I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: DAVID DONDERO-Tiny Desk Concert #10 (December 5, 2008).

Bob and Robin at NPR love David Dondero.  I have never heard of him outside of their show (where they play his new songs when they come out).  Apparently he has some kind of connection to Conor Oberst (their voices sound similar—although I gather that Dondero came first).  I don’t care for Oberst in general, although I find that Dondero’s voice is more palatable to me.

He plays four songs on acoustic guitar.  And they’re all enjoyable.  They are simple folks songs “We’re All Just Babies in Our Mama’s Eyes,” is a little fast.  While “Rothko Chapel” is probably my favorite of the four.  I was really intrigued by the Chapel (which is real and which I’d never heard of) and which sounds cool—his song is an interesting look at it. “In Love With the Living and the Dead” and “It’s Peaceful Here” round out the set.

I feel that more than his music (which is good but not especially memorable), it’s his lyrics that Dondero is known for.  his songs are thoughtful and interesting and look at a variety of subjects.

[READ: January 6, 2014] “I’m the Meat, You’re the Knife”

This is an interesting story constructed in a way that lets you know that something big has happened between two people.  But we are never told exactly what happened, we are simply given a lot of stories with which to construct the event ourselves.

Jay is walking home—his father has just died—and he is greeted by an old friend, Ed Hankey.  Jay doesn’t feel like talking to Ed about his father, especially when Ed tells him that Murray Cutler is currently in hospice.  Murray was their English teacher–Jay has become a writer—with Ed emphasizing how important Murray was to them.

The story bounces back and forth between the preparations for Jay’s father’s funeral and his visits to Murray in hospice.  The differences are pronounced but not emphasized: Jay’s family is there to make arrangements, to plan for all of the details.  Meanwhile, Murray has no family, no one to visit him in hospice.  Indeed, when Jay visits him, a volunteer is reading to him.

It also turns out that Jay is a born storyteller.  He tells his family about some things that Ed has been up to.  We hadn’t heard that when they met, so we’re not sure exactly how true they are.  But the stories involve online dating and a girl who gets a nosebleed and leaves their date without coming back.  (Jay’s mother disapproves of her).

He also tells stories when he visits Murray.  At first he tries to get Murray to remember him but Murray just insists “Stories!”  So Jay begins telling stories.  And they are unpleasant stories—about men taking advantage of women, luring them into places where they are then attacked.  There’s another story about a man (himself) who goes to Africa and is quite content. Until another, older, man comes and tries to help the village by promising enlightenment.  Yet ultimately his presence ends up spoiling everything.

And these stories visibly upset Murray.  Later on, he tells Murray stories that he heard from his family, as if they had happened to him.  And what rang out in the story is when Jay’s father said that “fiction was folly and only jackasses and liars made up stories.”  So what is Jay?  He seems to be a bit of both.

The story ends with another death and more tears, but no definitive answers.   I found this style of storytelling to be very effective, even if it left me with more questions.