Hello folks!
A week ago Alela Diane played a gig in the city in which I live! I coudn’t believe it when I saw it on her touring schedule! As older readers might remember, Alela is my favourite singer. I’ve been into her music ever since cd one. I’ve now seen her perform several times and had goosebumps every single time.
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This time Alela was only in Europe for a short amount of time, because she is expecting her first child in November! It is likely she won’t tour for quite a while. That’s an extra reason to go and see her perform this time.
She is touring this time to support her latest album: About Farewell. The songs are a break from the road she turned into on her last album, Alela Diane & Wild Divine, without being a complete return to her early albums. The album is amazing, the songs are honest, deep, and a bit dark. About Farewell is a heartbreaking recital of everthing that has happened to Alela and what she felt when she parted ways with her partner of seven years, a year ago. This album is a gift to everyone who’s ever been in a dark place. For me this album has been more than worth waiting for. When I saw her perform previously, she had just written a few songs of the album and performed those first songs. Now, I finally got to hear the whole album.
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| The albumcover for About Farewell |
The performance itself was just Alela with her voice and guitar and one bandmember, Heather Woods Broderick, who did backing vocals and alternating electric guitar, piano and flute. I think of all the times I went to so Alela this one was the odd one out, as the gig was part of a festival called “de zomerfeesten”. Each year the city in which I live is turned up side down with the coming of a sport event called the ‘International Four Days Marches Nijmegen’ or simply, in Dutch, ‘De Vierdaagse’. Each year we have several thousands participants, this year 41.576. For four days in a row they take a huge march, choosing between a 20, 30 or 40 kilometre parcours. Those four days, and three days before and after, the whole town is one huge festival and the festivities draw as many people as the sporting event itself.
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| Alela Diane 2 |
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| Heather Woods Broderick 3 |
So many people in your city is all very merry but it’s also…you know a lot of people. Now that the festivities have been going on for a more than a week I’m glad to have the city back to its normal state. Good memories.
- Foto by Valkhof Festival
- Foto by Willem Melssen
- Foto by Marscha van Druten
Fijn dat je een mooie dag bij het optreden van Alela had.
Ik hoop dat de rest van de vacantie ook zo is.
Vacantiegroeten van Paul.
Ha Paul! Bedankt! Absoluut het was hartstikke leuk. En mijn vakantie tot nu toe ook. Voorlopig hoeft hij van mij nog niet voorbij te gaan 😉