Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen) | Matt Curlee-Room4One Mandy Elliot, vocals Matt Curlee, Fender Rhodes, Piano, Drums Recorded, Produced, and Mixed by Matt Curlee for Third Strand Music, Rochester, NY Hi everyone - Matt here. I'm excited to tell you that I'm dreaming a new record right now, featuring a series of new works and a few re-imagined old ones, where each track will be a collaboration with a different musician or small group of musicians. It sounds cliche, but as an artist, I think I've often come up empty in the search for my own voice amongst all of the music in which I was involved...maybe I've just been too afraid to have one, or to actually hear what I sounded like. As I sit here (with my trusted companions, Lucy the '73 Fender Rhodes Suitcase 88 and Agnes, the '74 Stage 73) improvising the raw materials of this project, I feel as if, just maybe, I might be gaining that courage...I hope so. Soon, other companions will be joining me here in the studio, and something will start to happen. I hope you'll join me in the journey of finding out exactly what that will be. I'll be releasing web extras and advance mixes along the way - you can also visit mattcurlee.com to hear a clip of "However Broken," a track featuring new material built on the bones of an old recording session with Ike Sturm and Ted Poor. This version of "Hallelujah" arose from the tragic events of last month in Colorado and Wisconsin. I'm a generally optimistic person when it comes to the fate of humankind; I often feel like I see us evolving, shedding our aggression in favor of what unifies us. The news, in the wake of fallen innocents, that organized hate is actually on the rise is staggering to me...I guess I've chosen to be naive about things that don't match my dreams for us as citizens of the world. This cover was something I had conceived for Only Now, and something I took up almost instinctively as a resting place for my emotion over these. It ended up being more a meditation on the original (really more on Jeff Buckley's rendition) than a freestanding version of its own, with only strands of the lyric floating over a fluid texture, abandoning the storytelling aspect in this case for the kind of waves of emotion that accompany reflection on tragedy. I'm happy to announce that all proceeds from the sale of this single will be donated to our Sikh friends in Wisconsin who lost so much last month.