Ed Kowalczyk has grown up with his fans who grew up listening to his former band Live’s sophomore CD “Throwing Copper.”
He never realized how much until he decided to revisit the entire album including popular radio hits like “I Alone,” “All Over You, and “Lightning Crashes.”
He had an acrimonious split from the band in 2009 which resulted in litigation and lawsuits which have since been resolved.
“It has been settled and we’re taking baby steps towards reconciliation. So never say never to a potential project in the future,” he said from his Connecticut home, getting ready for the Canadian leg of the Throwing Copper Unplugged tour, which comes to Average Joes, Monday, March 7.
After the split, Kowalczyk embarked on a solo career that has resulted in two solo CDs and a third that was half completed before he decided to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of “Throwing Copper.”
“I realized it isn’t every day a twentieth anniversary rolls around, but I only wanted to do it if I could do something really unique that really excited me as an artist,” said Kowalczyk, who is as surprised as anybody that the 20th anniversary acoustic tour for the 1994 album has lasted two years.
He got to work with multi-instrumentalist Zak Loy on new acoustic arrangements and worked with Austin based drummer Ramy Antoun ( who worked with Kowalczkyk on his CD Alive) to design a full multi-media show to go with the new arrangements.
“We took parts of the the videos we already had and looked at the songs that had no videos and came up with images for them that really went off the grid,” he said, adding the result exceeded his expectations.
“That and more. It was really fulfilling as an artist. And to have people all over the world respond the way they have is the icing on the cake,” he enthused.
“We’ve been doing this for over a year. We’re playing the record from 1 to14. It’s a semi-acoustic show. We’ve developed a full multi-media show. So it has got a lot of depth,” he said.
“It really is a testimonial to the strength of the material,” he continued, adding he along with audiences have grown with the music.
“When I wrote ‘Lightning Crashes,’ I was 22 and I didn’t have any kids, now I have four. And a lot of the audience have kids too, so they find it more relevant,” he said.
He noted while the actual events of dealing with lawsuits didn’t make it into his solo work, the emotions did.
“The second Cd has a more of a spark about that,” he said.
The songs really are worldwide. Kowalczyk took his solo show to South Africa in December.
“I toured South Africa with Live about nine years ago. It was great to see all of the fans there so it was so much fun.
He is a big supporter of the Charity World Vision, which helps supplies clean water wells in Africa.
“They don’t work directly in South Africa. We’ve made incredible progress. Fans have really supported it. They have been really generous,” he said.
He noted having children of his own , encouraged him to get more involved.
“We did charity gigs, but when I had my children, I found that there are things like clean water and shelter and security that we really take for granted here. It is not the same in other parts of the world. So that was definitely a big part of it,” he observed.
He is excited to play Lethbridge for the first time which will include “Throwing Copper” from beginning to end as well as solo material, new material and other songs from Live.
“We play a superset at the end which gives fans an overview of my career,” he said.
“We leave on Sunday. So I’m excited about that,” he said, noting he can’t remember playing Lethbridge.
“We play bigger Canadian markets like Montreal, Quebec, so we‘re excited to come back,” he said.
Ed Kowalczyk plays Average Joes, Monday, March 7, at 8 p.m. Tickets cost $30 in advance $35 on the day of the show.
