Noted Southern California poet Brian Michael Tracy will perform his ‘rock poetry’ album, The Mystical Prism of Being, at Hermosa Beach’s popular Live at the Lounge April 10 at 7:00pm. Tracy will be joined by noted musicians Bruce Springsteen collaborator Marty Rifkin, Andy Hill (Title Trackers, Hard Rain), and Renee Safier (Andy & Renee, Hard Rain), Dave Batti (John Stewart), and up and comer Edoardo Tancredi. Tickets for the event are $20 and are available here.
The Mystical Prism of Being is unique in that it combines Tracy’s poetry with the musical talents of producer Rifkin, and South Bay music stalwarts Hill and Safier, performing a selection of beloved rock ballads interwoven with the poems. With three thirteen to seventeen minute tracks “A Virgin Birth,” “Our Last Supper,” and “Ascension,” the album is appropriately set for release on Good Friday, March 25. And in keeping with the theme of the cycle of life, April 10 is also Brian’s birthday!
The album juxtaposes Brian’s poems with a variety of beloved songs including The Beatles’ “Across the Universe,” Sting’s “Sister Moon,” Van Morrison’s “Inarticulate Speech of the Heart,” Leonard Cohen’s “Alexandra Leaving,” Robbie Robertson’s “Fallen Angel,” Bob Dylan’s “Every Grain of Sand,” and more. The Grateful Dead’s “Brokedown Palace” also appears and profoundly influenced the project’s graphics. It is a continuous braiding of poem and song resulting in poetry like you have never heard it before.
Brian Michael Tracy was born, raised and educated in Boston, Massachusetts. He received his BA from Stonehill College and his Master’s Degree from the Harvard University School of Design. His work has appeared in The Wallace Stevens Journal, Plainsongs, California Quarterly, Depth Insights, Yogi Times, and on spoken word radio programs throughout the United States and Canada including stations KPFK in Los Angeles and CIUT in Toronto.
Tracy is the author of three books of poetry Driving With Dante (Conflux Press 2007), The Distance Between Shores (Conflux Press 2009), and Opaque Traveler: A Dream Sequence in Verse (Tebot Bach 2012). He has also released two critically acclaimed CD’s of music and poetry, Midnight Tea (2007) and Blackbird Ballads (2009).
Brian has performed his poetry at a variety of venues throughout California including the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, Beyond Baroque, the Ruskin Art Club, the Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara and the West Hollywood Book Fair. He served on the Board of Directors for Tebot Bach, a non-profit poetry foundation from 2009 through 2011.
After many years of living in Manhattan Beach, where he became friendly with popular South Bay musicians Hill and Safier, Tracy now lives with his wife Kathleen in Palm Desert.