That Would Be Me (dot net)

Ah, that someone might write me such a song.

I have a friend, I’ve only known him a few years but we seem to have a history or connection that is centuries old.  I’ve written about him before, in my trifle on the theory of six degrees of separation.  I know him to be an actor, it’s how he makes his living, and, although he hasn’t hit as big as he hopes (he seems to end up cut out of more films than seems quite reasonable - I’ve suggested he stitch together all these cut scenes and post them on YouTube - “The Unkindest Cut” sort of thing), he lives well.  I’ve seen evidence that he is probably a wonderful director, both theatrically and cinematically, and suspect when he pursues that he will have a career on the heals of Jarmusch or even the Coens. I’ve read some of his writing.  It is compelling and odd.

He recently posted some of his music on-line.  I knew he sang, he’d told me as much, but I had no idea.  The breadth of his talent just keeps getting broader and broader.  I wonder what next incarnation he will thrust upon the unsuspecting world.

His influences seem to be all my favorite people, Laurie Anderson, Joni Mitchell, Tom Waits, The Beatles, Jacques Brel, Leonard Cohen and more.  His poetry is surprising, his music is refreshing and his voice is easy and rough with an edge that compels you to listen completely.  I had no idea. Where has this facet been hiding?

With the variety of songs he just posted, it seems probable he’s been recording them for some time.  Why have they been hidden?  Does he know how good they are?  He is?  Has he just recorded them to get them out of his head, then moved on, not thinking about them or how they might affect a listener somewhere in some small, provincial town yearning for the romance of SoHo cafés of a previous decade?  Has he not attempted a recording contract?  If so what idiot could have rejected them?  Him?  I had no idea.  I want the CD.  CDs.  All of them.  I want him in my collection, sitting on the shelf right next to Joni Mitchell and Simon and Garfunkle and Zoe Lewis.

So far, he has posted six songs.  Of these, my favorite is “A Little Less”, a heart-wrenching song written to a long time lover vainly attempting to analyze and explain his love that seems almost painful in its intensity but incomprehensible in its changing aspect.  Would that someone might write me such a song or loved me so well.  I also very much like “Crazy Hannah”, a Jacques Brel-esque portrait of a sad homeless woman, one like many we have all seen and from whom we have averted our eyes.  “Mouth of a Lion” – Laurie Anderson in male drag – seems to be about a gay wedding, but probably is not.  It’s dark and fun.  “When Harpo Blows the Blues” deserves its place in the pantheon of the best of folk-rock-blues songs.

He deserves a listen.  He deserves some notice.

Oh.  His name is Ezra Buzzington.  Of all things.

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Geoff Hoff is co-author of the best selling satirical novel Weeping Willow: Welcome to River Bend