Monday, September 11, 2006
New York Trip Part 2
My 18 days in New York state were jam packed with work and fun, family and friends, five days of nice weather, too much food, not enough exercise and LOTS of music.Day one was sunny and warm Sunday and I raced down to Coldspring to see Helen Avakian and husband Terry Champlin do a classical gig in a historic restoration/church. I loved the look on their faces as they were not expecting me. I had already seen one former student and had coffee with my daughter, Bree, when she left work at Vassar hospital. I also made some phone calls to set up more meetings with old friends and students during the week. I wanted to get as much of that out of the way as possible before Cathy was to arrive a week later and my schedule would be less flexible. Halfway through Terry and Helen's gig I raced back to Poughkeepsie to meet Bree and son-in-law, Josh. We had dinner at a river front restaurant where Bree tends bar on Saturdays. We fed the members of the experimental/progressive rock band "3" who were home between world tour stops with Coheed and Cambria, Atreyu, 36 Crazy Fists, Chiodos, and Adair . Lead guitarist, Billy Riker, is a close friend of Josh and Bree and I hadn't seen him since their wedding a couple of years ago. An amusing dinner with three drummers, a tour manager and two girl friends present. I'm sure those of you in the business can appreciate the dynamics to which I allude. Later we walked to their gig and were knocked out by them.
Monday, I met with a family that included two of my former students Riane and Riston. The oldest, Riston, opened for my shows last year. She's a talented young singer songwriter. I taught her guitar but she has gone way past what I was able to give her. Scary to see how they've matured so fast. Riane is becoming a talented writer. Hope these two stay in touch.
I spent the next 12 hours with Helen and Terry. We did break for dinner and met up with Terry's Mom and by my close friend Ed Haas and his friend Cynthia. I was staying with Ed but this was the most time I had spent with him since I arrived. Most of my Helen time was capsulized in the last post. Except I must report that Helen learned while we were recording Tattoo ((Click here) ) that she won a song writing contest for Best Love Song at the Walnut Valley Folk Fest in Winfield Kansas. She also placed in the categories of Best Instrumental and Best Feel Good tune. She'll be perfoming there on Sept. 16. I'm so proud of her! That's my teacher! That's my friend!
The following day I met up with another former student, Stephanie, who got so beautiful I didn't recognize her. Then I was off to meet my co-writer and former student Kathy Feeney and her family and our pal Ashley. Splendid and productive day there. We finished Kathy's latest song, Elevator, but I'm going to redo it with a different groove before I post it. I think that was the first time a former student drove me anyplace when we went to get pizza. Stranger than when my own kids started to drive.
We spent most of the day discussing the newest song with a working title of Keeping Secrets. This one is going to take a while as we only agreed on an outline and some key phrases and images. I have a first verse and most of a chorus and a riff with some chord progressions. The rest we'll do by e-mail and cell phone. Of all the songs that Helen made lyric suggestions on, Kathy's songs took the smallest hits. I'm not sure what that means but I'll just go with that flow and consider myself lucky to have such talented young collaboration.
After three full days with Helen I went to the studio with her to watch her record a song for her new CD. NRS studios are run by Scott Petito. He's an amazing producer/ sound engineer and musician. Watching them all work for seven hours was both humbling and illuminating. I hope I can book some time there. Check out his recording credits to see why it might be a problem squeaking in some sessions.
Met up with three other students, all siblings, Ana, Chloe and Kevin. All very bright and all gifted musically. Missed out on seeing all the other kids I wanted to see. Then on Saturday, a week after I arrived I picked up Cathy at the Albany Airport. I had stayed busy enough during the days to not feel her absence but night time was a whole other problem. I could see her across the baggage area when my cell rang and it was her asking me where I was. "Watching you talk to me," was my answer. God, I love to watch her face light up like that.
01%20Tattoo.mp3
posted by Bud @ 6:51 AM
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