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Julie Gold: Closing the Distance
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An intimate evening of songs and stories with the inimitable Julie Gold, Greenwich Village’s own Grammy winner, a singer-songwriter known the world over for “From a Distance,” a song which has been read into the Congressional Record and which was used to wake up the astronauts on the Mir Space Station the very first time the Americans hooked up with the Russians in outer space. Join Julie – a wonderful raconteur as well as songwriter – for a very special evening.
Who doesn’t know “From a Distance,” a song that’s now a part of our DNA. A dream of better times, a prayer even.
Julie Gold came to the Village in 1978, in pursuit of her own dream of becoming a songwriter. Bohemia was no longer cheap, and she worked endless jobs to keep afloat. Just before her 30th birthday, the piano she’d grown up playing was dispatched from Philadelphia by her parents.
“I took the day off work to be home when my piano arrived, and I remember how it glistened in the sun as the movers lowered it off the truck. My piano. My truest love and friend. My confidante. Back together again after all these years. It came into my little, one room apartment and fit just where I hoped it would. The movers told me that it had been on the truck for 24 hours, so I had to give it a chance to settle. They said I couldn’t play it for a full day. So, there we were in the same room, unable to make music….
“The next day I sat down and ‘From a Distance’ just poured out of me. On one hand, it took me two hours to write. On the other hand, it took me 30 years. Pick whichever hand makes you happy. I love them both.”
The rest, as they say, is history. Nanci Griffith recorded it on her debut album and on June 16, 1988, Julie and Nanci played Carnegie Hall. “All my relatives came up from Philadelphia to share the miracle… In many ways, I am their American Dream. What an amazing dream it is. As I write this, I can’t even believe it’s true. But it is. It really is.”
