2011 by Plenty Near

so!
it’s been a little while.
i’ve carried these songs with me
since 2011.

they’ve swollen
into quite a bit of baggage.
and i restitched them
when they broke under the weight
of their contents,
which grew and grew in meaning
with advancing age.

on several occasions
i bucked up the courage to record,
or rather, courage bucked me.

these spurts of recording ended
because of my inability to share
imperfect work.
chalk it up to fear.

but i’m coming to appreciate imperfections -
i’d go as far as to say
that it is the stuff of meaning altogether -
and this iteration of this song cycle
was recorded in live sessions
in order to court imperfections
and pay respect to the person i am right now,
or the person i was at the time of recording,
and the person i have been as i’ve carried these songs
over seven or so years,
and the person i was when i first wrote them
in 2011.


i must thank joey shaw,
who is an extraordinary friend
and a generous collaborator.
without his contributions
to these arrangements
and his thoughtful musicianship,
i would not have the confidence
to share at all.
we were first friends in 2011.

and thanks to kaitlin
for everything.
2011 was our first year together.



-spencer

hey there!
i am collecting this music under the project name "plenty near"

i like that it's kind of a noun describing a sort of location.

but it's also an adjectival phrase used to bring far away things a bit closer and push too close things a bit farther away.

i am from seattle but live in new york city.