Lesh and Donato 6.12.26
What a strange day.
It began the way good days often do: a motorcycle ride, coffee, and a book. I have a little spot outside Bread Alone where I like to sit and watch Woodstock pass by. Every town has its parade. Ours just happens to feature musicians, dogs, aging hippies, tourists looking for the field where Woodstock supposedly happened, and people who seem to have misplaced both time and purpose.
While sitting there, I met a father and son riding motorcycles across America. The father was riding my first motorcycle: a 1987 Suzuki GSX-R 750. Not the most comfortable ride but loud and raw. A true classic.
I bought one just like it from some random guy in the East Village in 2002. There was nothing legal about that motorcycle. Not the registration. Not the insurance situation. Definitely not the license plate. It was the sort of transaction parents spend years teaching their children not to make.
Still, it served me well.
My first date with my wife was on that bike. We rode across the Williamsburg Bridge and parked by the waterfront in Brooklyn. We sat there watching the East River roll by, watching Manhattan light up for the evening, neither of us knowing what was coming next. Funny how some of the biggest moments in your life don't announce themselves at the time.
A few months later, I crashed it on the Houston Street near the Bowery. A car cut me off. I hit the pavement. Concussed. Knees shredded. I picked the bike up and tried to start it. Every time I hit the ignition, oil shot out of the engine and onto the street. It looked like a wounded animal bleeding out in public.
I didn't have a motorcycle license. I didn't have much of a plan, either.
So I pushed it up the Bowery, found an empty lot where a luxury apartment building now stands, full of millennials and NYU students, parked it, and walked away.
I never went back.
So it goes.
Then came Bearsville.
Some of my favorite records were born next door at Utopia Studios. If you pay attention, you can still feel that history hanging around the place.
Night two of Graham Lesh and Daniel Donato.
I've had the privilege of photographing some remarkable collaborations, but this one had me excited from the moment it was announced. Last night felt like musicians introducing themselves to an idea. Tonight felt like they fully trusted it.
The nerves were gone. The trust was there. The songs stretched out and they nailed it.
Can’t wait for night 3.