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Paleo comes to the Pearl
Like a modern day Jack Kerouac, folk singer/songwriter David Strackany is living on the road and keeping records of his travels through verse and song.
Strackany, who goes by the stage name Paleo, has chronicled the past 9 months of his life spent on tour by writing what he calls a song diary.
Every single day since last Easter, Paleo has written, arranged, and recorded a new complete song. These daily honest, in-the-moment lo-fi gems then get posted online at Paleo’s website (www.paleo.ws) to become entries in his song diary.
The rules of the song diary are simple. The songs must be original. Each day’s song must be written, recorded, and uploaded to the Internet in one day. The day Paleo is unsuccessful in completing a song, the experiment is over.
His goal is to complete an entire year of daily song entries. To date, he has over 200 downloadable songs floating in cyberspace written everywhere from Brooklyn to Los Angeles.
With a haunting and melancholic voice, Paleo’s songs, on the song diary, are usually acoustic and mostly prolific. Paleo’s talent shows through on each song despite the fact that most of the songs are recorded at rest stops or the back seat of his car.
I got a chance to chat with Paleo about his Dayton show at the Pearl on December 28th. Also on the bill is Sleepybird and Towhee. Visit www.paleo.ws or myspace.com/paleo for more info.
KN – I think it is just amazing that you write a song every day. How do you go about it?
DS – The hardest part is finding time and space to write and record. The road has become my life, but it can be very difficult. I record in bathrooms and cars. Everyday is a new set of challenges to make something new.
KN – I heard that if you miss a day the project is over. Is that true?
DS – Yes, if I fail to write a song the project will be broken. But, the only way I won’t complete my goal is if I got killed or arrested. No amount of life will stop the experiment.
KN – The Sunday Prayer is a song you rewrite every Sunday. What a cool idea?
DS - The first song I posted was the Sunday Prayer on Easter Sunday. I decided to reinvent it every week. It’s like my version of a sonnet. The form is the same each time, but the words are different.
KN – Your full-length album Misery Missouri is a lot different from the song diary. Its actually hi-fi?
DS - Actually studio work is my fashion. A lot of the songs on the song diary are recorded lo-fi, but I am not really a lo-fi music fan. I like recordings that are big and loud and violent, but the song diary does not always allow room for that. I am selling Misery Missouri while on the road and my next album is all finished and will be released in 2007.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: Dayton Local Music, Dayton Local Music
Comments
By floodgate
January 2, 2007 12:17 PM | Link to this
I was at this show and Paleo was amazing. Got the CD and was pleased to find it even better than the performance. Too bad this guy got booked on a Thursday to play for about 6 people. Paleo, please come back to the Gem City!