Thu, May 23
|Collected Works Bookstore & Coffeehouse
David Berkeley, 140 Goats and a Guitar: The Stories Behind Some Kind of Cure
An evening of "musical poetry" - A Concert and Reading. David Berkeley’s gift as a songwriter and storyteller is that he sees the tragedy and comedy in life, writing songs capable of both breaking and healing the heart.
Date, Time & Location
May 23, 2024, 6:00 PM MDT
Collected Works Bookstore & Coffeehouse, 202 Galisteo St, Santa Fe, NM 87501, USA
About the Event
This will be an in-store event and will be livestreamed to Zoom. Register to watch on Zoom here.
Purchase 140 Goats and a Guitar from CW - call the store to order (505) 988-4226.
Singer-songwriter David Berkeley is a romantic realist, known for his ability to look at the human condition in all its complexity and give us luminous songs full of sunshine and anguish, melancholy and delight. He is a natural storyteller, as anyone who has seen him perform or heard his piece on This American Life knows.
In 140 Goats and a Guitar, his authorial debut, Berkeley proves that he is an equally gifted writer, with a voice as a distinct as the rich baritone he sings with. 140 Goats offers 13 stories, one for each song on his album Some Kind of Cure, written primarily while he lived for a year in a tiny mountain village on the island of Corsica with his wife and young son. These stories are beautifully told, with a poetic attention to details and rhythm that makes his prose sing.
Berkeley has created a bold and thoroughly enjoyable new concept with this book, encouraging listeners to hear the corresponding song from his album after listening to each story. 140 Goats is confessional and candid, providing a powerful and moving view into the heart and head of this young father and artist.
About the Author / Musician
David Berkeley has been called a “musical poet,” by the San Francisco Chronicle, and the New York Times praises his “lustrous, melancholy voice with shades of Tim Buckley and Nick Drake.” That voice and his gift with words is what first sets Berkeley apart from all other guitar-slinging songwriters. But it is his onstage charisma and unparalleled between-song repartee that truly puts him in a class by himself. Each show is completely unique, and David’s humanity shines through every note he sings and every word he speaks.
Berkeley has released seven studio albums, one live album, and authored two books, each of which pairs with one of his albums. He was a guest on This American Life, telling an outrageous story of a private serenade he was once hired to perform, and he has won many songwriting awards and honors including ASCAPs Johnny Mercer Songwriting Award. His 2017 release was a never-before tried concept: a novella comprising ten intertwining stories and an album of ten accompanying songs (one for each story). His latest release Oh Quiet World, an album written during the lockdown, is an intimate, uplifting collection.
David lives with his wife and two boys in Santa Fe, New Mexico. In addition to his solo career, he is also one half of the wildly creative Trans-Atlantic costumed duo Sons of Town Hall. Berkeley’s music has also been remixed by many of the world’s top EDM DJs. He tours all over the country and world and has opened/toured with Dido, Don McLean, Ben Folds, Billy Bragg, Ray Lamontagne, Nickel Creek and many more. He was a Kerrville New Folk winner, a New Song and Rocky Mountain Folks Festival Finalist. He’s performed on World Café, Mountain Stage, Sundance Film Festival, SXSW, XM Loft Sessions, Acoustic Café…