Music Archives - In the Shadow of the Evening Trees

October 6, 2024October 6, 2024

Episode 57: The Live Fast, Die Old Generation

If you listened to our last show, we talked about either starting a new podcast or reformatting this one, and we settled on … reformatting this one. By which we just mean that we’re going to expand the topics we talk about.

With that in mind, this week’s episode focuses primarily on the music we’re listening to now. I Jennifer’s case, it’s Lollapalooza sensation Chappell Roan, and in David’s case its Jesse Malin, who suffered a rare spinal stroke in 2023 and is working his way back to the stage.

Along the way, we talk about an interesting phenomenon in music these days, namely: older artists reflecting back on their lives and contemplating where they’re headed now. We’re used to the live fast, die young mentality, but were we prepared for the live fast, die old generation?

You’ll have to listen in to find out more, but we have to give a shout out the the Jesse Malin benefit album, Silver Patron Saints, featuring 35 artists collaborating with him on 27 of his best songs, including Bruce Springsteen, Lucinda Williams, Elvis Costello, Cait O’Riordan, Susanna Hoffs, Billie Joe Armstrong, Spoon, the Wallflowers, Graham Parker, and Alejandro Escovedo. Read more about it here, and please consider supporting Sweet Relief.

Side note: If you’re listening to this on Apple Podcasts or other podcasting platforms, check out our website (intheshadowoftheeveningtrees.com) links to the artists we talk about on this week’s show.

We hope you enjoy the show, please feel free to follow us on Instagram (@jenn_and_dave), and tune in to our next episode for a discussion of the great Netflix documentary, Will and Harper.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

September 23, 2024September 23, 2024

Episode 56: Reformatting

On this episode, we talk about reformatting this podcast or possibly starting a new one to supplement this show. Either way, the emphasis would be on the three things we talk most about in our day-to-day life: Music, food, and politics. And we plan to let the expletives fly.

Kidding aside, all three topics are connected in many ways and all three provide more than enough to fill a lifetime of shows.

And on that note, this episode also delves into the relationship between politics and music, including several interesting music documentaries that either have been released or will be coming soon. In keeping with our usual focus on LGBTQIA+ issues, we also talk about Will and Harper, the documentary about Will Farrell’s longtime friend Harper who came out as trans. We’ll have much more to say about that in coming episodes.

Finally, related to the topic of food and “wellness,” as they say in corporate-speak, we talk about the fairly successful healthy eating and exercise routine we adopted — and more importantly, stuck to — over the past year.

We hope you enjoy the show, and please feel free to follow us on Instagram (@jenn_and_dave). Until next time!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

July 30, 2024July 30, 2024

Episode 53: There’s Always Time

On this week’s episode, after discussing certain issues we have with Jeopardy! that are best left to another imaginary podcast, we turn our focus to passion projects like playing instruments, writing, making art, and creating content on blogs and social media. Inspired by a colleague who cowrote Empire: The Musical, a show that is now running at the New World Stages in New York, we contemplate how it is that some people are able to maintain their creative passions despite working full-time jobs, raising kids, and dealing with all the other stresses of everyday life.

Spoiler alter: One of us has had considerably greater success in maintaining their side interests than the other … but you’ll have to listen to find out who that is and what insights she has in to making it work.

We hope you enjoy the show, and please feel free to follow us on Instagram (@jenn_and_dave). You can also follow us on the site formerly known as Twitter, where our joint account is @JennandDave1 and the podcast account is @itsotetPodcast. Until next time!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

May 31, 2024May 31, 2024

Episode 49: Twenty-two Songs, Seven Encores and the Power of … Maybe?

In our first episode back from our vacation hiatus, we begin our recap of this year’s trip to Ireland, a country that is near and dear to us. We briefly talk about our visits to Dublin and Cork, using GPS to navigate, and the many (many) modes of transportation we used.

But we spend most of the episode talking about Bruce Springsteen’s fantastic show at Croke Park on May 19. Bruce’s 2023 show at Dublin’s RDS Arena was great and will always be a special experience, but this year’s show was really something. In front of 80,000 adoring fans from Ireland and around the globe, Bruce had a renewed energy, a strong voice, and a seemingly invincible spirit. The 2023 show, while uplifting and life-affirming as always, had somber, introspective moments that simultaneously made you feel glad to be alive but appreciate how fleeting it all is. This year’s show, on the other hand, convinced us that Bruce and the rest of us will live forever.

Figuratively, at least.

Some highlights from his twenty-two song, seven-encore performance in Dublin:

Opening the show with “Lonesome Day” from The Rising, a pleasant surprise in its own right, and following it immediately with “Night” from Darkness on the Edge of Town, a diehard fan’s favorite.
Bringing back “Darlington County” from Born in the U.S.A., a song he might have left behind because of its comical (obviously pre-9/11) reference to the World Trade Center.
Giving Nebraska’s “Reason to Believe” a full E Street Band/ZZ Top-inspired treatment.
“Wrecking Ball,” the only song he played off of that album, which the crowd always goes crazy for.
“She’s the One.” Nothing else to add here, really. It’s simply one of the best songs ever recorded.
“Nightshift” from Only the Strong Survive, Bruce’s 2022 album of soul covers. This song lets the E Street Band’s great backup singers step into the spotlight.
A rousing, emotional “My City of Ruins,” a song he originally wrote for Freehold, NJ, that became a New York City anthem after 9/11.
An incredible set of encores featuring “Land of Hope and Dreams/People Get Ready,” “Born to Run,” and a cover of the Isely Brothers’ “Twist and Shout” (Dublin did not cut the power half-way through, unlike London when Bruce and Paul McCartney sang it at Hyde Park).
And the emotional crescendo of the evening: closing the show with a cover of the Pogues’ “A Rainy Night in SoHo” as a tribute to the late Shane MacGowan. We knew it was coming, but that did not lessen the impact.

We then talk (half-jokingly and half-seriously) about the power of saying “maybe” instead of “yes” or “no.” You know, we really might be onto something here!

And finally, we think we found the place where we will ultimately retire (God willing). But you’ll have to tune in to our next episode to find out where that is.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

April 25, 2024April 25, 2024

Episode 47: Garland Jeffreys — 35mm Dreams

In this week’s episode, we first talk about San Antonio and its famous River Walk, which is a great place to visit. If you’ve never been there, check it out.

But we spend most of the episode discussing last weekend’s trip to the Milwaukee Film Festival to see a documentary about our good friend Garland Jeffreys. The film is called Garland Jeffreys: The King of In Between. Garland’s wife Claire — also a good friend — wrote, directed, and put the film together with the help of editor Evan Johnson.

We’ve talked about Garland and this documentary before, but this was our first opportunity to see the film in a theater with Claire. We also spent time with Claire and Evan before the screening, which was great. We talked to them about making the film and Claire’s life with Garland … and some other famous people.

This week’s episode also goes into how we got to know Garland and Claire and the many times we saw Garland perform over the years, from a street festival in Chicago in 2012 to his farewell performance at City Winery in New York in 2019.

And we talk about brisket sandwiches. Which all ties together. You’ll see.

Anyway, it was such a special experience to share with Claire after all these years and we had a great time recapping the whole thing.

So, we encourage you to see the film if you can and to get to know Garland’s music. You won’t be disappointed.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

April 16, 2024April 16, 2024

Episode 46: Music for All Occasions

We take the title for this week’s episode from a 1995 album by one of our favorite groups, the Mavericks. But more on that later.

We start out with an update on our local walking club, which we joined a few weeks back despite some initial … hesitation. Turns out, it’s been a lot of fun and we’re glad we joined. Then we discuss our upcoming schedule. We will be out of the box for most of May, going to our youngest child’s college graduation followed by yet another trip to Ireland.

At least we have excuses this time. And we’re telling you up front!

After that, we circle back to last week’s topic — mental health. And, in particular, how to manage your mental health on social media. This week’s story begins with an infamous comment by an infamous billionaire author who’s made it her life’s work to trash trans and nonbinary people, and what happens to normal people when they push back. We talk about the positive side of social media (that it can give you a voice when you feel like you don’t have one) and the negative side (that angry mobs will try to silence you if you challenge their narrow-mindedness). And then we talk about the strategies that work for some of us: Don’t engage the haters. Instead, go ahead and block them, mute them, and leave conversations to protect your own mental health. These strategies may not work for everyone, but they give many of us peace of mind while still allowing us to have our say.

We then turn to much happier topics: Seeing the above-mentioned Mavericks in concert this past weekend for what is at least the sixth, if not seventh, time. From the first time we saw them at a small club in the Chicago suburb’s touring in support of their 1994 LP, What a Crying Shame, to this most recent show, they’ve never let us down. Their music spans country, rock, blues, and Latin, but it’s all universally fun. And they’re fantastic musicians, which doesn’t hurt. They also have a new album coming out called Moon and Stars which will be available on May 17. We’re really looking forward to that.

Finally, we talk about an interesting new album called Petty Country: A Musical Celebration of Tom Petty. As the name suggests, the album consists of twenty covers of Tom Petty songs by a diverse group of country artists, including Chris Stapleton, Luke Combs, the Brothers Osborne, Willie and Lukas Nelson, Margot Price, Wynonna Judd, Marty Stuart, Steve Earle, George Strait, and Rhiannon Giddens. We’re not entirely sure what to expect, but we’re looking forward to giving it a spin.

So, we hope you enjoy the show, and please feel free to follow us on Instagram (@jenn_and_dave). You can also follow us on the site formerly known as Twitter, where our joint account is @JennandDave1 and the podcast account is @itsotetPodcast. Until next time!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

June 30, 2023June 30, 2023

Episode 30: 80th Birthday Tribute to Garland Jeffreys, the King of In Between

On this special joint episode of our two podcasts, In the Shadow of the Evening Trees and Two Minutes Fifty-Nine, we celebrate one of our favorite artists, Garland Jeffreys, who turned 80 on June 29.

To those who don’t know, Garland Jeffreys is a singer-songwriter from New York who wrote and performed some of the most influential, if not necessarily widely-known, music over a 50-year career from the late 1960s to 2018 or so. His first big hit “Wild in the Streets,” has been covered by multiple artists and featured in movies and on television over the years. He also traveled in the same circles as Bruce Springsteen, Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, Willy DeVille, Lou Reed, and the New York Dolls back in the day.

In this week’s show, we talk about how we connected with Garland, first through the music and later through social media, and how, in a weird sort of way, we lived parallel lives without knowing it. Which is to say, we both started having kids around the same time, which led Garland to pause his musical career and us to drop out of pop culture for awhile, as parents do when their kids are young. And so we both reemerged, in a sense, around 2011, and that’s when our paths crossed in real life. Since then, we’ve gotten to know Garland and his wife, Claire, we saw Garland play live in Chicago on multiple occasions, and we ultimately traveled to New York for his farewell concert five years ago.

It’s impossible to summarize Garland’s career or what his music means to us, but he and Claire are working on a documentary of his life and music called Garland Jeffreys: The King of In Between (a fitting title, as we explain), and we’re hoping that it’s out soon. In the meantime, you can contribute to the pos-production costs here.

So, please enjoy this week’s episode, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments, and, as always, support the rights of LGBTQIA people everywhere! And if you’re new here, you can also follow our Twitter account, @itsotetPodcast.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

April 22, 2023April 22, 2023

Episode 23: On the Road Again

On this week’s episode: cats don’t worry about other people’s chosen names and pronouns, so you shouldn’t either. We also revisit an old classic: the Boy Scouts of America, an organization notorious for its homophobia in the 1980s and ’90s, recently settled decades of child sex abuse claims for a cool $2.5 billion, and yet your favorite online transphobes — you know, the ones who claim to care so much about other people’s kids — remained predictably silent. It’s almost like they’re more interested in distracting attention away from real abusers than they are in keeping kids safe …

But we spend most of this week’s episode talking about one of our favorite bands, The Mavericks. We just got back from seeing the alt-country, Latin-influenced icons in Milwaukee (a greatly underrated city, by the way), and, as always, they were outstanding. We’ve followed The Mavericks since the mid-’90s and it’s hard to explain just how great they are in concert. You just have to see them for yourselves.

And speaking of traveling to see bands, next month we’re off to Ireland to see Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band in Dublin, which means that we will take a two-week break after next week’s show. But don’t worry. We’ll have lots to talk about, not the least of which will involve driving stick-shift on the wrong side of the road.

Finally, we wrap up the show with a funny incident that happened last week: somebody hacked notorious anti-LGBTQIA troll Matt Walsh’s Twitter account, and hilarity ensued.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

March 28, 2022March 29, 2022

Episode 11: Our Favorite Artists

On this week’s show, in light of the unexpected, tragic death of the Foo Fighters’ beloved drummer, Taylor Hawkins, and our upcoming appearances on Jesse Jackson’s Set Lusting Bruce podcast, we talk about some of our favorite musicians and bands — artists who are not only incredibly talented, but also genuinely decent and compassionate people:

Garland Jeffreys
Living Colour and Vernon Reid
The Mavericks
Rosanne Cash
The Clash and Joe Strummer
Billy Bragg
Tom Petty
Los Lobos

Great artists you can enjoy without shame!

Please listen to this week’s episode, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments, and, as always, support the rights of LGBTQ+ people everywhere!

And keep an eye out for a special episode this Thursday in honor of Trans Day of Visibility.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

February 28, 2022March 3, 2022

Episode 7: The Wild, the Innocent, and the Springsteen Podcast

Hello! We are finally back after an extended holiday (and post-holiday) break!

On this week’s show, we talk about Dave’s upcoming appearance on Jesse Jackson’s Set Lusting Bruce podcast, the podcast of all things Springsteen. Looking forward to this momentous occasion, we delve into why Bruce, seemingly the most hetero of artists, nevertheless has a strong appeal to some LGBTQ+ fans.

We also talk about the disturbing rise of intolerance towards LGBTQ+ people across the country, from Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill to Texas’ recent executive actions directed at trans- and nonbinary-supportive parents, and the need to find ways to connect and communicate across communities.

So please listen to this week’s episode and, as always, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download