Good morning from Montreal, how are you?
I am swimming pools, splash pads, sand pits, garage sales, cherries, sweetcorn, bagels, barbecues, butterflies, bats, fireflies, rabbits, gophers, skunks, squirrels and dinosaurs (remote control), mainly.
Also a wonderful show, where we not only launched our album (again) but JF reunited his high school band and I got to see him in a whole new (drumming!) light. And another wonderful show opening for old friend Jeffrey Lewis (great new album!), where I felt like the parent I always wanted be with Milo first dancing around and eventually falling asleep on my lap at the venue where I’d just performed songs about motherhood.
It’s hard not to think of Leonard Cohen here. Rather than explain how omnipresent he is, I’ll share a letter (ok, an email) I sent my parents during my first ever visit here however many years ago.
This will be followed by various LC-themed video clips which newcomers may find new and old-timers have probably seen 100 times.
Here goes!
Nov 29th 2016
Isn’t it weird how Leonard Cohen died just before I arrived? He was the only person I associated with Montreal until I met JF. It really shaped my introduction to the city. So at the risk of you calling me a groupie, I thought you’d appreciate this round-up (which I will then copy-paste to my journal…)
We went to see Leonard’s house last week, which is as humble and understated as you’d expect. The sidewalk currently is a shrine of flowers, oranges and guitars, half covered in snow. And someone embellished the street sign… see the photo below!
Then we went for breakfast at a café across the street called Bagel Etc, where rumour has it Leonard showed up with his own plate every morning. We also had dinner at The Main last week, the diner he frequented here. A bad illustration of him was pinned to the wall, looking over us as we ate our latkes and smoked meat.
Another morning we ventured up to Westmount and located the house where he grew up, and the bench opposite the tennis courts where he was given guitar lessons by the flamenco musician. Remember from the book? And yesterday JF took me down to the river, literally, where I discovered that ‘Our Lady of the Harbour’ is in fact a statue on top of a little Chapel, from which you can watch the boats go by… when the river isn’t frozen over. Maybe Leonard wasn’t such a great poet, the city just fed him the lines?
I thought of Suzanne again today as I was trawling through the rails of the Salvation Army looking for feathers. I mean jumpers. It’s too cold right now, but when it gets warmer we’re going to climb up the mountain and pay Leonard a visit at the Jewish cemetery.
The tribute is this weekend, we’re singing Famous Blue Raincoat and Tower Of Song...
Ok, think that’s all the Cohen I’ve got!
Sincerely,
L. Arad
2014 - The song I released for Leonard Cohen’s 80th Birthday - which actually mentions Hydra and Greenwich Village - but not Montreal!
2019 - Fumbling the words of ‘Famous Blue Raincoat’ with JF Robitaille and Martha Wainwright:
2022 - Singing ‘Tonight Will Be Fine’ with Ezra Furman outside Leonard’s Montreal house:
2022 - Singing ‘Tower Of Song’ with neighbour/hairdresser Jerry Torres (and stage-bombing Milo…)
Upstaged: Tower Of Song
It all started with a haircut. I was getting my hair cut at Jerry’s salon, two doors down from where we were staying with JF’s family in Montreal. Donovan was singing in the background and I was in good hands.
See you in September!