About a dozen years ago, Stephen Holland was walking down the Old Downieville Highway, and Paul Emery pulled up in his car and asked, “What do you think of doing a show with Leonard Cohen songs?”
“I thought the same thing,” Holland replied.
And so the legend of “1,000 Kisses Deep – The Songs of Leonard Cohen” was born. Nearly two dozen shows later, “1,000 Kisses” returns to the Nevada Theater on Friday and Saturday for the first time since 2019.
“We’re almost always sold out,” said Emery, creator, producer and cast member of 1,000 Kisses Deep. This weekend’s shows were already half sold out, he said.
“It’s the most ambitious project I’ve ever taken on,” he said.
It’s not easy to bring 13 professional musicians together – not only for two live concerts, but also for the intense rehearsals, Anni McCann told Felton Pruitt in a recent interview on KVMR community radio.
McCann is a founding member of the show, but her association with Emery dates back to a tour of Europe with him and the late Tom Schmidt in the finely tuned acoustic group Backwoods Jazz.
“1,000 Kisses is a polished number,” confirmed Holland, well staged, well orchestrated.
“Some people come to every performance,” marveled Emery. “I have never experienced something like that.”
“It’s a devotional experience,” agreed singer and longtime member Eleanor McDonald. “Some people come to every single show.”
The show had the same effect on the cast. Seven of the 13 members have been with 1,000 Kisses from the start.
“I love working with the force,” McDonald said.
Subject to interpretation
Like Bob Dylan, there is no one like Leonard Cohen, Holland said.
Holland noted that Cohen and Dylan were good friends and credited Dylan with the Nobel Prize in Literature, but “Leonard Cohen is the Poet Laureate of songwriting.”
“1,000 Kisses is an interpretive show,” because what else can you do with Cohen’s lyrics? Holland considered. An accomplished guitarist, he is a star soloist in the opening set of the two-act concerto.
The first set is acoustic and consists of soloists and small ensembles, he said. The second set is electric and features the entire band in concert.
OG band member Peter Wilson said: “I’m impressed by the way Leonard Cohen’s music goes into depth. There is a raw honesty that approaches the sacred.”
McCann called Cohen the “master of compassion”.
“His music and lyrics are so infused with love, even in his darkest lyrics,” she said.
“Some people think my interpretation of ‘Hallelujah’ is overdone,” McCann told The Union. But then the opera singer remembered an 80-year-old man who came up to her with tears in his eyes to thank her for her performance. “It is,” she said. “I want to break your heart open.”
Concert-goers can hear classic Cohen songs like “Suzanne”, “Anthem”, “Sisters of Mercy”, “Famous Blue Raincoat”, “Dance Me to the End of Love” and even lesser-known songs like “The Ballad of the Runaway Horse”. , singing McDonald with McCann and Kimberly Bass.
Bass is another founding member of the troupe. She is joined by Kellie Garmire, who is making her debut with the vocal ensemble.
The singers are supported by musical director and bassist Pat Jacobsen, drummer Mark McCartney and cellist Arthur Goud with Perry Mills on guitar, Brady Mills on keyboards and Randy McKean on saxophone.
Although “1,000 Kisses” sold out the 750-seat Crest Theater in Sacramento, Emery believes the Nevada Theater is the perfect home for the show.
“It’s a big show,” Emery sighed in a Jan. 23 interview. He is celebrating his 50th anniversary as a performer and/or concert impresario in the historic building.
“I love the Nevada Theater,” he said. “The venue is your partner.”
“I love the Nevada Theater,” Holland said. “I can walk to the gig.”
Online tickets, while valid, are $25 for general admission and $35 for reserved premium seating. The show starts at 7:30 p.m
You live your life as if it were real, a thousand kisses deep. – Leonard Cohen
On the cover, Paul Emery sings the lead role in a 2019 “1,000 Kisses Deep” performance. He is joined (LR) by show veterans Eleanor MacDonald, Peter Wilson and Kimberly Bass. | Provided by Marion Charlotte {related_content_uuid}ff4638fd-7580-4cce-b073-e9be18ebc452{/related_content_uuid}