Last weekend I got to sit in on a rehearsal of Darren Johnston’s new project Songs From Seven Miles. For the song cycle Darren interviewed eight immigrants from Peru, South Korea, Burma, Russia, Mexico, Bulgaria and Egypt who now all live in San Francisco. He then wrote a libretto entirely from direct quotes from these interviews. The songs bear the names of the interviewees. The song in this video is Carlos. Carlos is from Peru.
Darren is premiering Songs From Seven Miles at the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival on July 29, 2012 with vocalists Tiffany Austin, Briget Boyle and Ruben Fonseca and his band featuring Ben Goldberg, Sheldon Brown, David Ewell and Hamir Atwal.
Check it out.