Housing Works' Live from Home Concert Series: The New Yorker The "Live from Home" benefit concert series at Housing Works is celebrating its tenth anniversary this spring. The series is a New York City treasure. Over the years, the acts there have included the Black Keys, John Mellencamp, Björk, John Mayer, the Civil Wars, Darius Rucker, Chrissie Hynde, and Jason Mraz. Keaton Henson, a reclusive singer-songwriter from the suburbs of London, played there on Monday night. Recently, we had a chance to talk with the music journalist Alan Light, who has booked the shows for the series from the beginning. How long have you been involved? I started the "Live From Home" series in January of 2003 (a few weeks after my son was born, so easy to remember). I used to live around the corner from the store, so I knew it well, and used to hang out there. I was at lunch with one of my editors - in fact, it was Meghan O'Rourke, when she was still at The New Yorker - and she said that she was on the board at the store and that they had often spoken about trying to bring in music, but no one had been able to get it together. It seemed like a fun enough challenge (I was trying to launch a magazine and waiting for my son's birth), so I figured what the hell. I called up Ryan Adams, who was a friend and still in N.Y.C. at that time, and he was into the idea, so we were off and running. Other board members - most notably Brandon Stosuy, now at Pitchfork - have brought in some shows sometimes. How did you secure all the amazing acts there over the years? One thing kind of leads to another.... There's so much good will for the store and the organization that there's a very strong inclination to help. It's always been important to us that the stage is actually set up and the artists can have a real sound check - that it isn't just something that was nice to do for the greater good but kind of a crappy experience but, rather, something they really enjoy, and everyone walks away happy. And then the label or manager or publicist is inclined to go back and recommend it to their other acts. It's really great when I'll talk to one of our acts years later and they'll still remember and bring up the show - I remember trying to get a quote from Lyle Lovett for some Times story I was writing, many years after he played, and he started talking, unprompted, about how great and how memorable it was for him to play in the store. Ryan Adams gave a fantastic show, really all the best things about what he can do. The great thing about that show was he played at M.S.G., opening for the Rolling Stones, on Thursday and Saturday, and played for us on the Friday in between! The other funny thing about that show was that an excellent singer named Kathleen Edwards was supposed to open, but she got violently sick and had to cancel (on us and on a TV appearance, I think).... So at the last minute, our sound guy called this young singer he knew who was singing at Joe's Pub that night and she literally jumped in a cab, zipped down the street, and did a few songs to keep us on schedule. And her name was Regina Spektor - the first artist to officially take the Live From Home stage. Ah, we knew her when... Who was your favorite? I can't answer that! Every one of these artists has been so great in giving their time and helping the cause. How am I supposed to pick one over all the others? I will say that it was pretty super awesome to have the Black Keys, who I love, doing a full-on rock show, arena-scale, in between those shelves of books. So many shows have good stories - Jason Mraz wanted to sell the tickets through his fan site, and it reached capacity so fast that the system didn't shut down in time and we ended up overselling the room by almost double.... The show was on a ninety-plus-degree day and I thought the whole place was going to melt. But we pulled it off without lasting disaster. Paul Simon came in to see a show before Edie Brickell (his wife) was scheduled to play, and I remember how nervous Fountains of Wayne and Jesse Malin, the acts he was watching, were, which they copped to onstage as soon as he left.... It's been nice to get support out of the country-music community lately (maybe since I've been doing more work in Nashville in recent years). Darius Rucker and Vince Gill and Jerrod Niemann have played, which really opens the place up to a different audience. We did a really ambitious thing as a lead-in to a march that Housing Works led from N.Y.C. to D.C., and had twelve or fourteen artists come in and all sing songs about walking, ending with Bright Eyes doing an incredible version of that "If you walk away, I'll walk away" song. The music scene in New York City is always evolving, and in recent years it has seemed to be moving mostly away from Manhattan and toward Brooklyn. That the series at Housing Works could survive so long, and actually thrive, is a testament to the hard work of Light and the staff at Housing Works, and the unique nature of life in this town. Who knew that a little bookstore on a deserted street could deliver such great shows. As for Keaton Henson, he sings very sad songs and has a reputation for shyness - having, reportedly, even performed in a room separate from his audience. He once answered questions during an online interview by drawing pictures. Art, it seems, is something that comes as naturally to him as singing, perhaps more so. He recently published "Gloaming," a book of his drawings. Here are three of them.