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.