so, a while back, a friend of mine kept going on about this guy he had seen as an opening act for imogen heap- he said the guy was fabulous, a one-man band sort of thing, and i would love him.
cut to october, and my friend (jerry) tells me he has made arrangements for the guy to come and perform in visalia, i should totally go, i'd love it. me, i'm thinking that visalia is about 30 miles away and it's a worknight, but if it means that much to him i'll show up if i can. so, i go.
opening act is a couple of local guys, friends of jerry's, not bad at all.
then... levi weaver. i stand there as he goes up, thinking it'll be just another angsty skinny white guy with a guitar- good, but nothing to write home about.
then he starts to play...
*ZAP* i get one of those "killing me softly" sort of moments... first song, opening verse, and WOW... by the end of the first verse i am deeply impressed by the wordcraft, for lack of a better word. by the end of the first chorus i am hooked. "HOW THE FUCK DOES HE KNOW THESE THINGS??? i've never told anybody that..." lyrically articulate, musically capable, pleasant and yet emotionally raw...

levi weaver. remember the name. check his shit out on myspace, i bought both of his e.p.s (self-published, not available in best buy, sorry) and he has a new full-length cd coming out out soonbutnotsoonenough.

*EDIT* new cd "you are never close to home" will be out december 28th!!
pre-order after december 6th from CDbaby.com...

anyway, here's the song that rocked my world:


I struggle to reconcile
these words of hope and freedom
and these minister's convictions
with these verbal mausoleums
battle-scarred emancipations
and holy carpe-diems
the battles and bombshells
i have levied on myself in the form of you
in the form of you

now, how can these all co-exist
the heartbreak for the dying?
when my tries turned to failure
my sighs gave way to crying
now just look at this destruction
good and evil still are fighting
leaving mangled half-hearts in their wake
they take their toll on you in the form of me
in the form of me

well, i've been an agent of the death of love
i've been an angel from above
don't mind the way i feel, please save yourself
and i've derailed your stability
you've given that ability to me
and i can say i've done it well
but we've failed the final challenge love
we're both so out of balance love
let's commit this suicide and save us all.

well my heart will not forgive me for
this unwilling extraction of your
love from its controlling grips
this unpardonable action will wage
civil war between my heart
and mind, the dueling factions
never really got along too well
i'll sell a heart that still belongs to you
in the form of a tune

But even my own heart's eternal
unforgiveness does not measure
in capacity for hurt and in it's
volume of displeasure to the
guilt that i would feel; having
killed you to have kept you. if you
ever had an ounce of trust
believe me when i say you must be free
from this infernal me

well, i've been an agent of the death of love
i've been an angel from above
don't mind the way i feel, please save yourself
and i've derailed your stability
you've given that ability to me
and i can say i've done it well
but we've failed the final challenge love
we're both so in and out of love
let's commit this suicide and save us all.

And oh, I love you still
And I believe that you love me
And oh, I love you still
And I believe that you love me
i believe that you love me...

it's a paradox of such epic
proportions i may never
understand why anyone would ever
bother to endeavor to make
justified the columns of the
right now and what's left forever
underneath the layers of a
heart that's partly me and partly you
i am partly you.

and for that precise equation i must
separate my feelings and our
futures for the sake of you
the sake of your own healing if i
let you be a part of me
my self-destruction peeling back the
layers of your love will take you
down and i will not be that to you
i will not be that to you

well, i've been an agent of the death of love
i've been an angel from above
don't mind the way i feel, please save yourself
and i've derailed your priorities
you've given that ability to me
and i can say i've done it well
but we've failed the final challenge love
we're both so out of balance love
let's commit this suicide and save us all.

yeah, we've failed the final challenge love,
we've been so in and out of love
let's commit this suicide and save us all
let's commit this suicide and save us all
let's commit this suicide and save us all...

(good medicine)