The future with eTown Hall…and the present, with this week’s show:

By Helen ~ January 17, 2012

eTown heads east to join Moby and Suzanne Vega in Baltimore for a special broadcast from the incredibly beautiful Hippodrome Theater. It’s another “eTown on the road” show (and you know how I love going on the road, I guess that’s the wanderlust side of me; otherwise those who know me well know I honestly most prefer staying at home – unless it’s going to Italy or Denmark, loved that!!).

I digress. Let me tell you a little about our musical guests this week:

If you’ve been living under a rock you may not have heard of Moby. But I suspect you have, even if you’re not fully aware of it. What do I mean by that? Well, basically his music has been everywhere for the past decade – on commercial radio, in movie soundtracks and commercials, on TV, in live performances, you name it, his sound is super recognizable and has probably crossed your eardrums. Moby has sold well over 20,000,000 record copies of his music worldwide. Impressive. He’s also socially/environmentally aware, really smart and a very sweet and likeable guy. (Geez, I sound like the head of his fan club or something! But I really mean it, he’s very, down-to-earth). Turns out he’s funny, too (listen to Nick’s conversation with him this show and you’ll get what I mean).

Musically, here’s what’s interesting about this particular eTown: This is one of those times that Moby pares things down; we’re so used to the electronic music mode, the lush effects, looping, enhancements etc. as the norm with him). But here he does a rare acoustic set. Plus he brings two great singers and a fiddle player too, so you’ll hear familiar songs done in a fresh and different way.

Suzanne Vega also is one of those performers you know, even though you may think you don’t. For those few of you who are suggesting the latter, let me mention the song “Luka” alone, (“My name is Luka/I live on the second floor”) I mean, c’mon you KNOW her work! This is Suzanne’s third visit to eTown (I know she says 2nd in the video below, but its actually #3). This time she takes the eTown stage with her good friend and guitarist Gerry Leonard. Suzanne continues to write great songs and perform around the world to rave reviews. Always great to have her with us. She is SO incredibly good. Another one of those artists who is really brilliant. Also very smart. And creative. And talented. And pretty. (OK, I’ll stop.)

We’ve also got a great E-Chievement Award story this week, live and on stage with us, a man helping the homeless and other low income people in his area in a very unique way. I’m excited about this show. I really hope you’ll join us.

So, as I mentioned last week, we reached our end-of-year targeted goal in fundraising toward operational support. That goal was to match the grant we received (submitted by a loyal and generous supporter from the Northwest). Thanks so, so much to all of you who donated!

Now, “the little non-profit that could” – eTown – turns its collective attention to completing the capital campaign for the building that is fast turning into eTown Hall. eTown has already raised a great deal of the necessary funds, but we’ve still got a ways to go. It’s been quite the effort. Our tiny little 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization and its small band of hard working staff not only produces the live show, it also post-produces and distributes the weekly broadcast itself and performs a thousand other collective tasks related to either the show or to the mission. To have these additional responsibilities – raising the money for building eTown Hall and supervising its progress – is a huge, huge job. But we’re getting it done.

The primary purpose of the building, as many of you already know, is of course to create and distribute “food for thought” content and to provide a permanent home for eTown – offices, performing space and production capability – with that purpose in mind. We aim to also make eTown Hall a place of dialogue and discussion, delivered with respect and cooperation. Beyond eTown tapings, our aim is to make this a national center for great minds and thinkers, where great music will be made and where opinions and viewpoints and ideas will be shared, then made into a variety of content to send out to the world.

It’ll also be a much needed local downtown community and cultural oriented place, where numerous arts groups and non-profits will be able to use the facility, neighborhood meetings can take place, lecture series and movies can be enjoyed, master classes with some of eTown’s visiting artists can occur, and so much more (I mean, it IS an old church; we’ve already gotten some inquiries about weddings!). In short, it’ll be a place where, both nationally and locally, we offer a greater expanse of opportunities and options for ways people can gather to “be informed, be inspired, be involved.”

It’s exciting to be sure. Construction continues hot and heavy; but there’s a tremendous amount of work still to be done. We’ve raised closed to 80%, but we still have a ways to go (this is to cover the original budget plus some recently discovered construction needs that will add to the final cost – ah, the joys of recycling an old and broken down building!).

So that’s what we’re working on now, in the midst of gearing up for our 2012 taping season. Lots to do. And it’s happening!

Best to you, enjoy the videos of this week’s broadcast/podcast and also of eTown Hall below.

Helen