credit to Rob over @ SOY



Ex-Live frontman kicks off acoustic tour in York

After more than 20 years performing with Live, York native Eddie Kowalczyk is ready for a change of pace.

The alternative rock band split this summer in what's being called a hiatus, though Kowalczyk, 38, admits that right now he has "no future plans for recording or touring with Live."
That's not to say he doesn't have plans; in fact, Kowalczyk has big plans for his upcoming album, his charitable organization and his new tour, Open Wings Broken Strings.
York is the debut city for the all-acoustic show, which opens Oct. 22 at the Strand-Capitol Performing Arts Center and features Kowalczyk, Everclear's Art Alexakis and Sixpence None the Richer's Leigh Nash.
"We were kind of on that same wavelength," Kowalczyk said by phone from his Ojai, Calif., home, "a place where artists who you know in bands could break it down, strip it down like a storyteller's process."

The trio plans to perform separately during the show, but Kowalczyk wouldn't rule out a jam or two, perhaps as an encore.

It's kind of evolving," he said. "I'll be pulling out little gems that we didn't perform much as Live."

As examples, Kowalczyk pointed to "Face and Ghost," from 1999's "The Distance to Here"; "Nobody Knows," from 2001's "V"; and "Get Ready," from 2006's "Songs from Black Mountain." Although not radio-play hits, they are meaningful melodies, "which I feel are some of the best songs I've ever written," he said.

New album:--> Kowalczyk expects to play some cover songs, too, but the highlight for fans could be the promise of music from his new solo album. He spent part of September in a recording studio in Austin, Texas, and plans to release the album in the spring.

In the age of iTunes, I still, as an artist, love to make albums," he said. In 12 tracks, "there's an intro, a catharsis, a big 'a-ha!' at the end."


Acoustic performances have been both grounding and freeing -- a help rather than a hindrance as he focused on putting together material for the album.


There's "a direct energy that I didn't anticipate getting from the shows," Kowalczyk said. "I think it's really important when everything is point-and-click on the Internet and so much distraction, it's so real. You can taste it in the air when it's there."


Online:--> Kowalczyk himself isn't immune to the distraction -- and the benefits -- of the Internet. His site, www.eddieklive.com, is his home base for connecting with fans, sharing reports from the studio and the road, and promoting his charitable organization, Everlasting Arms.


"I want to make it a place that turns around and gives back," he said. For now, visitors are directed to three of Kowalczyk's favorite charities: Doctors Without Borders, the Children's Health Fund and Action Against Hunger.


Beyond the site, he interacts with fans on the ubiquitous Twitter as @eddieklive -- though perhaps not always as often as he means to.

"You get 'twilt' (Twitter guilt) for not following through on things," he admits. "To my Twitter people, we will do more meet and greets and sound checks."

Connecting with fans is one facet of the energy and intimacy that draw him to smaller, acoustic performances, though Kowalczyk is quick to say that packed arenas and screaming crowds have their place in the music scene, too.
Intimacy:--> A smaller setting builds "a rapport that you can't get in a rock show because of the craziness of it all. I feel it's a very special event," he said. "Does it replace rock concerts? No, it's a totally different thing."
Gary Taylor, director of marketing and audience development for the Strand-Capitol, is familiar with the sentiment. He points to recent Strand shows by Bryan Adams and k.d. lang as proof of the popularity of acoustic performances among musicians and fans.
"I think artists who have hit the big arenas have that need to reconnect with the audience," he said. At the 1,200-seat Strand, "the acoustics and the intimacy alone far outweigh a large non-theatrical type of setting that's meant for basketball or something like that, where the sound is going to bounce all over the walls."
Kowalczyk last performed at the Strand with Live in 2004; that show sold out in under two hours, and the band returned in the fall for a York Fair concert. The angry feelings between singer and hometown that marked the '90s have long since faded into nothingness.


"Any time you come back to your hometown, you tend to look back on the evolutions that have taken place," Kowalczyk said. These days, "I love coming back to York."


Open Wings Broken Strings takes the stage at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 22, at the Strand-Capitol Performing Arts Center, 50 N. George St., York.


The acoustic concert features Eddie Kowalczyk of Live, Art Alexakis of Everclear and Leigh Nash of Sixpence None the Richer.


Doors open at 7 p.m. Tickets are $25-$40.


For more information, visit www.strandcapitol.org or call 846-1111.
http://w4.yorkdispatch.com/dispatch/weeken...rticle&sid=6838