a guitarist, which is to say badly, with intense concentration. someone in the crowd shouted for "grow old with me" and i had to search the crowd for people who attended carleton between 1997 and 2002, because that's about the only way you'd yell for that. i didn't cry, but that was mostly because i wasn't wearing waterproof mascara. either my film is all amazing or my film is all crap, and i won't be able to find out for another ten days, because responsible grown-up budget. he played "six feet under" and most of the crowd talked through it, and when i figured out what it was, my heart double beat for a long moment, because that's just what mason's always had a way of making me feel.

i love him best, you guys. best for always and forever.