Bradley’s Almanac

Mp3s: Tanya Donelly in Boston

Posted on October 25, 2006 at 1:45 pm | No Comments

In the “nice problem to have” department: I’ve accumulated quite a little backlog of ace live material to share, so I’m breaking my own one-set-per-week rule and offering up last Tuesday’s acoustic performance from Tanya Donelly.

This short-but-so-sweet lunchtime set marked the release day for her latest solo record, “This Hungry Life“, last Tuesday, and her mesmerizing voice was truly in top form. It’s not at all surprising to read in the liner notes that this new album (which was recorded live in front of a crowd of fans up in Bellows Fall, Vermont) has minimal overdubs… what you hear is what you get when you’re sitting right in front of her.

For the album sessions, Tanya invited along a bunch of great players, all with Boston ties: Bill Janovitz (of Buffalo Tom & Crown Victoria) on backing vocals, Joan Wasser (of the Dambuilders & Joan as Policewoman) on violin and backing vocals, Rich Gilbert (of many bands) on pedal steel and acoustic guitar, and Arthur Johnson (of Come) on drums. The two remaining contributors also joined her at this in-store at the Government Center location of Newbury Comics: Her hubby Dean Fisher on guitar, and Joe McMahon (of Senor Happy) on stand-up bass.

So here’s the trio’s set, and while us Tanya loyalists in the crowd were nice and quiet, the store’s cash register adds the slight ambience of commerce…

Tanya Donelly

Live at Newbury Comics, Gov’t Center, Boston, MA
on Tuesday, October 17th, 2006

1. World On Fire
2. Kundalini Slide
3. Littlewing
4. New England
5. This Hungry Life
6. Acrobat

Five of those songs can be found on the new disc, and the closer, “Acrobat“, comes from her 1997 solo debut, “Lovesongs for Underdogs“.

While live appearances by the former member of the Throwing Muses, the Breeders, and leader of Belly have become a relative rarity as she balances musicianhood with mommyhood (her second daughter arrived this past March), she recently shared that she plans on doing more shows next Spring. Here’s hoping. While I enjoyed her previous solo album, 2004’s “Whiskey Tango Ghosts“, I’m already way more into the material on “This Hungry Life”, songs like “Kundalini Slide“, which I recently shared up here…

Mp3: Tanya Donelly – “Kundalini Slide

Some TD-related links…

  • Visit her MySpace page to stream “New England“, the lead-off track off the new record, and for a little Tanya history lesson, hit up Wikipedia.
  • Abby was also at the in-store, and took some photos along with a video clip of the trio doing “Kundalini Slide“.
  • The Phoenix’s On The Download pulled together a little Tanya YouTube video collection, and directs us to Fluxblog, where you can also download “New England“.
  • You can grab “This Hungry Life” from Eleven Thirty Records, but if you order it straight from Tanya from a link on the Slumberland main page, she’ll even sign it for ya.
  • the fine print… If anyone has an issue with this live set being made available, just say the word (contact info in the ‘nac faq). Recorded with a Sony ECM-719 mic and a Sony MZ-RH10 minidisc, converted to .wav and then edited to 192kbps mp3s. Mp3s are made available for a limited time, and are not reposted once removed.

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  • BOSTON-AREA LIVE SHOW ACTION
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    @ City Winery

    Sunday, December 21st
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    Saturday, December 27th
    John Oliver
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    Sunday, December 28th
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    Tuesday @ the Royale

    Thursday, January 8th
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    with Ryan Walsh
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    opening with a solo set
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    Wednesday, January 14th
    Bishop Allen
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    @ the Sinclair

    Thursday, January 15th
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    Thursday, January 15th
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    "Piano & Voice" performance
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    Saturday, January 17th
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    Monday, January 19th
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    Thursday, January 22nd
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    Saturday, February 21st
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    @ the ICA Boston

    Monday, March 23rd
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    @ the Wang Theatre

    Wednesday, April 8th
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