sliding into september
what looked like an endless summer is suddenly slipping into september… somehow i was blessed to wind up in the middle of an artistic renaissance reminiscent of laurel canyon in the late ‘60’s and early ‘70’s at donna green’s magical moon farm in marshfield, massachusetts, where, after literally farming with donna last spring, i’ve been acting as music director of the summer saturday music series... ”live at magical moon barn” has been an island in the covid storm for musicians and audiences alike with socially-safe performances from 12-5 every saturday. the van gogh brothers have played twice and will appear again on september 12th. in the meantime, up-and-coming country star sarah martin plays at noon on saturday, the 29th, followed by ‘lil ellis, the new doc ellis spin-off duo.rising stars martin and kelly join us on september 5th. amazing, especially during these crazy times...
the live music barn series this summer has been fantastic. starting on the 4th of july, we’ve had kevin crudder of the boston pops on cello, jaime walker, wsu bluegrass, glympses, dirty mike & the boys, doc ellis, the van gogh brothers and many others. ted wayman of wcvb (boston’s channel 5) did a piece on the series and we’ve been flooded with offers from local and national artists ever since. we now look forward to country stars sarah martin on august 29th, and on september 5th, martin and kelly.
the van gogh brothers return to the farm on september 12th and we are also planning to keep our vincent’s october 17 date, but will strip down to a trio for an outdoor show 6-9, on the porch of “the cabin” in back of vincent’s. the summer months turned out to be great live music months and we are all wondering what the first frost will bring!
we also return to woolly mammoth for multiple recording sessions throughout september to continue progress on XV… next up is a petty-esque rocker entitled “share of love,” which i'm excited about as the album needs another weighty rocker to complement “down to the river.” speaking of which, dave devo on wrtc hartford featured the van gogh brothers recently with an interview and a selection of “love letters” tracks and premiered “down to the river” on his morning drive-time show. thank you dave and wrtc!
my september trip to london and palestine for pmx (music festival and conference) was canceled so i’m hankering to fill that void with another creative project… my thinking right now is to get going on the video for “down to the river” which will be a sin and salvation motif of rural baptism led by an errant preacher. we plan to film in hadley, massachusetts, on the connecticut river, with bob crowley playing the preacher. i’m excited to start and get the footage before the first frost…
august has had it’s somber moments, with the loss of cindy badell-slaughter, co-owner of heavy hitters music, our longtime publisher. after an introduction by producer anthony resta, heavy hitters gave us our professional songwriting start in the music business back in 1998 with our very first TV placement on “sunset beach,” followed by literally hundreds of placements ranging from an incredible run with multiple soap operas in the late ‘90’s and early 00’s, to NCIS, American Idol, Justified and many, many other network shows. heavy hitters has co-hosted our annual champagne reception at the standard hotel in hollywood, and has been there to support our live gigs at the mint, soho (little beach) house in malibu and other la dates, cindy was a passionate, loving human and professional and we will miss her greatly.
all in all, i consider myself very fortunate during this very difficult time. my good fortune, however, does not completely prevent the feeling of helplessness and despair that we all feel, or the difficulty keeping a balanced perspective of life in general. i work daily to stay as “grounded” as i can, to remain compassionate towards others, and to provide an example of civility and calmness in the face of this life-changing and fear-invoking, worldwide pandemic event. one positive in all this is we are all— in every walk of life, in every nation, of every religion and nationality— equally susceptible and therefore in a very basic way, reminded that we as human beings are equal. do you think we needed to be reminded of that? i do. and i hope we can all carry that message as we move into the future.
i look forward to seeing some of you in the weeks ahead, and i hope you all enjoy these beautiful , late summer and early autumn days in the northern hemisphere.
love,
jc