Ben Weaver: Where mirepoix meets music

It usually goes the other way around. A musician works in a kitchen to get by but dreams of becoming a troubadour, roaming the globe in search of inspiration.

After a half-decade of living that romantic life and establishing himself as one of the Twin Cities' most masterful songwriters -- comparisons to Leonard Cohen, Steve Earle and Greg Brown abound -- Ben Weaver wound up going in the exact opposite direction. He quit the road to go work in a kitchen.

"I hit a wall and couldn't write anything for about a year, and I knew I needed to get a job," Weaver, 31, recalled. "I wanted something I could be interested in and inspired by. Food was the obvious choice."

A year and a half after he put down his guitar and picked up a chef's knife, Weaver is back doing what he does best -- although the fact that he worked for two of the most respected foodie joints in Minneapolis, the Corner Table and the Craftsman, proves he must be a decent cook, too.

His new album, "Mirepoix and Smoke" (in stores Oct. 19), is a stark but stirring collection sparked by his experiences crafting food instead of music. Not only is he passing along that inspiration on record, he's also showing it off onstage.

Thursday night, he kicked off a thematic three-night residency at Bryant-Lake Bowl by inviting up friends from the food world to discuss where they find their inspiration. This was the "Food" installment of a series dubbed "Tramping With the Pioneers." It continues next Thursday with a "Words" show featuring "Dear American Airlines" author Jonathan Miles and some of his favorite writers. The "Music" finale is Oct. 8 with the Pines as guests.

"Part of the idea was to show off the main ingredients that went into this record," Weaver said. "But I also felt like, especially in the Twin Cities, people often haven't known what to make of me. This was a way of showing off my aesthetic."

"It's the basic thing every cook learns to make at first," he said. "It sort of became the foundation to everything I learned in that time, too."

"Mirepoix" is Weaver's fifth disc and second release on Chicago alt-country label Bloodshot Records (Justin Townes Earle, Waco Brothers). He recorded it with producer Neil Strauch (Bonnie "Prince" Billy) and only one other collaborator, Chicago pianist and backup singer Erica Froman. Thus, it's his rawest album since 2004's buzz-maker "Stories Under Nails," but its tones are warmer and the melodies are rich -- especially when Weaver plays earthy banjo alongside Froman's ethereal voice.

Like all his CDs, the lyrics linger in the air and simmer like a good stew. Take the way "Drag the Hills" evokes the kitchen burns on Weaver's arms: "I'd rather have scars from the life I lived / Than have none from the one I missed." In "While I Am Gone," he's lonely: "Chipping away at the ice around my boat / Had to punch a new hole in my belt / Without a fire, without you / Black as a mussel shell."

Weaver has also published two poetry books in recent years, in addition to his steady touring (more than five months of 2008 was spent performing overseas). When he's home, he can frequently be seen with his sons, Henry, 8, and Frankie, 5.

While he's clearly not singing pop songs, Weaver is a bit put off by the idea that he's only a dark, miserable songwriter. There are plenty of uplifting moments on "Mirepoix" to disprove this.

Not exactly selling his happy side, he added, "One of the things I'm most inspired by is vulnerability.

"An expression I've been using for a while is, 'Death for the sake of food,' meaning when something dies, something else can eat it for nourishment. Even a lot of my music before this record was all about that."

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