Karen Ponzio Photos
Christopher Bousquet and Daphne Martin.
Singer-songwriter Christopher Bousquet, who also records under the name American Elm, had a batch of songs about a hard time in his life. He carried them around for years. He thought about recording them all or possibly putting a band together and performing one show, a rock opera of sorts.
Instead, on Friday night, another idea came to fruition.
Bousquet recalled the years 1989 to 1991 — when he was 18 to 20 years old — were particularly difficult for him. Especially 1990, which was the year of the horse.
“It was a time of great loss for me,” he said. “It’s dogged me for years, but I have a new perspective now being in my 40s.”
He turned to his songwriting and came up with a series of 11 songs “about getting through that and moving on” that defined that era for him. Some of those songs eventually got recorded. Some did not. One, “Long Road to Be Free,” was recorded and released earlier this year as a single. Four others were recorded live and released as The Ivory Sessions, also earlier this year. The others still weren’t quite done.
“I just wanted to be finished with it,” he said. “I knew I could make an album, but that takes time and a budget, and I could have done it down in my basement but I felt the material wouldn’t come to life that way. But I mostly wanted to move on. So I thought about doing a show alone, just me with a band, which turned into me playing and practicing them and writing down the names of people I thought would perform them well.”
That made Bousquet think of the other singers and songwriters surrounding him in New Haven.
“With the song ‘Long Road to be Free,’ I thought ‘Sam [Perduta of Elison Jackson] will do this better than I do. Even when I was writing it I could hear Sam singing it. I ended up assigning songs to people. I knew who should be doing each song. I said to myself, ‘Paul [Belbusti of Mercy Choir] will know what to do with this,’ and I knew which one The Sawtelles would do. Each one was like that. I knew people would take it somewhere new and interesting.”
Bousquet asked everyone to perform the song he had hand-picked for them in a one-night-only show. Each one said yes.
The show was called “The Year of the Horse: A Folk Rock Song Cycle,” and consisted of two sets. First was a set of covers that were “meaningful to people, that fit the theme of being between the ages of 18 and 20 or the years 1989 to 1991,” said Bousquet.
The second set was each of the acts performing Bousquet’s songs.
Bousquet was thrilled. “It’s meaningful to turn it into something,” he said a few days before the show. He had not heard anyone’s pieces yet, but he said he had “fielded questions.”
“I want them to take it and say, ‘this is how I want it to be done,’” Bousquet said. “I’m very interested in their ideas. They are not so much covering them as they are finishing them for me. This is not a tribute.”
On Friday at Cafe Nine, first flyers appeared on each table outlining what was to come. Act One was called The Metal Horse Mix Tape but the performers’ choices for that set were not listed. Act Two would be The Year of the Horse and listed the 11 song titles and the names of the acts that would perform them.
Bousquet took to the stage first to tell his story to the audience and begin the first set of covers, what he called a “mix tape.” He introduced his song, “Shine On” by House of Love, by telling the story of how in the summer of 1990 his sister and her boyfriend and he and his girlfriend at the time went to see Peter Murphy and House of Love at Lake Compounce “and it was awesome.” Some of the others that followed also told the story of why they chose their songs, while others simply went up and began to play.
One of them was Paul Belbusti of Mercy Choir, who launched right into an acoustic version of “The Look” by Roxette, which got quite a few in the crowd singing along. Jon Schlesinger came to the stage next with his guitar, accompanied by No Line North bandmate Mike Kiefer on drums and Richard Brown of Happy Ending (who has also collaborated with No Line North recently) on guitar to give the crowd a jammy version of Miracle Legion’s “Gigantic Transatlantic Trunk Call,” noting that Brown had played with that band in the past. Schlesinger and Kiefer remained on stage to accompany singer-songwriter Lys Guillorn and Pete Riccio of The Sawtelles (and also Guillorn’s band) as those two collaborated on vocals for “Fortunately Gone” by The Breeders. Riccio then remained on stage and was joined by wife and bandmate Julie as well as Jeff Cedrone on keyboard for the Sawtelles’ super-fun version of The Pet Shop Boys’ classic “West End Girls,” which got a loud and favorable response from the crowd — especially after Riccio added that the song “reminded him of love” because he and Julie had both discovered they liked it while dating. Julie also let the crowd know that they were older than most of them. Anne Castellano followed with a cover of Ultravoxx’s “We Stand Alone” that made this reporter want to dive back into that band’s catalog, but not before joking, “I think I’m even older than The Sawtelles.”
Frank Critelli.
Jen Dauphinais, a.k.a. Ponybird, also reminisced before her song, noting that she was wearing her Cure shirt from that era. She reminded the audience how Nirvana “broke the public vibe” with “Smells Like Teen Spirit” during that time, but she was not going to play that because “there had to be something better.” She then chose a song about the “ultimate emo artist,” which turned out to be “Vincent” by Don McLean. Frank Critelli jumped on stage next, grabbed his guitar, and immediately launched into an acoustic cover of “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” much to the delight of the audience, who he coaxed into singing with him though he only covered a piece of the song before jumping off stage again. Was that planned? It was perfect just as it was.
Two more acts, the trio Local Honey, who covered “One” by U2, and Sam Perduta, who covered “Once I Was” by Tim Buckley, graced the stage before a short intermission, during which friends and audience members converged on one another for hugs, warmth and all around enthusiastic support of the proceedings thus far.
Bousquet came back to begin the next set, explaining how he came to this show with these performers, telling his story and adding “I asked all the people and every single one said yes” with a big smile. Paul Belbusti would later mention before beginning his selection (“The Theme from The Year of The Horse”) that “we all said yes because we love Chris, and we love his songs very much.”
Bousquet added that the song cycle “was about maybe the worst year of my young life, but not entirely about that. It’s about losing. It’s about winning. It’s about finding and not finding. It’s about living and dying, and I don’t know, faith and doubt.” He noted that it was dedicated to two people: his uncle, who died in 1990, and his friend James Velvet, who died in 2015.
Bousquet then began with a song called “Beach House Road.” The other ten performers then performed in the same order as they had in the first set, though during this set Daphne Martin joined the lineup to sing a song with Bousquet accompanying her on guitar.
“Most of the lyrics were left wide open for anybody who wanted to hear their own story,” Martin said before beginning. “You can hear your own story in these songs. I found my grandfather in this story.” She encouraged others to “let that openness embrace you and find whoever is meaningful to you in the songs because they are stunning and amazing.”
It was not difficult to take Martin’s advice, as the songs were universal in their messages, conveying the themes Bousquet hoped to offer. Though each performer adding her own unique touch.
Lys Guillorn, solo with her guitar for this set, began her piece, titled “Through the Glass Darkly,” with an instrumental version of “Hard Times” by Stephen Foster. Jon Schlesinger returned with Kiefer and Brown to rock through the song “Prisoners,” which he joked “had a lot of words.” The Sawtelles came back as a duo for the song “Television,” which Julie noted they would have “strong armed” Bousquet to play anyway even if they had not been assigned it “because that’s the Sawtelle way,” joked Peter.
Ponybird and Frank Critelli, who join Bousquet each year at Best Video for a singer-songwriter show, came together to sing a song oft played there called “Up the River, Under Water,” with Critelli following solo with the song “The Contender (I’m on Your Side),” once again coaxing the audience to sing along with the line “I’m on your side,” which they did without hesitation.
Anne Castellano brought a deep soulfulness to the song “In These Last Days” that caused Bousquet to run right up to her afterward and offer praise, and Local Honey gave their song “Winter Light” a three-part harmony that made its light shine through. The show ended with Perduta offering his version of Bousquet’s latest release, “Long Road To Be Free,” which by that point appeared to be the perfect way to end this beautiful night of sharing, caring, and catharsis. Bousquet returned to the stage thanking everyone, smiling and beaming with pride and gratitude.
Karen Ponzio Photos
Bousquet and friends.
Bousquet had mentioned at the beginning of the show that his daughter had asked him: “what if they do the songs better than you do?”
“That’s exactly why we’re doing this,” Bousquet reported saying. “They probably will.” I don’t know if they did them better, but it seemed that everyone got the meaningful experience Bousquet had hoped for and more.
The entire show was recorded and will be available soon. Please follow Christopher Bousquet-American Elm on Facebook for further info.