A stripped-down, orchestral cover of Jackson Browne's "These Days" performed by Rachael Price and yMusic.
Previously Posted: A Devon Allman and Maggie Rose video for āThese Daysā. __________________ These Days Songwriter: Jackson Browne
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A stripped-down, orchestral cover of Jackson Browne's "These Days" performed by Rachael Price and yMusic.
Previously Posted: A Devon Allman and Maggie Rose video for āThese Daysā. __________________ These Days Songwriter: Jackson Browne

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A Brief History of Magnificent Bird
In the aftermath of a year off the internet, Iāve become low-key obsessed with Lewis Hydeās book The Gift, in which he argues that the movement of a giftāor a work of artāfrom one individual to another helps to define the community in which the gift or artwork circulates.
Today, my fifth album, Magnificent Bird, is released into the world, and it is, for me, most fundamentally, an expression of my community. There are no hired guns: only musicians whom I cherish as much for their humanity and friendship as I do for their artistry. So I thought it would be appropriate to mark the unveiling of this project with a little history & chronology of a dozen-and-a-half musical relationships that have made this record possible.
1989 - At our respective homes in Rochester, New York, Ted Poor and I play boogie-woogie duets: me on piano, Ted on drums. Weāre also on the same Little League team; he often plays first-base, Iām over at shortstop for a quick 6-3 on a ground ball to the left side of the infield. Twenty-five years later, he plays drums in The Ambassador, my first piece for the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Ted was so incredibly generous on this project, recording 3,287 versions of āHot Pink Raingearā before we arrived at the approach heard on the album. His sense of rhythm lights a room, and he is my oldest friend ā not just on this LP, but in life.
2006 - The Nickel Creek bus drops Chris Thile (as well as Sean and Sara Watkins) at my parentsā house in Santa Rosa, California. We start playing music at around 1am. Fifteen years, hundreds of cups of coffee, and dozens of alcohol-fueled arguments about the ācorrectā approach to rhythm in the music of J.S. Bach later, Chris is one of my closest friends, and also a hero. We all know what a monster, once-in-a-generation talent he is. What is maybe less apparent is the insane work ethic that undergirds his seemingly effortless command of his instrument, an ethic I got to witness up close while opening some 60 shows for Punch Brothers. The only person whose approach to rhythm is as continually mind-boggling as Ted Poorās is Chrisā, hence the mando-drums on āTo Be American.ā
2007 - I meet Alex Sopp through her new music ensemble, yMusic. I will forever be spoiled by the fact that sheās the first flutist I work with: her tone singing, her sense of phrase totally intuitive and poetic. Over the course of fifteen years, we share with each other many, many, many photographs of our cats. Her collaborative spirit was evident in her work on this album: for āHot Pink Raingear,ā I asked if she could play a synth riff on some āmessed up whistles and flutes,ā and she sent back, thirty-six hours later, fourteen different tracks of various antique wind instruments. I wish I had kept all of it for you to hear, but sometimes less is more.
2008 (part one) - I hear Elizabeth Ziman sing at a tiny cafe in Park Slope, Brooklyn. I am instantly in love with her voice and songwriting. I would happily listen to her sing tax returns or technical manuals or the transcripts of municipal water supply hearings; she is magic. Somehow, after an almost fifteen year friendship, this is the first time weāve worked together on record; her singing on āSit Shivaā is, for me, what makes the song.
2008 (part two) - Outside a rural elementary school in Switzerland, I am approached by a young man, who, seeing my banjo case, announces that he āplays folk music, too.ā Itās Paul Kowert, who that autumn would join Punch Brothers as its bassist. Years later, we travel around the country while Iām opening for his band, playing chess over coffee, getting lost on long walks in unfamiliar cities, talking endlessly about music. He is a one of the most supremely gifted bass players of our time.
2009 - Holcombe Waller and I are set up on a West Coast co-bill tour by a friend who warns me that Holcombe is extremely flamboyant. I write to Holcombe, and in a postscript, mentionāsort of in jest, sort of notāthat Iām 18% gay. He writes back, āIāve worked with less.ā A friendship is born. Need help understanding obscure financial instruments or fledgling cryptocurrencies? Ask Holcombe. Need a quick tutorial on the history of energy policy in the Northwest? Ask Holcombe. Need the most sublime falsetto (but also booming bass-baritone) youāve ever heard? Ask Holcombe. Happily, we now live less than a mile from one another in Northeast Portland. Holcombe, can I borrow some sugar??
2010 (part one) - Iām playing a gig in upstate New York accompanied by a string quartet. At soundcheck, one of the violinists mentions that she āwrites a little music, too.ā Next thing I know, that kind and quiet musicianāCaroline Shawāhas won the Pulitzer Prize. Over the years, we email with eccentric frequency about Lunchables (canāt remember how that one started), and have occasionally appeared together in concert. What I admire most about Caroline is the absolute honesty of her music. Many of us work for years building up artifice, then tearing it down. Not Caro: she knows, and seems always to have known, who she is. When I first heard her overdubs for the record, I cried.
2010 (part two) - Casey Foubert and I have known each other for a few years when he begins to mix my second album, Where are the Arms. Working on that record reveals to me the uncanny depth of Caseyās musical knowledge, spanning, as it does, obscure 60ās piano-driven folk-pop to free jazz. One of the most versatile and multivalent artists Iāve ever encountered, Casey is the only musician who has played on all of my records (with the exception of Book of Travelers, which is just me). Heās also a profoundly curious person, and a super generous spirit. He now lives with his family in rural Illinois, and I love that thereās a bit of that energy on this album.
2011 - Itās a dark and dreary evening in Peterborough, NH, when I find myself sitting at the piano in a little cabin, singing standards with a young woman named Amelia Meath. We keep in touch here and there, and then a few years later, I hear a band called Sylvan Esso and think, that voice sounds familiar! Over the last few years, Amelia and I have had long, deep phone calls about everything from literature to TikTok to systemic racism to the music biz. She encouraged me, while we were working on āLinda & Stuart,ā to embrace the cognitive dissonance between the cheerful groove and the sense of grief that pervades the lyric.
2014 (part one) - Driving from the Denver Airport, Chris Morrissey tells me that he does a great BBC newscaster impression. I immediately try to one-up him. (Mine is better.) Every year on his birthday, to commemorate my small victory of superior British dialect, I leave Chris a three-minute voicemail in a preposterous BBC voice. Chris is a complete musician, and a complete human. One of the things that drew me to him when we first met was how emotionally available he was. So glad heās on this joint.
2014 (part two) - A recording studio in New Jersey. yMusic has a new cellist on the session. We get through one take of my arrangement of Beckās āMutilation Rag,ā for the Song Reader album, and Gabriel Cabezas, maybe 22 years old, says, without a trace of attitude or ostentation, āoh, this is a twelve-tone row, right?ā What a punk! One memorable night years later ends drunkenly at my house, where we cook both carbonara and cacio e pepe after a long conversation about how the best pasta sauces are emulsified using the cooking water.
2014 (part three) - Iām not sure that the classroom at the fancy private school in Laguna Beach, California, was where I first met Joseph Lorge, but it sticks out in my memory for some reason. Heās there with a friend of his, a songwriter, who performs two beautiful songs as part of a master class that I was giving. By 2017, Joseph has become indispensable to my process as a studio artist. He records and mixes Book of Travelers, and acts as mix engineer and house psychologist during this project. He is tall and shy, quietly hilarious, with a heart of gold. His ears and imagination are astonishing; without him, this record would not exist.
2015 - In the lobby of the newly opened Ordway Theatre in St. Paul, Minnesota, I am accosted by a blonde man with a cheerful face and intense eyes. āI have a question to ask you,ā he says, betraying the slightest hint of a Northern European accent. āOn your song āCharming Disease,ā from your album Where are the Arms, is it three clarinets or one claviola that appear suddenly in the second verse?ā This was Pekka Kuusisto, a true magician of the violin, and one of my dearest friends. I have fond memories from 2019 (āthe before timesā) of walking down to the waterāhis house in Finland sits against the Baltic Seaāin nothing but towels, freezing our asses off before retreating to the warmth of his wood sauna, which I guess is what Finns do in February? When his violin enters halfway through the tune, I feel the chill of that numinous, Scandinavian wind insinuate itself into the harmonic field.
2016 (part one) - St. Paul, again! Sam Amidon and I have known each other for a decade by this point, but itās over burritos at Chipotle that we bond for real, talking about our shared love of Herman Melville and obscure jazz records. If Iām reading a great book, Sam is often the first person I want to tell. In a world brimming with highly individualized voices, Samās artistryāfrom his singing voice to his banjo and fiddle playingāstands out for its idiosyncrasies and emotional depth.
2016 (part two) - On a tour bus somewhere in Montana, Andrew Bird and I get to talking about how folk and orchestral music can coexist. A few years later, we work closely on Time Is A Crooked Bow, a cycle I orchestrated comprising six of his songs. Getting to hear him sing every night was a real master class. Andrew has magnetic rock star energy, but he is also a kind, gentle, quiet and deeply thoughtful soul. And no one plucks the violin quite the way he does. When I wrote the riff he plays on āTo Be American,ā I knew it had to be him.
2017 - From time to time, I head uptown to hear the NY Philharmonic. One evening, Iām hypnotized by a soundāserene, expressive, otherworldlyā emanating from from the principal clarinet chair. Eventually I muster the nerve to write to Anthony McGill and tell him what I huge fan I am. Itās thrilling when he tells me that he knows my music and would love to do something together. And now, at last, we have.
2019 - Nathalie Joachim sends me mixes of her album Fanm Dāayiti. It is so damn gorgeous. Weāve been casual acquaintances for five years at this point, but now I am *a fan*. Over the course of the pandemic, we talk more frequently, counseling each other about the various challenges of being an artist in these confounding times. She joins the Creative Alliance with the Oregon Symphony, where I serve as Creative Chair. This June, the Oregon Symphony will present the world premiere of an orchestral song cycle drawn from Nathalieās album that made such an impression. The combination of Nathalie & Alex on the title track, along with Holcombeās vocal feature, has me feeling that my cup truly runneth over.
Appendix A:
Tony Berg is a joyous contrarian whom Iāve known for a dozen years, during which time he has shown me only generosity of spirit, resources, and wisdom. He co-produced Book of Travelers (which we recorded at his old home studio in LA), and was an indispensable early sounding board for the songs on this album. And now heās got a dog named Bing-Bong. How about that?
Having said all that, may I remind you that tour begins on Monday?
The workings of the music business are murkier than ever, but the bottom line is that even an art-house oasis like Nonesuch canāt afford to keep putting out interesting music if no one is paying for it. Iām so grateful to all of you for your continued support, and hope youāll consider picking up a copy of the record in one format or another if youāve not yet done so.
All my best, and hope to see you at a gig in the next few months,
Gabriel
Gabriella Smithās MarĆ© as performed by yMusic on their album Ecstatic Science
yMusic performingĀ Ecstatic Science by Missy Mazzoli, live at Thirty One West

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I am terminally uncool.
From time to time, against my protestations, I will gain a reputation for coolness.
This always comes back to bite me in the ass. For a long time, my college friends refused to see it. They insisted I was cool, holding the two Mike Doughty tracks I played for them aloft, reverently chanting my name. I let myself believe them, for as long as I could.Ā
Junior year, the illusion shattered and I took-up residence on their living room floor - a two-month long relationship collapsed, and I was so bereft that I didnāt sleep in my own apartment for six weeks. They knew it then, finally. Who is that depressed after two months of dating?
Iām not cool; Iām easily crushed. Iām corny. Iām deeply insecure. I require constant petting and affirmations. I need to be told Iām the smartest, the cutest, the funniest, the best, all day every day. Iām a Leo moon.
But ultimately, the least cool thing about me is my taste in music. Itās a tough call, Iām cringe in many ways! But music takes it.
Musicals arenāt the worst of it, though most songs I enjoy sound like showtunes.
No, Iāve had the same favorite musician since high school. A guy made me a mix CD with three of his songs on it when I was 16, and Iāve never let go. Iāve seen him live 9 times - I have tickets for my 10th show in November. Itāll be my 3rd time seeing him with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra! Iām starting to get embarrassed when I tell people how many times Iāve been to his concerts. Iāve seen very few bands live, but Iāll see this one 10?
Yes, itās Ben Folds, of āBrick.āĀ
Yes, Ben Folds Five is extremely important to me.Ā
Yes, āThe Luckiestā played during our wedding reception (NO, it was not the first dance).Ā
But It gets worse.Ā
See, Iām one of those people who likes the new shit. Basically any time a favorite artist releases something new, I love it. It often becomes my favorite thing theyāve ever made. So yeah, I like āWhatever and Ever Amen.ā But āSo There?ā I dunno, it might be my #1.
Did you hear the album Ben Folds Five made when they reunited in 2011? I think itās their strongest record. Iām sorry, itās true! My favorite Kanye West is Life of Pablo, my favorite Tarantino is Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, my favorite Sedaris is Calypso. I like the new shit.
I love an evolution. I think weāre too quick, as a culture, to chase the hot new thing instead of listening to people who have been honing their craft for years.
Ben Folds started out bashing his whole arm on a row of keys and now heās doing the exact same thing during his concerto with a symphony orchestra behind him.Ā
Ian, you are cool. We havenāt gotten to meet in person, but itās plain to see. You have great taste, certainly. But the key to coolness, of course, is being unapologetic.Ā
The key to cool is ignoring the outside world. Itās in making up your own mind.Ā
You might hate this song, I really canāt say. I donāt know your thoughts on aging pop-rock pianists or lyrics so thick with denial that you canāt sing along without shaking your head.Ā
Yeah, I listen to classic Uncle Ben a lot (thatās what his fellow Patreon subscribers call him). āEvaporated,ā āDonāt Change Your Plans,ā and āGoneā are in my regular rotation. But thereās just something about the new shit.Ā
Youāre starting something both entirely new and entirely mundane: a new decade. It wonāt functionally make any difference in your day to day, but these manmade milestones are certainly real. I canāt wait to see how you learn from this chapter, what amazing New Shit you create.
I hope you like this song. If you donāt, thatās okay - it wonāt change how I feel about it. Or you. Itāll confirm what I knew all along: you are cool.Ā
And if you do like āSo There,ā by Ben Folds and yMusic, even better. We can geek out together.
---Galen Crawley
Composer-performer Daniel Wohl's album Ćtat is out now on New Amsterdam & Nonesuch Records. The album features electro-acoustic pieces written by Wohl, with guest performances by Polica's Channy Leaneagh and co-production by Son Lux's Ryan Lott and mmph, and was made with members of yMusic and Calder Quartet. Get it and listen here.