Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Gabe Kahane



Gabe Kahane is writing at an ambitious, unique level. His music reminds me of... well, Gabe Kahane- and that is a good thing (I have not met Gabe, but we have a mutual friend in Sam Sadigursky (Sam's newest recordings "The Words Project" is filled with new ideas, great playing and generally will make you feel good about music's ability to go forward too- but this post is about Gabe... I will write about Sam later- in the meantime go buy Sam's record). Anyways, the writing, like much great music, sounds personal and universal and unique to the composer. I can't remember being as inspired by a contemporary writer and so I am going to expound on the writing of Gabe.

Gabe's EP called "Five Songs" is inventive, reinventive and always interesting. He explodes song structure but makes it all feel familiar and that is quite a trick. I would say if you like Allan Sherman and Charles Ives or... maybe Allen Iverson and General Sherman... well, in any case, I think you should check out.

"Walking Away From Winter" is Gabe's record which has the hilarious song cycle called "Craigslistlieder" which, if our country/culture had continued to evolve past 1950 would be the "Subterranean Homesick Blues" for a new generation... but I digress.

Go get all of Gabe's music. It is really fun.