We’re calling it the Watchfire Music Listening Room. WFM artist, Julia Wade, will do 3 nights in the next 3 months celebrating and developing her new CD at Jenkins House Concerts just off of Central Park West.

Thursday, August 19th @ 7:30
Thursday, September 16th @ 7:30
Thursday, October 7th @ 7:30

Opening for her will be singer/songwriters Rebecca Minor in August, Megan Neale in September, and WFM artist and composer, Margaret Dorn, in October.

The purpose of the Watchfire Music Listening Room house concerts is to allow WFM artists to develop their music in front of a live audience.

The concerts will be kept simple focusing on the singer and the song and will even open the floor to comments and discussion with the audience regarding the music performed.

In this series both piano and music tracks will be used for accompaniment. The setting, in an intimate “home” atmosphere, will be performed with no microphones.

Those interested in attending and learning more about this music listening experience just need to opt in to Watchfire Music’s newsletter mailing list to receive further information. (https://www.watchfiremusic.com/login.php) And, to reserve your seat today, email us.

For more inspirational music, thoughts and ideas from Peter Link, please visit Watchfire Music.

Even More Inspiration

• Synchronicity
• Kickstarter.com Campaign – I
• Even Now
• Hitting The Wall
• People Watching
• WFM Listening Room – Series II – Event 4

Just this last weekend I had the great privilege to produce and direct a concert of Inspirational music for TMC Youth, an organization dedicated to opening up the horizons of spirituality for the youth of today.

In a 3-day weekend gathering of over 200 young people from mainly the East coast, but also from as far away as Africa and Europe, my task was to put together and spearhead an hour and a half of Inspirational music entertainment for their Saturday night blow-out.

For this I chose 5 artists, led by emcees Julia Wade and Tyler Neale, a talented stand-up comedian from Los Angeles.  The two kept the evening’s activities focused and the audience giggling at the daffy air-headed antics of Ms Wade, Watchfire Music’s best selling artist.  Tyler Neale also regaled us with his hilarious monologue on “What if the Bible were first published in today’s market.”

Besides the giggles and outright guffaws, the audience soared through the evening on the wings of 5 terrific musical performances given by some very special young artists.

We kicked it off with Michelle Armstrong, a twenty-something firecracker of a chanteuse whose voice and self-accompaniment guitar playing took the evening immediately to just the right tenor.  She was joined by vocalists Margaret Dorn (Watchfire Music Artist) and NY Studio superb vocalist La Tanya Hall on her closing song, “I’m Looking For Water” – a song that still soars through my mind constantly 3 days after.  Together the three ladies sent chills through the audience with their tight vocal harmonies.

Next up was a terrific duo that I’ve been watching for several years now – The Clements Brothers – two male twins with movie star good looks and voices to match.  What most impressed me, however, besides their sweet Everly Brothers meets Simon and Garfunkle sound was their musicianship.  Both brothers, George on acoustic guitar and Charles on acoustic bass play their relative instruments extremely well to round out a complete package of great music entertainment.  Stay tuned to these guys.  You’re sure to hear a lot more from them.

Julia Wade followed the Bros. with her debut of “Woman On A Train” the musical telling of her deeply personal story of a chance meeting with an 80-year old stranger traveling NYC to Boston.

Then she rocked the house and showed off her ever-widening range of vocal ease with Twila Paris’ Christian anthem, “God Is In Control.”  What will this amazingly versatile vocalist lay upon us next, heavy metal?

Starting out with Michelle Armstrong and the Clements Brothers’ two acoustic sets settled the audience into a peaceful and almost prayerful tranquility, but they were awakened dramatically by Ms Wade’s new version of the Christian standard setting the tone for the rest of the evening.

What followed was newcomer Megan Neale’s resounding declaration to her contemporary audience of “You Got It”.  She was joined by NY Session Singer and keyboardist Bobby Douglas in a duet that gathered momentum from Wade’s kick off into high gear.

Megan Neale then followed with a deeply moving ballad of her own penmanship, her new release, “Broken Feet”.  This song has HIT written all over it.  She then ended her set with a rousing rendition of Lennon and McCartney’s classic, “Got To Get You Into My Life” which had the audience rockin’ along right with her.

We then turned to the immeasurable talents of Jenny Burton, another Watchfire Music artist to finish us off – and finish us off she did. Where has this lady been for the past 4 years?  We’ve missed her dearly and can only say, “Thank God she’s back!”  Missing not a step, she showed us once again why she was one of NYC’s top tickets for ten years in the late 90s and early 2000s with her hit show, The Jenny Burton Experience.

Leading off with fan favorite, “Just Got To Sing” she soundly proclaimed that she was back.  We were instantly believers.  With “I Think On These Things” she showed us the depth of her life and, ending the show with “I Want My Life Back”, she nailed the spirit of the evening.

The surprise ending of the evening was the weekend’s theme song, “In Sync” sung by the entire cast and joined by the audience of by now passionate followers as all stood and rocked the house.

And if you’re gonna get in sync
First!
Get in sync with yo’ self
And if you’re feelin’ on the brink
In the teeth of the crocodile
You can smile all the while

So what do you do
What do you do
What do you do when it comes undone?

Take your life down off the shelf
Get in time
Get in sync with yo’ self

Take your life down off the shelf
Get in touch with the one God

As the audience and performers sang the chorus over an over together into the night, one couldn’t help but feel the power of music’s synchronicity uniting audience and performer in the spirit of the weekend.

I sat in the back of the hall, exhausted but grateful for the experience of uniting with my fellow man and partaking of the tremendous vibe in the room.

Nothing like a little rock n’ roll to cure the soul.

For more inspirational music, thoughts and ideas from Peter Link,
please visit Watchfire Music.

Even More Inspiration

• I Stood In The Wings… Part 3
• The Road To Inspiration — Peter Link and Julia Wade
• Kickstarter.com Campaign – I
• WFM Listening Room Series II – 3
• Progress Afoot
• WFM Listening Room — Series II Opener

One of my young artists I’m working with is a man who just turned 50, two are in their late 20s and one in her very early 20s.  Perhaps “young” here means simply ‘early in their development’.

Teaching has always been for me a necessity of life.  I taught Sunday School for 25 years, midi classes for 22 years, and an audition class for actors at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theater here in NYC for another 20.  The ability to pass along what I’ve learned in all these years is most precious to me.

I even think it’s a shame that when we leave this world we can’t leave behind a selected databank of our brain cells for others to explore if they so desire.  Some of us don’t have time to write a book.

One of my most exciting students is a 21-year old young woman named Megan Neale.  I first became aware of Megan through Watchfire Music artist, Mindy Jostyn, who was her aunt.  Mindy passed on a few years ago, but often raved about her talented niece back in St. Louis.

Because I so deeply respected Mindy, I kept her niece in mind, remembering to catch her act when I got a chance.

That opportunity came a couple of years ago at a gathering of about 200 teenagers here in NYC of a kind of teen religious weekend convention.  On the first night, when the kids had just arrived, they all met in a YMCA gymnasium.  The room was pandemonium.  All the kids were so excited to see each other – many of them had attended summer camp together – they were all so jazzed to be here in the Big Apple, and, besides, they were 200 teenagers strong – all in the same room.

The organizers of the event were not prepared to focus this chaos and the poor woman who first got up to talk and welcome them with no sound system support and in a noisy gymnasium, was paid little attention by the talking crowd.  On top of that, there were no chairs for the kids, so they were all standing and milling about the room.  I stood at the side of the room and watched, shaking my head, as several adults tried to quiet the noisy kids to no avail.

The kids were verging on being rude, but it was the adults who were really at fault.  They just had no clue how to tame and focus the chaos.

Then, still being paid no attention to whatever, the poor speaker of the moment made her worst mistake.  She introduced Megan Neale who was there to sing an opening song.  The chaos continued as Megan walked to the center of the room – no one had heard the introduction, she had no mic, no stage, and she was about to sing a soft song a capella – no accompaniment.

I groaned inwardly at the hopelessness of the chaotic moment.  This poor 19-year old girl was in for the roughest of performances.  As the room talked, laughed and shouted on, Megan began to sing.  She did nothing, really.  She just stood very still in the center of the room surrounded by the chaos and sang softly.

Within 15 seconds the room was dead quiet, focused on Megan in awe, and totally attentive to the song.  She finished to thunderous applause and for the rest of the evening the gang of 200 kids was totally focused on the events of the evening.

I became a fan at that moment.

What does it take to do something like that?  I don’t know what it’s called, but few of us mere mortals have it.  Call it chutzpah, talent, presence, magic, whatever, but I knew that it was an intrinsic special something that can’t be trained, but is probably something that one is just born into.

I decided then and there to mentor her.

Well, I was right.  This girl/woman has it.  It’ll take a little time to fully craft the package, but put the name Megan Neale in the back of your mind for now and remember it.  Soon enough, you too will be paying close attention.

That’s a promise.

For more inspirational music, thoughts and ideas from Peter Link,
please visit Watchfire Music.

Even More Inspiration

• The Watchfire Music Listening Room
• Synchronicity