Sparks from the Fire

I’m a much better singer in my head than in actuality.  Most of us are.  I guess I’m beyond being a shower singer, but not too far beyond it.  And working with the people that I have the chance to work with nearly every day is an experience that would make just about anyone who can carry a tune clam up and keep silent.

I guess you might say I have the passion for singing and the ability to carry a song as an actor, but just don’t have the instrument.  Also I don’t exercise my voice on a daily level.

So I have such a deep respect for anyone who can sing consistently on pitch, with great rhythm, emotion and control.  Also the ability to control one’s vibrato is a mystery to me.  My studio singer friends can sing with a straight tone, a wide vibrato, a narrow one (or fast vibrato) or a note that starts with a straight tone and emerges into the vibrato of choice. (more…)

Part 3 – As an artist:

Perhaps this sub-heading needs further explanation before we start.  On the Watchfire Music website an artist is someone or some group that makes records (CDs, songs).  In this case I’m using the larger meaning of the word.  In my case I am an artist with several hats.  Stick around while I try them on. (more…)

Part 2 — As a producer:

It’s a busy time.  Spent the weekend in the studio working on two projects.  Will spend today, the day after Valentines Day, celebrating 14 year anniversary with the Missus.  I’ll actually take the day off.

The rest of the winter months and spring are loaded with music projects for Watchfire Music – so many that I must get better organized and get my arms around them all.  Here’s a list: (more…)

Yeah, it’s true, and I’m bustin’ my buttons with pride over our very own Watchfire Music artist Tom Tipton’s performance just this last weekend.  He sang the Star-Spangled Banner at the Minnesota Vikings/Dallas Cowboys playoff game in Minnesota before 70,000 people and knocked ‘em dead.

Tom’s 76 years young and still got the voice to fill a stadium – The Metrodome, in fact.

I spoke to Tom yesterday and he had not come down from his lofty heights just yet.  He raved about the day.  It seems that they gave him and his family and friends a catered suite at the stadium and all the trappings while they all watched the hometown Vikings beat the Cowboys and advance to the NFC championship against the New Orleans Saints.

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When I was a kid growing up music seemed to be secularized across the country by region.  There was the East Coast sound, the California Sound, Country music from the south and R&B from Detroit – the Motown sound.

If you lived in NYC and swept through your radio dial, basically you heard the East Coast sound. You would be hard put to find a Country radio station in New York City.

I grew up in St. Louis where there was simply Pop music. Back then there were only a handful of musical genres to listen to: Pop, R&B, Rock n’ Roll and Country. Occasionally you might find a Jazz station if the city was big enough. And oh yes, Classical.

Today it’s a whole new world of diversity and complexity. (more…)

On Broken Pieces – inspirational music

As I begin this post, I can look out the window to my left and there shines up into the sky a beacon of light where a building once stood. It seems to be searching the sky for the people that were lost there. New York City is reminded once again of September 11, 2001.

It’s par for the course. This past week has been very tough on my spirit. As they say, “Sometimes life just ain’t a bowl of cherries; it’s the pits.”

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Inspirational Music Artist, David Gonzalez
I always wanted to go to Rio – city of passion, Christ on a mountaintop overlooking the New York City of our Southern Hemisphere, and oh the women! A truly original atmosphere reflected by a truly original music.

As a kid I once fell in love with a girl from Ipanema and listened to all the great music of Stan Getz, guitarist Joao Gilberto, pianist Antonio Carlos Jobim and vocalist Astrud Gilberto until the grooves wore out.

I always wished I had some of that music in me.

Later in life I bought a little house near St John, Antigua where I spent a number of years composing the sounds of de wind an’ waves, de crickets an’ de tree frogs – the sounds of the Caribbean. I’d sit on the beach and everything that came out of my guitar and throat would sound Reggae or Calypso. I didn’t even have to try – it just came out that way. I wrote my impressions, or perhaps my impressions wrote themselves.

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Inspirational Music Artist, Leon Williams
The classical crossover world is of great interest to me. This is the world of Josh Grobin, Andrea Bocelli, The Boston Pops Orchestra, Il Divo, John Williams, etc. My wife, Julia Wade, our best selling artist, fits snuggly into this category.

So when I heard the music of Leon Williams, I knew we had a man who could carry the flag in this genre. Here is a guy who can do about anything he wants to do with his instrument. It’s one of those powerhouse classical spine tingling, shake the chandeliers type voices that you don’t soon forget.

But my favorite thing about Leon is that he is accessible. This defies the problem that I often have with classical singers – often it’s all about the sound of the voice and not the feeling of the soul. Not in Leon’s case. Here I found a real commitment to the stuff behind the lyric, the soul of the man.

Check him out for yourself.  He’ll do ya’ good.

Albums by Leon Williams

Handfuls

The Art of Leon Williams