The walls inside the MCA are white, brightly lit. The difference is very stark when you walk in, almost needing sunglasses. Mine have fog, but I can't see through that. I didn't really look around much I just wanted to make it to this thing. Where she plays I believe is the cafeteria. Its just Haley Fohr and her acoustic guitar, only it .......isn't. Her voice is deep. 
I fully intended to post this before the 19th December...that's not happening. But she leaves a heavy imprint live as well as in recording. Over Due is what I bought from Ms Haley at MCA and it is absolutely crazy. I was still in the shock and awe phase when listening to My Name Is Rune, just to name one and then I walked into The Owl. Haley had a full band with drummer and keyboardist. Verma played before and I am happy to say I was on time for that as well. So there is a post on them later. Live performances are very singular moments. If you became familiar with the previous releases like CDY3 and Portrait you can still expect differences in the live performances. There were songs I immediately recognized. Some I did not. With the drummer she sounded like early Dead Can Dance. That was not even in mind during the Empty Bottle gig. This time she reminded me like early DCD! 
Completely unexpected. I believe I was dancing to it even. I was right in front. This is not the kind of dark music that I expect to dance and yet the movements came. Perhaps in submerging myself in it I find the rhythm. That drummer was on fire and it was Haley that soaked him kerosene before lighting him up. When she says "I am a peach", (at least that is what it sounds like) she means the kind that bites you.
Her music is a barely veiled dark engine. I mean this is a fucking animal she casually takes out for a walk. This animal sometimes escapes its tense leash and runs. Most of this impression started out from seeing her and then from listening to the music later.....and then seeing her again at The Owl.
The engine that produced the musician that is CDY starts with components we share with her, when the wonder is gone. There is a lot that is resonant. I sense real frustration, anger, aggression...the lot of those feelings channeled in CDY, and no wonder. When that feeling is done, everything around can look grey and used up. The soundscape is still dark but.....different. It requires a maturity to appreciate. All these feelings packaged as Haley does are not juvenile. I can wildly fucking speculate even more from here.
Haley left for Chicago from Indiana. Specifically Lafayette and Bloomington. Its noteworthy for me because it is still the midwest and still a different world from Chicago. The most I see of Indiana is E C or Munster, sometimes Whiting. Haley brings to Chicago a cultural distinction. Chicago becomes the natural place to go to flourish but a lot of its culture has its origins far from the metropolis. I read her interview for The Reader with Jessica Hopper. There is a lot of her story I found resonant. Someone with otherworldly tremendous depth and old intelligence flexes and tenses with her guitar.....out of boredom. Writing music and perhaps not knowing what will become of it is like trust-falling. You don't know who will catch this if it is to be caught at all. And Haley runs off to move to Chicago's south-side, culturally different from the places she chooses to play. It will be interesting what she creates from this point forward. I speculate about Bloomington and Lafayette, Indiana. I see them places as part of what originated her music. I think here about her interview with Jessica Hopper when she describes the music scene in Lafayette. You see the power in 20 intense fans. It makes you want to be in that 20. It gives the small town its Twin Peaks edge....street cred if you will......great now Haley rolled her eyes. I see in Haley an old sophisticated soul. I don't think she's even 26 and her music sounds over 40. Its not a stretch to see why her music draws all the bearded weirdos from the woodwork.
Zig
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