Holding Hands With Strangers

And making music with partners

Most of you know me as a writer. Some of you also know me as a musician. In recent years, I have been able to spend more time on the latter love, with two active projects. Yesterday evening was spent mixing a new single by my transatlantic trio The Dear Boys. And today, June 27, 2025, my domestic music duo HUDSON PALACE releases its first original composition, ‘Holding Hands With Strangers.’ You can listen to it on all streaming platforms, including Bandcamp, the most artist-friendly way to listen.

HUDSON PALACE is myself and Paula Lucas. We started dating in early 2020. When Covid suddenly kicked in, we spent many a lockdown evening entertaining ourselves by “performing” other people’s songs - myself on guitar/keys, Paula singing. When I somehow had the mad idea of turning Buzzcocks’ punk-pop classic “Love You More” into an acoustic sea shanty/ballad, we decided we should record it, releasing that first musical baby into the world in early 2023. We were so happy with the outcome that we recorded another Buzzcocks song, “Love Is Lies,” for a virtual double A-side. In 2024, we turned our attention to The Who, with our baroque-n-roll versions of “Tattoo” and “I’m A Boy,” both of which took on new meaning when sung by a female.¹ (This link will take you to all our recordings across any platform that hosts them.)

Then, after visiting Costa Rica in 2023, we were inspired to write what gradually became “Holding Hands With Strangers.” (Preview video above.) It wasn’t until this spring that we recorded it, though a lot went on in our lives in the interim – which included moving in together exactly a year ago. And if that is not a good enough reason to release “Holding Hands…” today, there is the fact that it is also Paula’s last day as a high school Spanish teacher after 27 years of valiant service at Kingston City Schools District, with five years prior to that on Long Island. (My mother was a public - i.e. State-school - teacher also; it is the most noble profession.) When I attended a Union celebration dinner for the District’s 25+ new retirees on Wednesday, her official post-teaching plans were announced to everyone as “Making music with my partner.” What better way to start on that future?

“Holding Hands With Strangers” was recorded here at The Orange in Hurley. Percussion was kindly contributed by Joe Magistro of Mercury Rev, who also played in the Smiths and R.E.M. events I presented at the Orpheum Theater over the last couple of years. My older son Campbell designed the sleeve from a photo I took of the sculpture “Nuevo Paradigma” by Edgar Zumíñez in the Costa Rican capital of San José. My younger son Noel mixed the vocals and mastered the song. I played and mixed all instruments.

Click the image above or here to listen on Qobuz, the superior sound-quality streaming platform of personal choice.

We are delighted that “Holding Hands With Strangers” is already receiving all kind of love from all kinds of radio stations. It’s rewarding to know we have apparently made something that connects. That said, like 95-99% of the music being released today, we’re ultimately just a couple of specks in the sand on the large beach of sound, so if you want to give it your own share or shout-out, we would be thrilled.

Making music is a magical activity that, for me, validates our human existence. The ability to create it distinguishes humans from, I dunno, turtles… though given that they’ve been around for over 100,000,000 years, essentially unchanged, it’s always possible they know something we don’t. Peace.

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1. “I’m A Boy” was a special treat for me, not just because it came out so incredibly well, with insider reference points and extended breakdown, but because it was a song my mother had always enjoyed singing along with on Meaty, Beaty, Big &Bouncy back when I was a boy. The Hudson Palace version was released on her 90^th birthday, an occasion on which she seemed to vaguely recognize it through the dementia that finally claimed her in January of this year. I am so happy I got to share that recording with her.