{"id":12955,"date":"2013-03-20T11:11:53","date_gmt":"2013-03-20T15:11:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=12955"},"modified":"2013-03-20T15:54:07","modified_gmt":"2013-03-20T19:54:07","slug":"midweek-music-break-simone-dinnerstein-and-tift-merritt-only-in-songsnight-and-dreams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2013\/03\/midweek-music-break-simone-dinnerstein-and-tift-merritt-only-in-songsnight-and-dreams\/","title":{"rendered":"Midweek Music Break: Simone Dinnerstein and Tift Merritt, “Only in Songs\/Night and Dreams”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Simone<\/a><\/p>\n

[Photo: Simone Dinnerstein and Tift Merritt]<\/em><\/p>\n

As far as I’ve been able to tell, this duo first met following a concert by classical pianist Dinnerstein. Country-ish singer-songwriter\u00a0Merritt wrote<\/a> of that experience:<\/p>\n

I talked with Simone the day after I saw her play an intimate concert in New York City. Her father, painter Simon Dinnerstein, talked with me for a moment after this show. He had caught me trying to wipe tears off my face while Simone played. It was such a pleasure to meet such a tremendously talented, disciplined, thoughtful musician. “I’m going to practice much more,” is what I told myself after we talked.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Later in 2008, the British magazine Gramophone<\/em>\u00a0brought\u00a0them together again, nominally assigning Merritt to interview Dinnerstein about “Second Album Syndrome<\/a>” (4MB PDF). (The interview seems to me much more like an extended, who’s-interviewing-whom back-and-forth.) Says the article’s intro:<\/p>\n

As Merritt interviewed\u00a0Dinnerstein and they shared their\u00a0experiences, they immediately hit\u00a0it off. Both are passionate about\u00a0music, are around the same age,\u00a0given to genuine self-reflection,\u00a0and share a common friendship\u00a0and fanship with the starry\u00a0country singer and songwriter\u00a0Lucinda Williams. By the end of\u00a0the evening, they were already\u00a0chatting about the possibility\u00a0of a musical collaboration.\u00a0Americana Bach<\/em>, anyone?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

By January, 2011, they were sharing a stage in concert at Duke University<\/a>\u00a0and talking about an upcoming album (the one which they just released this week). Later that year, Dinnerstein took a turn as “guest DJ”<\/a>\u00a0on NPR:<\/p>\n

“I tend to be introspective,” she says. “I tend to like music that is sensitive, slow and I like stuff that’s kind of dreamy.”<\/p>\n

Dinnerstein’s also drawn to musicians who pursue her own aesthetic, especially those rhythmically free ones who are not afraid to tug on the musical line — expanding or contracting it — as a means of expression.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Among the music she chose for that program was Merritt’s “Feel of the Moon.” (With Judy Collins’s “Suzanne,” the only non-classical selection.)<\/p>\n

Now, finally, we’ve got the (first?) product of all that mutual admiration: their collaborative effort,\u00a0Night<\/em>.<\/p>\n

It may seem a curious mixture, on the surface. Merritt’s own compositions are scattered among a handful of pure-classical pieces, as well as a couple of original songs by others. In the video below, the duo perform the first two songs from the album: one of the Merritt-penned numbers, and Schubert’s “Nacht und Tr\u00e4ume<\/em><\/a>” (“Night and Dreams,” here sung in an English-language translation).<\/p>\n

Curious mixture or not: the instruments these two wield (not<\/em> by any means excepting Merritt’s sweetly penetrating voice) are things of powerful beauty.<\/p>\n