Never Ending Books Tells Stories Through Song

The music room in Never Ending Books at 810 State St. was cluttered but homey. A collage of brightly-colored abstract art and painted records decorated the walls, which were lined by well-worn musical instruments. It recalled a grandparent’s house, a place where one might go to hear wise truths and rambling stories. On Friday night, two groups of musical storytellers gave the audience just that.

“We’re just gonna roll, I guess. Straight out of the living rooms of the New England shoreline,” said Jennifer Dauphinais, the Ponybird of Ponybird & Co. She was backed up by Peter Gaulin on bass and Andre Roman on guitar. Ponybird & Co.’s songs were melodic and acoustic, at one moment sad and the next joyful, always conveying a sense of plot.

They opened with ​“Slow Nelson,” a song about ​“driving in an automobile down 93 with a psychopath at the wheel.” Dauphinais said. ​“I could never be here longer than anyone waiting home for you,” she crooned, her voice rising and swaying with the slight breeze coming in through the open doorway. There was a sense of evolution in her songs, of bones and hearts that ache as they stretch and grow, that appealed to both the children and the adults in the audience.

“Peter’s gonna do a bass solo,” said Dauphinais of the next song, ​“Better Way.”

“There are kids here,” pointed out Gaulin.

“Peter’s gonna do a bass solo. There are kids here. What do those two things have to do with each other?” asked Dauphinais.

“I can’t swear,” said Gaulin.

“It’s gonna be a filthy bass solo,” said Roman.

The solo wasn’t filthy, but it was deep and moving, like the moment the music swells in a film right before a climax. One could almost see Thelma and Louise catapulting themselves toward the edge of a cliff. The kids in the crowd loved it.

The next song was ​“Start of It.” ​“This song is about your choice,” said Dauphinais. ​“Choose your own adventure. Is it about a divorce? Is it about starting grad school?” Ponybird & Co.’s music, like any good story, left a lot to the audience’s interpretation. It made the story feel personal to everyone, not just the songwriter.

The band went on to play ​“Threads,” a song that Dauphinais said she always dedicates to other ​“musicians and magicians.” ​“Sometimes you lose someone you made music with, but when you play, they come back,” said Dauphinais. The song featured heart-wrenching lyrics like ​“You were some kind of angel / The kind that comes as a flash in the dark.” They also played ​“Barriers,” which is about friendship breakups, and ​“Trap,” Ponybird’s ​“Van Morrison song.”

On a special request from the audience, Ponybird & Co. finished their set with ​“Feel,” a song about falling out of love. ​“Woke up this morning, fell out of the love I had / I wanted to tell you the way that I feel,” sang Dauphinais. The audience whooped and applauded.

The second performance of the night was JJ Slater, accompanied by Dan Bisson on bass. Slater also had a story to tell, a story made up of songs he wrote at the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation in Taos, N.M. The Silver Key — an album that is coming out before this winter — is a ​“rock opera about loneliness, creativity, and finding your person.” Slater’s music was soft and groovy, like the way the sun falls through the trees after a rainy day.

He opened with ​“Wildfire Creeping” before picking up the pace with ​“In the Cool Soleta Breeze.” ​“I hooked up with some townies / Seemed like nobody cared / And someone’s sister got green-eyed / And she pulled on my hair,” sang Slater. The audience bobbed their heads and clapped along to the beat.

Then Slater sang ​“Back to Life” and ​“Home Enough” before transitioning into ​“Bye Forever,” a highly satisfying anthem about quitting your job. ​“It’s PG-13,” Slater assured the audience, with a glance at the kids. ​“I said kiss my ass / When I walked out the door / And maybe it looked bad / But I’ve been there before,” he sang.

“One More Ride” was nostalgic and sweet, and Slater intended it to be the last song of the story. ​“But then I decided I needed a victory song,” he said. The victory song was ​“The Time is Finally Right.” Slater’s fingers hopped from note to note like a frog hops across lily pads as he sang, ​“Love’s not the answer / But it might be a sign / That the time is finally right.”

“That was the end of the story, but shortly before leaving for Massachusetts” — where Slater is based — ​“I had this thought,” he said. ​“There are songs that are meant to make you sad, and songs that are meant to make you happy, and songs that are meant to make you horny, but not a lot of songs that are meant to make you hungry.”

To fill that void, he sang ​“Signature Dish,” which is coming out soon with Slater’s band of the same name. The mouth-watering tune featured Colorado peaches, Memphis sticky ribs, Bay oysters, and Baja tacos. It made no mention of New Haven apizza, which Slater apologized for in the wake of the crowd’s disgruntled offense.

People usually come to a bookstore to read stories, but as Ponybird & Co. and Slater and Bisson proved, sometimes a story needs to be heard out loud. Sometimes it needs to be sung in order to fill the air and reach its full potential. On Friday night, Never Ending Books was as full of stories as it has ever been. And hopefully, the audience went home with yet another story of their own to tell however they pleased.