Live 100.5 & Reg's Coffee House present: Dar Williams & Joshua Radin w/ Jesse Harris

Jesse Harris | 8:00 PM


Feel, the seventh album from Grammy-winning singer/songwriter Jesse Harris, makes two important points. First, it confirms that Harris possesses a distinctive voice, both as a performer and composer. Think of the album as intimate, gently romantic, wistful, and/or humorous, and above all, equipped to stimulate those who appreciate craftsmanship and touch all who take time to listen.

The second point stems from the first: Jesse Harris has a history and a talent that goes beyond the impact he made as author of "Don’t Know Why," the song that helped launch Norah Jones’ phenomenal career.

That song, exceptional as it is, reflects Harris’ standard level of accomplishment as a composer. It’s no accident that those who have covered his work – Madeleine Peyroux, Pat Metheny, Lizz Wright, and Jones – are masters of interpretation, artists who work best when working with the best material.

Nor is it a coincidence that Harris’s evocative talents have led him into film work, most recently as composer and producer of the soundtrack to Ethan Hawke’s The Hottest State (out on Think Films in August 2007), where Harris’ songs are interpreted by the likes of Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, Brad Mehldau, Cat Power, Feist and other major artists.

What is unusual, amidst all of this, is how Feel exceeds the standards that Harris has set for himself – yet, at the same time, it is utterly unlike anything he’s ever done.

The crisp yet laid-back groove and catchy vocal hook of the title track, the raindrop rhythm of guitar and hand drums on “I Don’t Mind,” the disarming wisdom of “Walk On,” the ability to conjure deep atmosphere through the barest touches of banjo (“How Could It Take So Long” and “I Would”), rolling snare (“Where to Start”), or strings (“You and Me”) … in fact, each moment of Feel testifies to Harris’s gift for assembling the simplest elements into pictures and stories whose impact is far from simplistic.

None of this is news to those who know his work. Even they might be surprised, though, at how quickly Feel came together – and, as a result, how revealing of the artist it is. “We recorded the entire album in three days,” Harris says. “We didn’t rehearse. I just came home from travelling, got everybody together in the studio, played each song for the guys once, recorded it and then I left town again.”

Feel, then, leads us beyond the nature of his previous work, including his reflective 2006 release Mineral, and closer to an understanding of who this artist is – or was, at the time of these remarkable sessions.

“Of course, all of that is definitely unconscious,” Harris cautions. “When I write a song, I’m just writing a song. Whatever it says about me might become clear later. Listening to this album, though, I guess it has a more positive spirit than some of the things I’ve done.”

It is also, he adds, his most spontaneous project to date. “Partly that’s because I was so busy doing other things when I came into it,” he points out. “I was especially involved with The Hottest State, a huge project, so much so that it was hard to think about how I would do this record. Honestly, until just before I started recording, I was completely blank about Feel – about who I would ask to play on it, what engineers I would use, or where to do it.”

But the seeds of Feel had actually been growing in Harris’ imagination for a while, though they initially reached for a different light than the one he would eventually follow. Brazilian music was their inspiration; its rhythms and textures had intrigued him for years, and after recruiting Mauro Refosco, an outstanding percussionist in that school, for an album he was producing for Sasha Dobson, Harris felt that this would be his path.
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Joshua Radin | 9:00 PM


Though he enjoyed singing during his childhood in Cleveland, OH, Joshua Radin never intended to be a professional musician. Instead, he studied drawing and painting at Northwestern University, following his college years with stints as an art teacher, screenwriter, and art gallery employee. Eventually, he took a stab at songwriting and played one of his early compositions, "Winter," for his friend Zach Braff. The burgeoning actor/director took an immediate liking to the song, and "Winter" soon found its way onto Braff' TV show, Scrubs, in early 2004. After fans began to request more of his music, Radin decided to pursue a songwriting career and signed with Columbia Records, who issued his debut album We Were Here in 2006.

Radin relocated to Los Angeles and aligned himself with the Hotel Cafe, a unique Hollywood venue specializing in performances by singer/songwriters. He soon found himself playing national tour dates with a number of Hotel Cafe regulars, including Ingrid Michaelson, Sara Bareilles, and Meiko. Meanwhile, he issued a pair of digital EPs (via iTunes) while readying the release of his sophomore album, Simple Times, which arrived in late 2008. Marisa Brown & Andrew Leahey, All Music Guide
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Dar Williams | 9:00 PM


Dar Williams has just released her first album of original material in over three years, PROMISED LAND. With clean, driving production by Brad Wood (Pete Yorn, Liz Phair, Smashing Pumpkins), the album features 12 songs that showcase Dar's signature wide range of stories and social themes on songs including "It's Alright," "The Easy Way," and "Buzzer." Dar also does a cover of "Midnight Radio" from the acclaimed rock musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch, as well as a cover of the Fountains of Wayne song "Troubled Times." Lending support on the album are such renowned artists as Suzanne Vega, Marshall Crenshaw, and Gary Louris (of the Jayhawks).
In the past, Williams’ songwriting has located the personal in such universal topics as politics, religion, sexuality, and family. This time, rather than tie the songs together around any particular theme, Williams presents a collection of disparate stories and characters. She writes about trying to be open to major life change on “It’s Alright,” trying to take the high road in past relationships on “The Easy Way,” the perspective that comes with age on “The Tide Falls Away,” and the Milgram obedience experiment that took place at Yale University in the ’60s on “Buzzer” (“a subject I have been obsessed with since reading about it when I was 18”). However, Williams, a wife and mother of a four-year-old son, did find what she calls “the high seas of parenthood” influencing several of the songs, which she began writing after she finished her second children’s book Lights, Camera, Amalee (published by Scholastic in July 2006).
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