Kim Churchill & Felipe Baldomir
Smallsongs is a music video series brought to you by Americana Highways featuring small & stripped down performances on the streets of different cities around the world.
I’m feeling lucky and grateful to have somehow arrived here in Barcelona this past month or so! We had found ourselves in a bit of a rut in the States and we made the decision to move to Europe. The process of trying to get Italian citizenship through my wife Andy’s family has proved to be more complicated than expected, but totally worth it. Thanks to Andy’s perseverance we’re living in an unexpected dream. I’m inspired everyday as I wander these streets. Plus our little international two year old named Elliott has already seen so much of the world.
I now have the opportunity to meet some of the nicest & most talented musicians from all over the place for smallsongs. A great example of that is these two sessions with friends Kim Churchill & Felipe Baldomir! An Australian folk singer & an Uruguayan folk singer respectively met up with me (an American human) in the Gothic Quarter to film a couple quick tunes. These van lifers were driving through Europe and playing shows everywhere from Amsterdam to Berlin to Barcelona to Paris. Both sessions feel so life affirming & timeless. You can see the genuine joy in these two buddies’ faces in the thumbnails below. It’s so cool to see artists out there in the world living their dreams in the present tense. I’m just happy to be where I am right now, to be alive and to feel so inspired like this!
Putting yourself in an uncomfortable environment is somehow so comforting to me. I filmed I think 16 different artists all over Barcelona in a little more than a month. I made some really special human connections too. This city motivated me to be out & about amongst the people. I’ve had the energy to walk around 20,000 steps most days with the observant Elo in his stroller taking the diverse world in. Barcelona quickly became one of my favorite cities & a place I can even see myself potentially living at some point. Now we’re headed to London for about a month for another change of scenery while we jump in to further meandering & meaningful uncertainty.
Keep an eye out for all those Barcelona sessions past & present from musicians like Carlota Flâneur & Ivory Tusk & Bianca Steck & The Bird Yellow & Joshua Radin & Temples & Elle León & HENRIO & Raquel Lua & Patricia Atzur & Amanda Álvaro & Carolina Alabau & Le Nais & Anna Roig & Mauro Meloni ! Plus I can’t wait to come back and further discover more amazing artists in Barcelona !
My favorite thing about traveling like this is to re-realize that we’re all just people. It’s so easy to get caught up in your own little protective bubble & to forget that there’s a whole world out there. I’ve done it before & I’ll probably do it again. But when you actually try to live somewhere foreign vs just go on a vacation, you get to experience what’s beneath all the stereotypes & cultural generalizations. No matter where you go, you can find people who you can relate to. That’s really cool I think.
The other thing I’ve been doing more is chatting with these people and leaving those conversations in full for the smallsongs patrons. This passion project that is smallsongs makes very little money & I’m not doing this for the money or for the views and what not. I’ve just got some need to be constantly creating & expressing & smallsongs is one of the best ways that I know how to do that. So if you’re interested in some longer form talks (similar to a podcast) then please consider helping me out as a Patron at:
https://www.patreon.com/smallsongs?utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator
Enjoy previous videos in this series here: smallsongs: Esther Rose