When we documented the rebirth of the Smith Tower in the story

Smith Tower Redux

a few weeks ago, we mentioned the recent wave of art and music events happening there that are helping to revitalize the historic building. One event in particular, the Mill Street Sessions, a Tiny Desk Concert-like series hosted by tower tenants Projectline, recently featured the Long Winters’ frontman and erstwhile Seattle Weekly columnist John Roderick.

Here, he performs “Pushover,” from the band’s last full length record, Putting The Days To Bed. In between songs during the short set, Roderick regaled the intimate crowd with stories of his colorful career, from playing with Paul Allen and Crosby, Stills, and Nash at the EMP to writing for

Rolling Stone

. He also explained that his weathered guitar’s great “musicbox” tone happens when you put the highest six strings from a 12-string guitar on a standard six-string guitar (and that he bought this particular instrument from the drummer of Dickless back in the early days of grunge).

This video is just a small snapshot of some of the cool things happening at the Smith Tower these days. Stay tuned to Mill Street Sessions for the interview portion of the show, which was conducted by Kris Orlowski and will be up in a few weeks, and keep Smith Tower on your radar, too. The building celebrates its 100th anniversary next year and more happenings like this are already in the works.