Don Everett Pearce: News/Blog

A few months ago I got caught up in the mystery of the diner that inspired the iconic Edward Hopper painting Nighthawks. Did it exist? If so, where exactly was it? Was the building demolished or was it still standing?

I’ve finished 4 new songs, which I plan to post here for free download as soon as I get a chance to record some good, solid demos.

It’ll probably take at least a few more weeks as I’m still getting to know the new songs and finding out exactly which keys and tempos they want to be in.

The other night when I was in the mood to listen to something live, I turned to two of the most enjoyable live recordings I’ve ever heard in any style of music; Donny Hathaway Live (1972) and Junior Wells Live at Theresa’s 1975 (rec: 1975, rel: 2006).

Willie "the Lion" Smith (ballpoint pen), after a photo by Jeff Albertson

“They” say that the famous, legendary, iconic (and oddly triangular) diner seen in Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks painting was a real-life restaurant that existed on the corner of Greenwich Avenue & 7^th Avenue in New York City in the 1940s. It turns out that “they” are most likely mistaken and that this widely-held belief may be little more than an urban legend.

Last night I took out an old favorite; Bob Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde. It’s a glorious, unrefined, masterful, poetic mess of an album. I’ve been in love with this record since about 5 years after I first bought it as a double LP. At age 19, I just wasn’t ready for it and it took me a few years to warm up to it. At first it struck me as too ramshackle and shrill. It sounded like out-of-tune circus rock with a drunken brass section. His singing on this record has an absurdly comic swagger, with those long, lazy vowel sounds in the phrasing that still stand as the classic Dylan caricature.

All of these reasons why I didn’t like it then are all the same reasons why I love it now.