I'm looking forward to performing a solo set at Steubenville, Ohio's First Friday on September 5! The downtown event is rain or shine, outside (see picture) if we get good weather. Music starts at 6 p.m. I'll share my set time, and details about which stage I'll be on, in the coming weeks.

In other news, the excellent French blog Piggledypop wrote a lovely, and thorough, The Chairman Dances retrospective (in French!).

https://marieagneshalle.blogspot.com/2025/07/chairman-dances.html

Most of my bandmates are included, as is our videographer/economist friend J. Randolph Brown.


Show poster for the band The Chairman Dances' performance at West Philly Porchfest 2025

Ho! The Chairman Dances returns to West Philly Porchfest May 31! We go on at 4 p.m. at 4837 Hazel Ave.

Additionally, this Sunday (May 18), I'll play two Chairman songs, and my version of "What Wondrous Love Is This", at St. Mary's (40th & Locust) as part of their bicentennial celebrations. Service starts at 11 a.m.

Album Out Today

A photo of the band The Chairman Dances. They're wearing collared shirts and a dress. They're in a nature preserve; they're smiling, looking happy.

Our album, Evening Song, is out today! We'd be thrilled if you took a listen.

Evening Song is the story of two people intoxicated with each other. Maggie and Chris have recently met, just started dating. Each sees the other as both impossibly attractive and illegible. They want to spend all of their time together, and they spend a good deal of it that way. They talk. A lot. Maggie tells Chris her life story and Chris reciprocates. She leans. They kiss.

For local-ish people, our release show will happen 11/2 at Ortlieb’s with friends Spelling Reform and Goodnight Lights! A ticket link is here.

A million thanks for caring about what we do!

xo

New Single + Release Show

*New song alert* “Hadn’t Tried” is out today! Exceedingly hip, with thunderous drums and a choir of Ashley, you *will* love this song. It’s an all-time favorite of ours (and of Daniel Smith, who recorded and mixed it).

The new album, Evening Song, is out 10/11! You can pre-order it now.

Also, you can see us live, at our Philly release show, 11/2 at Ortlieb's! Also performing are friends Goodnight Lights and Spelling Reform. Snag tickets here.

[Show poster by moi (me). That's a double popsicle.]

New song, New album forthcoming

We're thrilled to share our single "We Rifled Through" today!

The song is part of a new album, Evening Song, which you can pre-order via Bandcamp. It's a very fun and prepossessing album. The text is from the narrative poem I've shared a bit from, about a seminarian (Maggie) and a drummer (Chris).

Additionally, you can see us live! 

9/6 - Mike's Tavern, Reading, PA - with And You, Brutus?

11/2 - Ortlieb's, Philadelphia, PA - Release show with Spelling Reform and Goodnight Lights

Sealed the deal! We'll perform in Reading, PA, at the legendary Mike's Tavern, on Sept. 6th! Joining us will be our dear friends And You, Brutus?. Music starts with us at 8 p.m. Getting there a smidge early for a seat is probably wise. There's no cover. Knock and the door will be opened to you.

Shows aside, our song "Everything Slant" was recently up for a Delaware Public Media award! That’s a nice thing.

Ekstasis published a chapter of my narrative poem, Evening Song!

To see it formatted correctly (the line breaks are meaningful!) flip your phone on its side, or read on a computer.

I’m wildly proud of this chapter and of the larger poem. After finishing the work, I set it to music (i.e., made songs out of it). In this specific chapter, Maggie explains how she turned out to be a religious person in a time and place where that is a fairly strange thing.

For people who love poetry: yes, this is in blank verse. For those partial to prose: you can read this like any other piece of writing—one of the appealing aspects of narrative poetry. The lines are there, though, should they catch your eye.

I read some excellent books this year. I thought I’d share thoughts on just a few of them.

Aeschylus’ Oresteia, translated by Robert Fagles

There’s an interview with Fagles where he talks about studying Pope’s Iliad, being taught it was more than just an ad hoc translation; it was its own great, lasting work.

Fagles translation of the Oresteia easily fits that description. He was an incredible poet.

The Goodbye-Love Generation / Kori Frazier Morgan

I knew my friend Kori’s book would be good. It’s the best novel I read this year.

It follows the people of Kent, Ohio, from just before the era-defining KSU shooting to the present. There are many brilliant aspects of the book, one of which is that the shooting is not its focus. The people of Kent (those alive at the time and those born since) are the focus, and this elucidates the shooting in a way a history of the event itself could not.

Kill 'Em and Leave: Searching for James Brown and the American Soul / James McBride

Part bio of the greatest entertainer and creator of funk, part history of the poor southern communities that raised him, and part biography of its author (McBride agreed to write the book, pitched by a huckster, after his wife left him and took their money with her. McBride needed the cash.)--this book should not work. And yet.

Finally, I’m reading some Ted Hughes and came across his poem “Childbirth”. There are interesting parallels between birth, as it’s described by Hughes, and the moment of Jesus’ death in Matthew’s gospel.

When, on the bearing mother, death's

Door opened its furious inch,

Instant of struggling and blood,

The commonplace became so strange

There was not looking at table or chair:

Miracle struck out the brain

Of order and ordinary: bare

Onto the heart the earth dropped then

With whirling quarters, the axle cracked,

Through that miracle-breached bed

All the dead could have got back;

...

Highlighting our song "Margaret" today, which tells the story of a very cool and unflappable single mom-to-be who throws her own baby shower.

To explain my compositional process, I wanted my guitar and harpsichord parts to be reminiscent of the classical era. That is to say, I wanted elegant, graceful voice leading for this elegant, graceful Margaret character I stumbled on. The lines my bandmates added, which I love (some of my favorite playing by Will, Dan and Mike), reminded me of 50s ballads, and that, in turn, prompted me to write the antiphonal backing vocals that Ashley sings so well. (For you lovers of Greek lit, the backing vocals are supposed to act as the chorus) My bandmates' parts also prompted me to switch to electric guitar, which enabled me to dial in the early rock n' roll tremolo. Previously, I played this one on a cheap classical acoustic guitar.