It’s oddly reassuring to know that the lovely, Francophonic Canadian songwriter Julie Doiron is still insecure – moreso than when Tom Jones made the same revelation.
Over the last decade and a half, Doiron has been putting out some of the most beautiful music I’ve ever heard – even when embracing dissonance, her melodies linger just above with a charm and delicacy that is, at least off the top of my head, unmatched.
In her Tiny Desk Concert, hosted at the desk of All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen, she plays solo on electric guitar (one of my favorite sounds ever), and reveals immediately a sense of vulnerability:
It’s good to see people I respect admire struggling with the same dreary stuff I struggle with on a daily basis. It can be hard to get yourself feeling that you’re capable of doing the stuff you do every day. Or the stuff I used to do regularly.
I’m trying to play music more regularly, do it in front of people, and document it on matthewtrisler.com. You can deduce from the stunning regularity of those posts how well that’s getting started.
Saying I hesitate to begin because I’m nervous doesn’t quite cover it. I don’t have any anxiety, any fear about sucking; you read my posts here, you can vouch for that fact.
But I am anxious. And as a result, when someone as accomplished as Doiron expresses a similar anxiety, the temptation for me is to embrace that: “But if Julie Doiron is anxious, what hope have I? Oh! Forlorn, forlorn!”
But I’m every bit as smart as I am anxious, or so I’ve been told. (I’m also insecure. I’m really quite a wreck.) I know that the real lesson is that Doiron is anxious, but she does her thing regardless. Even if it does seem that the anxiety over the Tiny Desk Concert shaved weeks off her life.
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