Club Cafe, Pittsburgh PA

March 15, 2004 at 3:44 pm

Kyler is my hero. On last Thursday’s drive to Pittsburgh she carefully studied seven of my songs, nuance by nuance, word by word, and had them ready to sing by the time we arrived at Club Cafe. It was fascinating to hear another singer learn my music—some lyrics are harder to remember than others, some phrasings that are natural to me but counterintuitive to someone else. “It’s such great practice to do this!” Kyler said to me. “You write so differently…it uses parts of my voice and my brain that I haven’t used for so long.” I nodded, that being the only response I could make at the time.

The Club Cafe staff welcomed us, sympathetic to my little crisis, and started a steady stream of teapots going into the green room. The man at the door warned people that I’d lost my voice, and still the place filled up. “It’s looking good out there,” reported Marika, whom we’d designated emcee for the evening. “People seem to want to hear whatever it is we’re going to do.”

Chicago had been kind; would Pittsburgh? We took the stage, and Marika stepped forward to the front mic. “Hi everyone, thanks for coming tonight. My name is Vienna Teng…” The laughs were encouraging. “As many of you know, Vienna has lost her voice, as the result of many months of relentless touring over this past year.”

We opened with an instrumental jam of Hope On Fire, with Alan and me trading the melody, and then Kyler took center stage. All through The Tower, Feather Moon, Harbor and Gravity she sang beautifully, and you never would have known she’d learned the music three hours before. She was getting cheers by the time she walked offstage for our second instrumental. My Medea and Anna Rose went reasonably well, though I grit my teeth at hearing myself produce a Muzak version of my own songs. There is no such thing as dignified pop piano music, I’m telling you. Or if there is, I can’t play it.

Kyler came back for Lullabye For A Stormy Night, in which my scrawly handwriting failed her on the lyrics and she valiantly emoted through half a verse. (“Little child, be not afraid, hmnmrmrma…”) But then came her shining moment: singing with Alan on Homecoming. See, I wrote the line “I was born in North Carolina” as fiction, but Kyler can sing it in full honesty. She does it better than I do. The crowd seemed to agree.

We closed with Soon Love Soon—the first time I’ve heard it performed, without participating. And then, a standing ovation. My goodness. Thank you, Kyler. Thank you, Pittsburgh.

***
Kyler and Alan practice Homecoming in the car:
[ mp3 (30 sec, 362 KB) ]