TIME IS A FLAT CIRCLE

(LIVE AT ROSA’S LOUNGE)

When I was two years old I slept for the first time —

Or so my parents thought, relieved, finally, for there to be silence coming from my room & crib. But no — how had I placated myself that afternoon? By somehow standing up & pulling their favorite poster from the wall — & then — as legend has it — ripping it to shreds & eating each pulpy piece of paper.

And what poster was that, you may ask?

None other than Bumblebee Bob’s painting for Rosa’s Lounge — the same Rosa’s Lounge I took the stage at, for the first time, 33 years later.

A year before I had been to the club (as a listener) for the first time & watched Willie Hall backing up DuWayne Burnside — a sight so transcendent I wrote a poem about it, which ended up published in POETRY Magazine and which — perhaps you guessed by now — was published the same week of my concert at Rosa’s Lounge.

Time is a flat circle: centripetal (the force that pushes out) is not a force at all, but a pressure we imagine — centrifugal (which draws us in) is what’s real, & keeps us circling back.

And so it was — Rosa’s Lounge — my first performance there, a poem & lifetime in the making. It was a homecoming, in front of friends & fans & family, & this album showcases a range of older songs, re-imagined covers, & evidence of what’s ahead.

In some places you see the past, in some you see the future, but in the meantime, we keep living — the record keeps spinning — this pulse our only proof of life beneath the burning stars.

CREDITS:

Joseph Yount - Drums
Seth Barden - Bass
Eric Burns - Guitar
Reed Turchi - Guitar and Vocals

Mixed and Mastered by Reed Turchi at Second Take Sound, NYC.

Additional engineering by Quentin Andrianasitera

Cover photo by Joseph Yount

Recorded live at Rosa's Lounge, Chicago IL, October 2025