John & Brittany — Stories To Be Told

One of the great pleasures of moving to our little town has been getting to know a number of local musicians, some of whom have absolutely legendary Philly music scene pedigrees. There’s an incredible wealth of talented musicians who all came up around the same time in the ’80s and ’90s and who are still around, doing it today. If you’re not near Philly, you may never have heard of them, but so many of them are so good.

Case in point: John Faye. When we first saw him just a few years ago, he was fronting a group called “John Faye and Those Meddling Kids,” performing material that was really from a solo album where John played every single instrument, “McCartney” style. But he goes back to the mid-’80s, had success with a band called The Caulfields (which hit the Top 40 with “Devil’s Diary”), then the John Faye Power Trip, and then IKE. He teamed up with Brittany Rotondo and they recorded this EP, “Stories To Be Told,” in 2014 – which landed them a “Coolest Song of the Week” feature on the Underground Garage.

John was one of several local musicians whose livestreams during the pandemic really helped get through a dark, dark time. Along with Cliff Hillis, Amy Fairchild, Anna Spackman and a few others, those streaming shows were a bright spot in a very bleak time, and I’ll always appreciate what they did for us. Somewhat toward the end of lockdown, John, The Caulfields, and a whole bunch of other recognizable Philly/NJ/Delaware folks put out a raucous, highly enjoyable cover of “Love Will Keep Us Together” – a song I thought I never needed to hear again until they did it. It created a tremendous amount of joy at a time when we needed it most – absolutely infectious.

In May 2021, when vaccinations were just starting to be in effect, a friend of ours hosted an outdoor house concert in her backyard to support an important local charity, and John was the featured artist. Along with any number of his other wonderful songs (and John taught songwriting for many years), he treated us to what was then just about to be his new single, “Orbit,” which is highly recommended. If felt amazing to be together with friends again (even if masked and outside and still being very, very careful), and to listen to these great songs. Even though we had a long way to go (still do), it infused me with hope.

So after the show we loaded up on his CDs, and this was the only vinyl he had at hand. Sorry to say that once again, songs from 10 years ago can be incredibly prescient and timely, as he sings in “La Tierra:”