SARATOGA SPRINGS — During a performance in the summer of 2020, Mark Erelli looked down at his guitar neck and couldn’t believe what he saw. Or rather, what he couldn’t see: his fingers on the frets.
A subsequent diagnosis of the degenerative eye disease retinitis pigmentosa (RP) provided some answers, but also yielded new questions. Does diminished eyesight decrease one’s insight? What does it mean to be ‘fully seen,’ by oneself and by others? These questions, along with Erelli’s drive to regain his creative agency, are at the heart of his new album “Lay Your Darkness Down.” The album was released Friday, Feb. 3
Erelli turned to songwriting as an internal compass that might guide him in assessing this radically-altered vision of his future. The new songs, though decorated with references to shadows, light, and obscured vision, are more about resilience, love, and the human condition than they are about blindness: “Lay your darkness down/ shadows lie upon the ground, to show us where the light is coming from…”
Mark Erelli will perform at Caffe Lena on Sunday, March 5. Call 518-583-0022, or go to: caffelena.org.
