Emerging From A Strange Dream

The red-winged blackbirds are here, so maybe it’s time to wake up?

Hello. Thanks for calling Time & Temperature.

Do humans hibernate? I feel like that’s what I’ve been doing the twelve weeks since my throat surgery. This level of chill is not something that comes naturally to me. I’ve been relentlessly hustling since I was 16 years old. These four silent, stationary months are unprecedented in my adult life. Once, just before the 97’s went into the studio to record Satellite Rides, I took three weeks off and traveled around Europe. Of course during that time I did a solo gig in London’s SoHo neighborhood, met and fell in love with the woman whom I’d marry a couple of years later, and wrote “Question,” my most-spun song, as well as the bulk of the songs on my Elektra solo LP The Instigator.

I’ve never been good at doing nothing.

And yet, since my surgery December 12th, that’s just what I’ve done. Watching birds. Walking Ziggy up and down my icy road. Vocal rehab exercises that’d crack you up if you had a hidden camera trained on me. Reading — and not just audiobooks, which are a primary component of my on-the-move lifestyle, but actual print books… WITH MY EYES! [On a side-note, I got an advance of the upcoming Joe Abercrombie novel The Devils and OH MY GOD, I’m obsessed with the way he writes — fun, smart, funny, deep and trashy all at the same time.]

I told myself I would be wildly productive during my time at home but that hasn’t happened. To be honest, it’s been a battle at times to stay positive. Thankfully, due to my ENT’s diligence and my voice therapist’s expertise, my throat is making a strong recovery, and that recovery is the whole point of this maddening work-stoppage. But I, like the shark, must swim or die apparently. Thank god the swimming starts up again soon.

The Old 97’s west coast tour kicks off March 28 in Flagstaff, AZ and continues for the better part of three weeks. Some of my favorite cities and venues appear on the itinerary and I’ll be able to sing ALL THE NOTES this time around. And again, to be honest, I wasn’t completely convinced that I’d ever climb back onto a stage. The handful of outlier horror stories of botched throat surgeries are impossible to ignore. But I’m fortunate to be a success story, so it looks like y’all are stuck with me for a while longer.

In the immediate future, I’m gonna do a little online performing to try and get my voice ready to go out on the road. I’ll be doing a Stageit show on Wednesday, March 12th and then I’ll be doing something special to celebrate the five year anniversary of my doing gigs on Stageit. I can’t believe it’s been five years since circumstances forced me to be an early adopter of online rock and roll, but it’s been a real life-saver. And I still appreciate the opportunity to do my job when I otherwise wouldn’t be able to.

This year offers a lot to look forward to: a solo record that’s about to get mixed by my producer Murry Hammond(!) and our friend Todd Burke, a bunch of solo and 97’s tour dates, another installment of my Songwriting Is Magic retreat in New York’s gorgeous Catskills (early October, announcement coming soon), and a few unexpected surprises that I’ll be sharing with you as soon as I’m allowed. Oh yeah, and I’ll continue to teach undergraduate songwriters at The New School in Greenwich Village, which has been nothing short of a revelation.

Here’s a photo of last semester’s crew on the day we were joined by the great Rosanne Cash:

Time marches on, and since March is finally here, the roads are less icy, a fact Ziggy and I both appreciate. I’ll miss him when I’m out on the west coast, but I was made for making music and I’m so glad to get back to it. I hope to see y’all out there on the road. And I’m so grateful to get to do all the iterations of this weird and wonderful job.

yrs,

Rhett