Wanderer Session #26: Louis Blues
Filmed in New Brunswick, New Jersey
Spring 2010

Elena invited me over Elie's house to film them singing "Wagon Wheel" as well some other songs they randomly thought of while I was there. It was a really light-hearted session. I keep telling people that I love filming really spontaneous things. I love capturing moments between musicians that seem like they're just having a few drinks and jamming at the dinner table like I was never there. Well, this was certainly a literal moment like that. It was fun. There wasn't any pressure really to film a certain way, get the light at a certain angle, get the guitar at a particular way. It was a session among friends. It was nice too to be around the people that knows me before the idea of Pollifax was even concocted. It's really only been a few months but wow it feels like ages.

For a group of singers that really didn't practice anything, did everything out of whim, out of the slight push of their giggles and alcohol, they sure organized their voices in such a complex manner. Elena, Elie, and Brianna spoke about jumping in and out of choruses, who's doing which keys, and all these other musical things that were pretty impressive to hear as table talk. But their singing was really great.

Possibly the biggest pleasure I got from this session is filming Brianna Cohen. I've heard her sing a few times before. She's absurdly good. But it was a much different, more fulfilling experience hearing her wonderful voice in a room with just us.

The day after the session, I sent her a link to Nicole Atkins' performance of "The Way It Is" on Letterman a few years back. I didn't just send it to her because I figured she'll like it. I sent to her because she sounds like Nicole Atkins. That same soft and deep voice that shoots out into such a high range. Amazing stuff. It's always a nice thought whenever I see shades of great musicians in my friends. You see the same talent, same musical prowess whether it's making guitar melodies, the range of their voice, the sound of their breaths after every song. But then they wave and smile at me on the street and we have coffee and pizza and talk about dreams and what place all this music has in them and they become the same old friends in my company. Brianna is certainly a Nicole Atkins in the making. Perhaps, all this time, I've been having drinks in old town bars with the next set of people the world is set to fall in love with.

Perhaps, I'll run into Brianna again someday with a band that complements her superb voice. Brianna Cohen and the Sea? I hope so. Elena and Elie singing with her too? Even better.