Pneumatic Tubes, Beth Orton and Me...

My dad and I connected over a lot of things. Music was something he definitely imparted to me. His favourite was Jimi Hendrix, and he saw him five or six times. He went to Woodstock in 1969 when he was sixteen, hitch-hiking up to the festival with his buddy from New Jersey. So that was one of the things we’d always talk about, and we’d go hiking in the Catskill mountains, where I grew up, and in the Adirondacks, a few hours north. That’s where my mind was when I was making the album… thinking about mountains, and my childhood.
Jesse Chandler
Getting in touch with childhood, and the wonder of it, is something I’ve been obsessed with for years. And I love the idea that memories become hazy. Even if you see a photograph or a home movie of your family, the memory still remains the way you’ve always felt it: the way that it’s evolved over time. You can never remember things exactly as they were. And I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels this… when you’re away from your home, you miss it and think about it all the time, but when you’re actually there, it’s depressing, and I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because you can’t go back to the way you once felt about it? You want to feel, as an adult, the same way you did when you were a kid, but you never can.
Jesse Chandler

A Letter From TreeTops (2022) signed by Jesse Chandler

Erin and I had the great pleasure to see Beth Orton at the Sacred Heart University Community Theater, a refurbished 1920 vaudeville theater with four-hundred seats, in Fairfield, Connecticut on September 7, 2023. Beth delivered a spectacular show as expected in support of her brilliant new album Weather Alive, but the real revelation for me was her opening act, Pneumatic Tubes, a one man band helmed by the versatile and accomplished multi-instrumentalist Jesse Chandler. As if being in two highly acclaimed bands Midlake and Mercury Rev concurrently weren't enough, Jesse's boundless creativity has led to a solo project, Pneumatic Tubes, and the release of his brilliant new album A Letter From TreeTops.

An homage to his late father who passed away in 2018, A Letter From TreeTops is an atmospheric ambient swirl, at times discordant, at others gentle and lilting, always imbued with warmth despite its haunting electronic treatments. The ghost definitely resides within this machine! According to Jesse, the album title comes from "The summer camp my dad went to, a place called TreeTops in the Adirondacks. This was in the 1950s and 60s, and it was very organic… before ‘organic’ became a hipster buzzword! They would make their own peanut butter, and tap the trees for maple syrup, so he had a lot of fond memories."

Jesse Chandler at the controls, September 7, 2023

The origin of the band name Pneumatic Tubes sadly doesn't derive from the John Wick franchise which used the archaic messaging system to great cinematic effect, transmitting contract details within the treacherous confines of The Continental. Rather, as Jesse disclosed, it comes from another cinematic reference, no less weighty than the oeuvre of Jonathan Wick, "I was watching a Truffaut film, Stolen Kisses, and there’s a scene where one of the characters sends a love letter using a pneumatic tube system. They show it weaving through all the pipes, and I just love that. For a certain period of the 20th century, there was magic and wonder about the idea of sticking something in a tube in one part of the city, and a few minutes later it ending up in another. You could send a lock of hair…and there’s the fact that it uses woodwinds and electronics, too. The tubes are like clarinets and flutes, so that kind of resonates.”

Opening for an artist is always a tricky and often thankless proposition. A short, abridged set hardly gives any momentum from the artist to an audience, and there are many headlining acts who are deathly afraid of being upstaged by an opening act. I have heard (and witnessed) acts being turned down at the soundboard, a subtle sabotage, so as not to be a competitive threat. Erin and I recently saw Rufus Wainwright at The Towne Crier in Beacon, New York and he related a story of his early career and how he opened for his father Loudon Wainwright III one night and completely bombed. As boos cascaded down on him, Rufus left the stage distraught and his father gave him a consoling hug and told him he would have better nights. A couple of nights later, Rufus again opened for his father, and this night, Rufus was electric and the crowd gave him deafening standing ovations. This time, Loudon was waiting for his son in the wings with a stern edict and admonition, "You will never open for me again!" And he never did, although Rufus assured us that his relationship with his father has been restored and is now usefully whole!

Pneumatic Tubes tubing!

Happily, there was no such nonsense or theatrics when Jesse Chandler (aka Pneumatic Tubes) opened for Beth Orton. The sightlines were faultless and the sound system was calibrated perfectly. Jesse was part of Beth Orton's touring band for a short US stint showcasing her recent album release Weather Alive and opened for her on several nights. Jesse appeared on stage to a smattering of applause and began to play tracks off A Message From TreeTops. It was a mesmerizing performance as Jesse used pedals, loops and added occasional saxophone and flute flourishes to take us on a riveting and spellbound journey. A beautiful aural and ambient excursion, it was a fitting interlude for the beauty that was to follow when Beth and her band, featuring Jesse on keyboards, took the stage for the main event.

Jesse Chandler and Beth Orton September 7, 2023

After the show, I caught up with Jesse at the merch booth and thanked him for his music and performance. I mentioned that I heard the influence of Brian Eno, the godfather of ambient music, in his work. "Yes, Thank you, he is a huge influence on all this music and everyone." I said that I really enjoyed the 2019 Bobbie Gentry tribute that Mercury Rev did, The Delta Sweete, which reimagined and reinvented Bobbie's songs (which she originally recorded in 1968) with singers Norah Jones, Beth Orton, Hope Sandoval, and Lucinda Williams among others. "Thank you very much, that was a lot of fun to record," Jesse replied, as unfailingly polite as he is humble. He signed his record and then he hooked me up with Beth for which I am exceedingly grateful.

It was a stunning night of music discovery, irrefutable evidence of the balm and elixir that live music provides, as long as I have an open mind and ears. Thank you again Jesse for your kindness and generosity.