NEeMA on tour in US

[jarkko]

Cover for NEeMA's album "Watching You Think" was created by Leonard, and he also was a co-producer of the album.
More about the album here: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=21845&p=252752&hilit=neema#p252752

NEeMA will be touring in US during the next weeks. Here is the tour schedule:

10/10   Brooklyn, NY @ Rock Shop
10/12   Portland, ME @ One Longfellow Square
10/13   Providence, RI @ /NE Film Alliance Event 
10/14   Shelbourne Falls, MA @ Mocha Maya 
10/15   Boston, MA @ The Red Room @ Café 939 w/very special guest Liz Longley
10/23   LA, CA @ Hotel Cafe - Neema with full band
10/25   Arlington, VA @ IOTA Club & Café
10/27   Charlottesville, VA @ Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar
10/28   Philadelphia, PA @ The Tin Angel w/very special guests Rebecca Loebe & Raina Rose
10/30   Alden, ME @ The Nightcat
11/01  Pittsburgh, PA@ Thunderbird Café
11/03   Kent, OH @ The Kent Stage
11/04   Oberlin, OH @ Cat’s in the Cream Coffeehouse/Oberlin College
11/05   Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Tavern
11/08   Des Moines, IA @ Java Joe’s 4th Street Theatre
11/09   Zumbrota, MN @ Crossings at Carnegie
11/10   Minneapolis, MN @ Dakota
11/13   Milwaukee, WI @ Cactus Club
11/14   Evanston, IL @ SPACE
11/16   Louisville, KY @ Ear X-tacy 
11/19  Woodstock, NY -  Bearsville theatre
11/30   Bellingham, WA @ Green Frog Café & Acoustic Tavern
12/02   Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios
11/20 New York, NY @ The Living Room
11/30 Bellingham, WA @ Green Frog Café & Acoustic Tavern
12/02 Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios
12/03 Eugene, OR @ Diablo's Downtown Lounge
12/04 Seattle, WA @ The Vera Project
12/08 San Francisco, CA @ DuNord
12/09 Fenton, CA @ Don Quixote's International Music Hall
12/10 Los Angeles, CA @ Mc Cabe's


Tickets will be available at the door for all the shows listed on the attached.

NEeMA will be a special guest on tour supporting The Chapin Sisters.

Her website is at http://www.neema.ca


Photo by Lorca Cohen

[brightnow]

Thanks for posting this Jarkko, I would have missed the opportunity to see NEeMA perform so close to home if it wasn't for you!

[jarkko]

Here is the tour poster (thanks to Elliott at AEG Golden Voice for the link!)
New December dates to be announced soon.

[bridger15]

Thanks, Jarkko. I missed this thread totally when I had to fly up to Toronto for a funeral and was away for a week.
After I saw the tour bill you posted, I ordered a ticket for NEeMA's show this Saturday.

I don't even have to program my GPS. It is at the same place where I went to see the Webb Sisters twice, Hotel Cafe in Los Angeles. Actually, I think I know the way by now. Nah, better use the GPS, not taking any chances driving alone at night in LA.

---Arlene

[brightnow]

NEeMA's performance tonight was absolutely beautiful, and the first thing she asked when she found out that we were Leonard Cohen fans was "do you know Arlene?"

[bridger15]

NEeMA's performance tonight was absolutely beautiful, and the first thing she asked when she found out that we were Leonard Cohen fans was "do you know Arlene?"

Oh Avi. You are so sweet. I hope you gave her a good report about me.
I am still working on my own report about her gig here last Saturday night. "Real life" keeps interfering with my time. I have photos and videos to process.

I agree with you totally - her performance was beautiful and powerful. An enchanting set. I encourage everyone who can, to go see her perform.

---Arlene

[bridger15]

Hotel Cafe, Los Angeles, Ocober 23, 2010



NEeMA is enchanting, authentic and girlish and oh, so very talented.
She is a wonderful poet describing the subtleties of life, love and spirituality.
She spoke about her dog with great affection and related several delightful stories. (one at beginning of clip below)
She has a Business degree, and once took a position as Manager of the small aboriginal community of Wekweeti in the isolated Far North of Canada.
She draws from that experience in her wonderful songs.
NEeMA is a vibrant performer with a powerful stage presence.

If she comes to your area, I encourage everyone to go see her perform.

I have several videos (for which I asked permission). I chose this one to post because it resonated with me. Not only because I also live in LA but because of her words:

........................................­......
From the lyrics
........................................­......
there are no easy answers
only countless shades of grey
we grab unto illusions
i heard you say
exploiting everything we find
in the hopes of finding more
forgetting what we
initially came for
from mulholland drive to skid row
some kind of mirror to our world
at least that's what i heard you say
we're all lost in la

*Lost In L.A."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzqjxXpzD6U


Arlene, NEeMA

Special thanks to Phyllis & Robert Kory and Elliott Lefko for including me at their table


Phyllis & Robert Kory


Robert Kory, Arlene, Elliott Lefko (AEG North America)


Front cover of CD with NEeMA's autograph, "with love and blessings"


Back cover of CD -NEeMA's beloved dog
.....................................................................................................
Photos of NEeMA wearing her LC bracelet are on the LC Bracelet thread:
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=23345&start=15#p254522
....................................................................................................

---Arlene

[bridger15]

Is anybody in the Ohio area going to see NEeMA perform?

11/03 Kent, OH @ The Kent Stage
11/04 Oberlin, OH @ Cat’s in the Cream Coffeehouse/Oberlin College
11/05 Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Tavern

I highly recommend NEeMA's gigs. I have been playing her new CD in my car for days. Her poetry is wonderful.

A sample of her lyrics which get to me every time I hear them:

(from: unspoken)
some things are better left unspoken
better left unsaid
some chains are better left unbroken
just to keep the thread

some things are better left unspoken
better left unsaid
some feelings better left unopened
to keep a sane head

some things are better left unspoken
better left unsaid
some stories better left unwritten
...

---Arlene

[brightnow]

...Yes, what Arlene said!

The music is fabulous, would be great to hear from more people who've gone out to see NEeMA.

[Evie B]

Well, I expect I will get a verbal smack in the eye for this but I just don't understand what the fuss is about, there doesn't seem to be anything special about her. Her poetry and music is uninspiring, nothing awful, just ordinary. Leonard likes a pretty face though and I expect he has enjoyed any time he spent with her, but really? Yawn.

She reminds me of Anjani, not really sure why. I struggle to listen to Anjani's voice, to me it is like wading through treacle. I find her voice good in the background, but up front just too much. Nothing personal, Leonard obviously finds her very special so she must be a lovely lady.

Evie B

[brightnow]

Well, can't leave that one unanswered...

NEeMA's music is beautiful, her voice is genuine and sincere. Beyond the fact that you will be hard-pressed to find an equal performance for $12, I find myself drawn to her intense and highly cerebral lyrics. She sings about life in clear, simple, sometimes naive terms. She speaks plainly of her feelings, her fear, our fears. For one human being to share their fears with another so openly is comforting and refreshing.

She even has a song titled "jealousy" that some may be able to relate to.

[Mabeanie1]

There really is no right or wrong on this. It's all a matter of personal taste and opinion. Evie can't see what all the fuss is about; Brightnow thinks her music is beautiful. Both views are fine.

Personally I love both Anjani's and NEeMA's CDs. Not because of their connection to Leonard but because it is my sort of music. On the other hand Dino's solo stuff leaves me cold and the Webb Sisters' CD makes me want to go out and strangle someone. I was jumped on earlier in the year when I said that the Webbs' music wasn't for me but we are all entitled to our views. We do not have to like someone's music Just because they play with Leonard or have any other connection with him. Good on you Evie for having the courage to speak out against trend.

Wendy

[Evie B]

When I have listened to Leonard's gentle response to the people who have criticised his music in the past, i.e. that if he hasn't got something good to say about a performer he usually keeps it to himself rather than be hurtful, I tend to feel guilty about voicing opinions such as I have.

I often think I would probably like Anjani's voice more if I heard her live and wonder if it is the way it is recorded, it seems so manufactured and layered.

Like you say, Mabeanie1, it is just personal taste, some sounds we like, some we don't.

Evie B

[bridger15]

When I have listened to Leonard's gentle response to the people who have criticised his music in the past, i.e. that if he hasn't got something good to say about a performer he usually keeps it to himself rather than be hurtful...

Amen

Private exchange is is one thing and in public is another.

---Arlene

[Evie B]

Do you mean, Arlene, that you think this public forum is not the place to air such preferences, and that it should only be done in private?

I am in two minds on this one, the more I think about it. If artists publicly perform, might it not be acceptable to equally publically comment on their performance? We comment on actor's and actresses' performances in films, a similar public type of performance. Artists hang their paintings in galleries and might reasonably expect to attract comment on their works of art, good or bad or indifferent. Professional critics live by their comments, though we might not always agree with them.

You could say that if we don't like any of this work we should just walk on by and only pass open comment if we have something 'nice' to say, that would certainly be the most charitable and maybe you are right.

Evie B