Mots Nouveaux 2014 Lounge stage

One blustery matinee afternoon in late 1929, on the checkerboard parquet of a dingy Soho nickelodeon, Aaron and Emma ran into each other for the first time. Literally. Returning to his post between pictures, pianoman Aaron took a fast corner and sent three orders of buttery kernels all over popcorn gal Emma.

A decade later, they possibly spotted each other again at Café Society, but were a few too many sidecars and sherry flips, respectively, deep into the evening to be absolutely certain.

They passed each other anonymously during a ramble on the Bayou in 1953, each humming an absentminded chorus of “”Tipitina.”” It was their first duet.

Then again, in 1964, doing the jerk at the Chit Chat Club.

And outside a Sausalito Sinclair en route to Monterey, summer of ‘67.

And at the Winterland Ballroom, Thanksgiving, 1976. It only made sense that they’d both hightail it down coast to the Pantages seven years later when the house burned down.

When they bumped into each other one last time in some remote, abandoned corner of Myspace in 2010, Aaron concluded that enough was enough and finally worked up the nerve to introduce himself, not to be too forward. Emma thought he was fairly swell and might they try writing songs together? Aaron heard her sing and imagined so. They’ve been writing, playing, and squabbling ever since.