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Prom Night; Bell Tower-Style from Matthew Sever on Vimeo.

This morning we went to the top of an old and famous church in Amsterdam called Westerkerk, and we watched a man named Boudewyn Zwart play the bells in the bell tower…..he played some Bach, and some traditional Dutch tunes, and even a medley of national songs for all the nationalities present (Polish, Spanish, American, Finnish and Dutch)…then he played part of the melody from an old song of mine called Prom Night, and then improvised a type of fugue around it….we walked up 210 stairs, or 289 feet, or 85 meters, straight up, and it was well worth the walk… you can read more about Boudewyn at www.bellmoods.com

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I’m an extremely lucky/blessed individual…..i’m so grateful to the world around me right now….seriously, i get to make shit up for  living??!!….thank you universe

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This year i was kinda dragged there, and i thought, “ok, i’ll give it a shot, i’ll try to keep an open mind”, and that’s how i went in……and damn, it worked…..i had a fantastic time…it felt like a shot in the arm….a week at the spa…a coffee enema…..just so many happy songwriters all in one place, and all doing what they love…..

and i wrote a song, and i met all sorts of cool people, and i went to the Stax museum, and i ate fried chicken, and i didn’t want a cigarette that bad, and i drank coffee, and i watched my friends Meg Hutchinson and Anne Heaton play in front of a huge packed room, and i watched Anais Mitchell and Jefferson Hamer like 4 times and still wanted to see more, and i hung out with Owen Temple alot, which was fun, and even though i’ve known Raina Rose for like 8 years, i felt like it was the first time seeing her play, and she was awesome, and i had a really nice long conversation about music with Cory Brannan, and that was fun, cause i didn’t really know him that well, and he’s nice, and Troy Campbell and i got alot done in promotiong the House Of Songs, and i think that’s just gonna keep getting better, and i had dinner with Ray Wylie Hubbard and Troy and Dickie Lee Erwin and Tish Hinjosa, and i saw Robby Hecht, and Anthony Da Costa and Rebecca Loebe and Paul Curreri and Devon Sproule, and i had never seen any of them before, and they were all awesome, and i got to hang out with and sing a little with my old friend Ana Egge, and i haven’t done that in years, and i got to see Danny Barnes from 3 feet away, and he still blows minds as always, and i heard young songwriters covering the songs of slightly older songwriters, and that made me happy for some reason, and i saw all my friends like AJ Roach, Nels Andrews, Betty Soo, Danny Schmidt, Carrie Elkin, Elam Blackmon, Melissa Greener, Will Sexton, Charlie Faye, Noelle and Andre, Jenni Finlay, Laura Thomas, and i got to swap songs with Randy Weeks, and i had never heard him before, and he was awesome, and super nice too, and i had lunch with Rex Foster, and he had some awesome stories about the 60s, and he too was really nice, and i talked with Patty Larkin, and she has kids, and so we talked about that, and she was nice also…..

and i’m realizing i could keep going, but it was just a really good thing for me to do right then, and i think it will still be, and i hope that i get that feeling again…..

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and if i  might break from the positivity train for one moment, just throwing this out there…….when you’re at a show like that, and it’s so amazing, and you’re letting yourself get lost in the music, and the lights, and every aspect is just perfect…..why can’t you fully enjoy that moment without taking 100 crappy cell phone pictures of the stage from 100 yards back?…why can’t you just enjoy that moment, on it’s own?…please put your damn phone back in your pocket….you might not even notice, but the person behind you actually doesn’t really want to watch the whole show through your cell phone……

but all in all, an amazing night that only reminds me that i must go see more live music….

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