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see you out there,

xo

cb

while you wait in anticipation for the clock to strike 12 on the 14th, grab a wedge of your favorite cheese to nibble on, and read the following articles, which pave the way for the release:

THE NEW YORKER

BILLBOARD

THE FORWARD

and, if you are in LOS ANGELES on 9-13-10 or NYC on 9-16-10, come out to my cd release shows at the HOTEL CAFE and JOE’S PUB!

early reviews of the album are quite glowing:

“a softly devastating suite of songs that reveal themselves with the slow grace of an antique music box.”

“finely polished, profound and must hear record…with good arrangements, great songwriting, intellectual lyrics, beautiful tone and true inspiration, this is storytelling at its best.”

“crystalline, immaculate.”

“elegantly arranged and genuinely affecting.”

the official description of the event is as follows:

This intimate event at the historic Henry Street Settlement House will feature Clare performing SILVER AND ASH, a song cycle inspired by her grandmother’s escape from Germany in 1938 and Burson’s own struggle with the legacy of family secrets and loss. As Clare performs, audience members will participate in a four course meal comprised of dishes prepared by Ms. Lohman that, like SILVER AND ASH, progress from late 19th century Eastern Europe through Weimar Germany and 1950’s Tennessee, and end in present day Brooklyn.

This one-night-only event will be an interactive presentation of performance, dining and history that should not be missed.

With melodic minimalism and the sonic textures of Brooklyn and the American South, SILVER AND ASH the album, produced by Grammy nominated Tucker Martine, will be released by Rounder Records in 2010. Guests at this event will receive a limited edition 3-song preview sampler. Wine pairings will be included, and seating is limited.

The cost is $60.00 per ticket; please go to http://tinyurl.com/ClareTix to reserve a seat.

i’m in love with them.  i hope you will be too.  (the photograph doesn’t really do them justice.)

also, i’m working with the fabulous visual artist/ historical gastronomist sarah lohman to create a series of intimate concerts using food and drink to bring alive the songs and stories of SILVER AND ASH through taste, smell, touch, and sight. more on this as location/ dates/ times are nailed down, but the events look to be pretty scrumptious!

Clare Burson
Silver and Ash
A softly devastating suite of songs that reveal themselves with the slow grace of an antique music box. There’s a story here, subtle but persistent, about the people who came before us, and the miracle of our births.

thank you, steve almond!

i haven’t been particularly inspired to write. at least not about the project. i wouldn’t say i’ve moved worlds away from the themes in SILVER AND ASH. i don’t think that’s possible. but in terms of my creative process, i’m taking a break. i’ve written a couple of love songs since finishing the album. and neither of them hearken back to germany in the 1930′s. (one of them is about my grandmother, jojo, but it’s entirely contemporary . . . well, almost entirely . . .)

day to day, i’m giving music lessons – broadening my horizons by learning covers to teach to my guitar students. i’m expanding my repetoire to include songs by green day, uncle kracker, jack johnson, the grateful dead, and cat power. (8-13 year olds have quite diverse – and at times mature (by my standards) – musical tastes – it’s quite amazing!) i’m giving tours two days a week, at the lower east side tenement museum. (like i said, i can’t move too far away from the themes of dislocation, loss, memory, and history . . . if you haven’t been to the museum, GO! it’s an amazing place.) i’m reading lots of novels. the book thief, a tree grows in brooklyn, jason lutes’ berlin series, the little book . . .

SILVER AND ASH is in a different place now that its creation has been completed. i’m in outreach mode. less creation and more connection. i performed the piece for college students at the university of albany in april, and again for high school freshmen at the facing history school in manhattan last month. it was incredibly encouraging to see how new audiences were connecting to the material. at the high school, the teacher, daniel braunfeld, prepared his students for my visit by reviewing the book i wrote to accompany the performance. when i arrived, they had already come up with an handful of very insightful and sensitive questions about my creative process and the experience of encouraging my grandmother to talk about her past.

i’m off to boston next week to debut the song cycle there on the 16th. i’m looking forward to another new setting for these songs. if you’re around, please come.