Greg Laswell - How The Day Sounds

Mike and I went to another concert during our Sundance festivities all those years ago. I'll save the story about my connection to the concert for another post, but through other musicians, we stood front and center (and made loads of people mad seeing as Mike is 6'7" and I'm 6'1") for the Hotel Cafe Tour at Celsius Lounge (now permanently closed) in Park City.

Concerts are a lot of fun for me. I spend about 70% of the time listening to the music, 20% of the time listening to the people behind me gripe about how they can't see over my tall head, 8% of the time thinking of witty comebacks, and the remaining 2% talking myself out of the witty comebacks. But the music was so loud, for such a small venue, that I didn't hear the griping and complaining. Maybe I was just too star struck to notice anything but these amazing musicians on stage.

He wasn't on the posters, I didn't see his name anywhere on all of the e-mails going around about the concert, and I'd never heard of him until that night. But let me tell you, the minute I heard Greg Laswell speak before playing his first song of the night (because he prefaced it by telling us that he said a swear word in it and we were in Utah and he didn't want to really offend people) I knew I was going to like this guy. He was funny and seemed REALLY passionate about his music. He told us the story behind the song, about how it was about his grandma and a dream in which she appeared to him. He sat down to the piano and I was done for. ("Wow, Dori, you seem to fall for a lot of musicians." YES, I DO! THEY'RE A BIGGER WEAKNESS THAN CHEESECAKE. DON'T JUDGE ME ;) )

Towards the end of his set, Greg told the crowd that if they bought him a drink, he'd give them a copy of his CD. He finished his set, exited the mini stage, and the next acts performed.

Mike left me for a little bit to visit the little boys room and when he returned, he presented me with a copy of Greg's CD. He told me a funny story about how he had this smart idea to buy Greg a water and see if that'd get him a CD. Greg didn't think it was a smart idea, nor did he think it was as funny as Mike and I did. But before Mike walked away, Greg asked him if he was with "that tall girl up front" (I distinctly remember dropping my jaw when Mike told me that). When Mike said that he was, Greg asked him to give me a copy of the CD. I nearly died. I wanted to thank Greg, properly, for the CD, but could not locate him through the rest of the night.

After about 3 hours of music (over 50 bands in 3 nights of concerts...this was just night one of two that I attended) and a surprise appearance from Mandy Moore, who sang songs from her new album and did her first concert in nearly 5 years for us, Mike and I decided to brave the frigid Park City, Utah, temperatures and hike it back to our car. As we started to make our way to the stairs, Mike was ahead of me and didn't notice when a hand suddenly appeared and pulled me through the door to the men's bathroom. Thankfully he looked back and noticed I was gone. Thankfully he checked the men's bathroom and found me being held captive by Mr. Laswell.

Okay, I wasn't being held captive. Just held captivated. I had my opportunity to thank Greg for the CD, we talked about music, how I knew about the show, musician friends we had in common, a former relationship he'd been in with an LDS girl, and he recited some of the Book of Mormon for us. We got on the religion topic when Greg asked if we wanted to meet up later for drinks. When we declined he put two and two together that we, non-drinkers in Utah, were Mormon. He asked if we had plans to come up for more shows, and even invited me to be a special guest at his ASCAP concert the following week, due to some music he had in a film in the festival. I didn't think I'd be able to take work off, but assured him I'd be back for the Saturday concerts. We exchanged e-mail addresses, took some pictures (of which I am more than horribly embarrassed of...back when I had this ugly short hair cut, braces, and had let a girl at work do my eye make-up...I think she secretly disliked me and wanted me to look horrible), and I started counting down the minutes to when I'd be back in Park City again.

A few months later, Greg and I were e-mailing and he asked how my husband was. When I told him that we were only casually dating at that time and were no longer together, he got a good laugh and said that we looked like the picture perfect Mormon couple. Too funny.

I've never fallen out of love with Greg Laswell and his music, and believe me, there were musicians there that night that I no longer love...bleh. The continued love is probably because he continues to create such awesome music! His cover of Kate Bush's "This Woman's Work" is awesome, his clown appearance in Ingrid Michaelson's "The Way I Am" is adorable, and if you've ever watched Grey's Anatomy, True Blood, Castle, 90210, Army Wives, Dollhouse, or Confessions of a Shopaholic, you've most likely heard his music on an episode or soundtrack.

Give him a try. You just might love him, too.

Watch, listen, and love!