Sparks from the Fire

I was channel surfing the other night on the tube and I came across a rock concert on AXS TV, my new favorite channel on TV’s great wasteland.  It was an AC/DC concert.  For those of you unfamiliar with AC/DC, they are a high voltage rock ‘n’ roll band that has been consistently selling-out concert tours for over 40 years now with global sales totaling more than 200 million albums.

I was surprised to see an audience full of young people following this group because the group looks “old.”  The rock and roll, drug induced, no sleep lifestyle unfortunately does not produce baby faces and ever-young images.

The kids in the audience were having a ball though, and I was glad to see that groups like the Stones, Metallica and AC/DC were still happinin’ and appreciated.  After all, these are the guys that had a large hand in creating rock and roll to begin with.

The stage was replete with today’s necessary light show, fireworks and other pyrotechnic effects, and number after number went by projecting basically the same theme over and over – Hell, fire and brimstone, the devil and all things dark and spitting from the center of the earth.

Probably the typical message of many bands preaching to teenagers revolting from too much parentally enforced Sunday School.

As I watched, enjoying the power of the music, I began to tire of the same theme over and over.  They had given out little red devil’s horns for everyone in the audience to wear and even some of the musicians in the band wore them  — actually rather dopey and goofy looking …

I began to wonder, “What is this really all about?”  Devil worship?  Revolution from the good old straight and narrow?  Even worse, some sort of pagan ritual played out on a Saturday night?

The band, and especially the lead singer, screamed constantly the same message and the stage effects backed it all up, but then I began to look deeper at the whole scene.  The audience was simply having fun.  They were smiling, joyful, singing along, all standing throughout — they in their little red devil horns were one of the happiest groups of 20,000 I’d seen in a long time. (more…)

We’re now in the final throes of recording and mixing Julia Wade’s new CD, Silk Road – Inspirational Journeys Across Planet Earth.  Some of the material of this new work was actually started nearly two years ago and then the project was tabled when we developed her Solos CD as a farewell gift to the Christian Science community when she finished her tenure as Soloist in Boston.

But we knew we had something really interesting going in Silk Road and we couldn’t wait to get beck to it.

The CD is due to hit the streets in early December and will be our major impetus throughout the holiday season.  She has just two more vocals to complete, all the orchestrations are completed and by the end of this next week I’ll be half way through the mixing.

It’s simply a most special project.  You’ll say, “Aren’t they all?” and I must answer, “Of course, but this one’s, for both of us, particularly transforming.”

Silk Road marks Julia’s arrival at the threshold of a new evolution in her music.  Her departure from her past carries forth her commitment to inspire through song not only on a sacred level, but also with an in depth look at the issues of our world at large and the individual human condition.

So it’s an album of songs that will continue to inspire her growing fan base with fresh new looks at spiritual reach through songs like Thinking Made It So and Julie Gold’s When He Walks With Me, but it also ventures into new territory dealing with the issues of our world today.

For the first time she now tries her hand at lyric writing and scores instantly with her own thoughts on What Peace Looks Like from the perspective of three children of the world from Uganda, the Sudan, and the ghettos of Kingston, Jamaica.  The title song, Silk Road, promises a comparison of the ancient Silk Roads spanning China, Tibet and Europe with the modern day impact of the Internet.

And then there are the songs of love … (more…)

Two bro’

Note: The following is Part 3 of a 4 part series written especially for my close family.  It is pretty personal stuff, but, in retrospect, eminently shareable with this readership family

When I had graduated from college, moved to New York City and had some early success in show business, I lived alone, a bachelor.  Every Christmas for 5-6 years I would go spend the holiday season with Jim and his family in St. Louis.  Mom and Dad lived there as well, but it was Jim’s house that I stayed in.  He had three of the sharpest kids I have ever laid eyes on – Cindy, Tina and a little red-headed ball-buster named Travis.  In those years I became the Jim to Travis’s Pete – except that I was about 25 years older than Travis rather than 5.

Jim, Travis, Tina, Pete, Cindy

We had a love/hate relationship that usually ended up with Travis going to his mom crying, but he too just could not turn from the opportunity to try to wallop Unca Pete.  Sometimes he would crawl up on the bed and wake me up with a slug to the nose or the closed eye.  Ouch!  Anyone who has ever raised a 5-year old knows that their punch can really hurt.  Sometimes I would hear him coming and just as he reared back to let one loose, I would wake up and scream “AAAAHHH” and scare him half to death so that he would run crying to Mom.

Those Christmases became the iconic Christmases for me because they were my way of hanging on to my own childhood and playing with those beautiful children that I had fallen so in love with.  Jim and I would stay up till 4 or 5 o’clock every Christmas Eve wrapping presents for the kids and often talking about our own childhood Christmases and the great times we had together as kids.  Whenever we would tell stories of when we were kids to his kids; they would gather around wide-eyed and fully concentrated, excited to hear about when we were like them.  These were their favorite stories and we had to tell them over and over.

Christmas Eve Preparation

For the next 30 years or so, Jim, the accountant, did my taxes for free each year and advised me how to take my proper deductions, organize my business life, steer clear of shady deals and stay on top of my roller coaster financial life in show biz.  One thing you can say about show biz:  It is not financially consistent.  I never had a real consistent  job until Watchfire Music.  I never knew where the next job was coming from, and yet I’m proud to say that I never had to work at any other job besides making music.  That one thing is a success story in itself in this business.  But it is an up and down life – like most entrepreneurs. (more…)

Bonnie Guidry, Linda Lawley, Marion Ramsey, Pamela Pentony

This is Part 6 of a multi-part series of posts.  I suggest that you start with Part 1 if you have the time and really want to appreciate the full effulgence.

London:

The plane ride to London was a blast.  An excited cast of twenty some gorgeous theatricals hangin’ over the seats, yellin’ and laughin’ back and forth and so excited about flyin’ to London.

I always kept my guitar in the overhead when I traveled and at one point I took it out and we serenaded the passengers for about a half hour with songs from the show.  At one point half the ladies were struttin’ up and down the aisle singin’ and doin’ their makeshift choreography to a bewildered, but totally entertained and enthralled audience of passengers.

A number of those people on that flight even came to see the show and came backstage afterwards to reminisce about that memorable flight.  Two months later on the flight back to NYC everyone slept the whole way home.

Theater in London is a whole different world than in the U.S.  There, there is history – a rich deep culture to draw from that the people – especially London’s theater lovers – are proud of and most knowledgeable.  After all we were now doing our classic show in the home city of one Will Shakespeare and this was a fact that meant so much to all the members of our cast.

Also at the time, Vanessa Redgrave was largely considered to be the leading actress in the Western world and everyone knew she lived in London, and on top of that her pictures adorned the walls of the Old Vic where she had starred in many of their productions.  So the girls were always a-buzz about Vanessa this and Vanessa that.

There was also some nervous speculation by all of us Americans as to how our show would be accepted in London, this great city of culture and theatrical history.  Would they put us down for being American and trivial?  Would they castigate us for turning Euripides masterpiece into a rock opera?  Would they turn up their British noses to us? (more…)

American Songwriter Magazine’s music critic and blogger, Paul Zollo, has just thrilled us all with his comprehensive and beautifully written rave review of our CD, Goin’ Home – On Heaven and Beyond. 

It appears in American Songwriter Magazine and is most easily found at their website.  You can go here: http://www.americansongwriter.com/category/blogz/paul-zollo-blogz/
to read it, or read it below printed in its entirety.

Having such a powerful review as this will certainly give us tremendous impetus going forward.  It’s long, but incredibly fulfilling.

I just thought that each of you would like to catch up and hear the good news.

REVIEW: Goin Home

AmericanSongwriter.com
BlueRailroad.com

•May 11, 2012

 Goin’ Home
On Heaven And Beyond
Peter Link

By PAUL ZOLLO

It’s a rare and timeless moment, a moment of grace, a drive-off-the-road-and-stop-the-car kind of moment. A time to turn off the engine and listen. It’s not something people do a lot of anymore; even when people listen to music nowadays, usually it’s while doing many other things. But music like this – and sung by singers like this – well, it’s worth taking a moment. This is something inspirational, something brave and new. It’s called Goin‘ Home. 

It sounds wrong, somehow, to characterize this as a celebration of death, but that is what it is: a celebration of the natural grace of death in our lives. It’s about rising above the fear all humans share regarding this final transition. It’s a cycle of songs about the enduring spirit of man, the spirit that lives on beyond our bodies do, the eternal spirit that exists beyond the easy grasp of words, but lives always in music.

The brainchild of Tony Award-nominated songwriter-producer-singer Peter Link, Goin’ Home is a phenomenal celebration of life really, more than death itself – but within this cycle there exists an elegant and inspirational acceptance of death, and ways by which we can realize a true acceptance of death. It’s an album which crystallizes the idea that death is not the end, but a birth into the beyond. Bravely creating a whole song cycle on a subject that few, with the exception of Lou Reed and Jacques Brel, have approached so fully, Peter Link has created a remarkable exploration of human finality, reflecting musically the full gamut of emotion experienced by those approaching death and those caring for and ultimately losing loved ones. There are sad songs here and  joyful ones, and it’s in that span of emotion that the genuine experience of death comes alive. This is not an easy road to walk, but Link’s songs and spirit go a long way in making you feel less lonely walking it.

Because as well all know, no matter how progressively spiritual one’s ideas about death might be, when the time comes – either for a loved one or for yourself – it’s frightening. It’s more frightening than anything, an encounter with the unknown in the most extreme way humans experience. This collection of songs is directed at those at death’s door, forced to integrate lifelong beliefs with an acceptance of the inexorable reality of this transition, and also directed at those forced to confront one of life’s toughest challenges: helping loved ones make a peaceful, fearless transition. (more…)

Norman Lewis as Porgy

In my very early childhood my family owned the Broadway Cast Album of the Gershwin’s opera Porgy And Bess – in a beautiful collection of 78s – that would be played around the house periodically for a decade.  When record players no longer came with the ability to play 78s, the collection was probably thrown out (along with my baseball cards) by my mom.

I rue the day.

But I grew up with all those great songs coursing through my head.  I’m not sure I ever really knew the story, but I certainly knew the songs.

Since then I’ve had the opportunity to see 5 different productions of the opera, all on Broadway.  My favorite, until yesterday, was the first I saw back in the mid 70s presented by the Houston Opera Company starring Kathleen Battle.  She was simply magnificent in the role – one of the best performances by a vocalist of anyone I’ve ever seen or heard.

Until yesterday, it had been about a decade since I had seen a production and had the tickets not been a gift, I probably would not have gone.  But the gift enabled both the Missus and me to attend a Wednesday matinee starring Audra McDonald and Norman Lewis.  Another friend who had seen it had warned me away from this production because it’s a musical adaptation of the opera – meaning that it has dialogue between the songs and is not sung through as an opera.

So I went thinking that if I didn’t like it, I could always leave at intermission and not be out the $85 ticket price since the tix were free.

At intermission you couldn’t have dragged me out of the theater.  It was, for my money, by far the best production of the Gershwin’s work I’ve ever seen. (more…)

If you’re a long-time reader of this blog, you know that my favorite orchestra is the Philadelphia Orchestra, and my favorite place to catch their act is Carnegie Hall – right up the street here in little ol’ New York City.  I’ve been “catching their act” for close to a decade now attending their concerts when time permits whenever they come to town.

Why my favorite?  Because I find them to be the most groove conscious – ‘rhythmic’, for some of you more classical music lovers out there – “tight” for all you musicians.  Many orchestras feel a bit on the sloppy side to me as they play through their repertoire and coming from the rhythmic world of pop music and having grown up a drummer, this aspect of the band playing “tight” is super important to me.

So the other night I had two tickets to the Philly and my dear Missus volunteered to stay home so that I might take my son, Dustin, of 27 years, to hear Glinka, Chopin and Ravel.  For whatever reason, Dust had never been to Carnegie Hall even though he grew up here in NYC.  He’s a pretty eclectic music lover, an ex-piano student (7 years of torture) and the child of some pretty accomplished musical people (Jenny Burton and yours truly – with some additional assistance from stepmom, Julia Wade).  He’s moved from pop to rap to indy to metal to rock to esoteric music throughout his life and so, growing up a New York kid, he’s had a pretty deep musical education and influence.

When I called him at work to ask him if he wanted to go, he jumped at the chance.  I’ll have to admit a touch of trepidation at inviting him because introducing any rocker to classical music is a bit of a stretch, but I figured a Russian Overture (Glinka) a piano concerto played by Maria João Peres (Chopin) and Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe gave me as good a shot as any to intrigue him.

He’s an interesting young man.  At age 27, he owns two companies, is a Systems Administrator at Viacom where he has placed both his companies as outside contractors.  He’s 6’6” tall and stands out in a crowd not only for his height, but also for his good looks.  (His mother is tall and beautiful.)  You might call me a proud poppa.

We arrived early and had great seats – third tier, audience left, first row, high above the orchestra so that we could lean over the rail, look down upon the orchestra, watch the bowings, and see over the pianist’s right shoulder to her hands as she tickled the ivories.

Before the concert began, I had the opportunity to set things up for Dust.  We talked about the prefect acoustics of the great hall and the century-long struggle to  keep them perfect, we talked about the various sections of the orchestra and I was able to point out the players (first & second violins, violas and cellos, 8 double basses!, woodwinds, brass, percussion, etc.) and I also explained the conductor and the concert master and a raft of other details.

Dustin, of late, though he gave up piano long ago, has decided that he would like to learn to play the fiddle, so he went out and bought himself a violin and had picked it up sporadically in his far too busy life and begun to learn the instrument.  He’s a beginner, but intrigued.

So my favorite moment of the evening came early when the orchestra finally began Glinka’s Overture to Ruslan and Lyudmila with a most impressive, furious 16^th note violin section run to begin the piece.  I glanced over at Dust to see his eyes bug out and his jaw drop about six inches at the wonder of the musicianship, and right then, I knew we had him. (more…)

Cabaret in New York City is alive and well and certainly diverse as ever.  Long a hotbed for developing talent, the cabarets in Manhattan celebrated yet another year of diverse creativity with their 26^th Annul MAC Awards (Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs) presentation held at BB King’s Blues Club.

This year, being a record industry mogul (he says with tongue in cheek), I was asked to be a judge of materials submitted in the field of Best Recording.  I dutifully waded through a very mixed bag of about 15 nominated CDs and picked the top 5 as final nominees for the award.  As is, I’m way behind on the listening of new submissions for Watchfire Music, but when asked to give my time for this particular job, well, I just couldn’t resist.

Over the years I’ve directed various Cabaret performers’ acts and starting in the late 90s had the incredible opportunity to compose for and direct The Jenny Burton Experience which ran at NYC’s hottest club “Don’ Tell Mama” for seven sold out years and won just about every NYC award conceivable including the MAC Award for Best Vocal Group.  So, though I don’t get much of a chance to frequent the Cabarets any longer, I certainly am interested in the genre.

They say that on any given night in Manhattan there are a thousand places you can go to get entertained.  Cabaret is certainly one of the most proliferate.  And it is not a theater of young lovely chanteuses and gay men as most people think outside of NYC, but, instead, a completely diverse system of developing entertainment ranging from comedians, to singers of all styles to jazz musicians and drag queens, jugglers and just about any other form of entertainment imaginable.

Got talent?  Need a place to show it off?  Try Cabaret. (more…)