Patti Smith at the Minetta Lane: Words + Music, Vol. 1

Ever since Audible began to release their free monthly audiobooks produced in-house, I have been relatively interested in them without much commitment based solely on the content being presented as free. But this was one of the first four that I decided to actually listen to – and my goodness, to open with the goddess Patti Smith set the bar incredibly high.This is a live performance piece that was recorded by Amazon at their Minetta Lane performance space, and it is a gorgeous, funny, and touching meditation on her life and her family that takes some material that has existed in her other works and reimagines them in small poems, songs, stories, and performances in front of a live audience. The intimacy that Smith, her family of performers, and Audible achieve in this short concert is something of beauty that can only exist in modern times and with their financial backing and their astuteness in the art of production. It hearkens back to the intimacy that can be found in the recordings of Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion, but with a much stronger and edgier modern beauty. I look forward to many more experiences with recorded performances like these from Audible.I will be listening to this performance often.

As a long-time fan of Patti Smith, I couldn't wait to give this audio a listen. I was not disappointed. I loved all of it - the music (always), the poetry, the excerpts/stories from her book Just Kids, having her son and daughter playing with her, and the loving tributes to her late husband. My only complaint is that it is too short.

This concert is a perfect complement to the Patti Smith book, "Just Kids." She tells some of the same stories, but they have a different meaning when you hear it in her actual voice. Patti Smith is charming and entertaining. I never heard the song "The People Have the Power" before, and the story behind it was great.