My father was a barber

Great bangs have great beginnings.

For my birthday, I would like to tell you a story. I recorded it last night.

First, you have to sit down and close your eyes. Imagine the sound of a marching band drumline cadencing onto a crisp wet field. Imagine a drone in the low brass. Imagine a fiddle double-stop, the sounds of banjo and strings joining in, loaded with a full battery of percussion in the chorus.

And then... press play.*

  My father was a barber 

 
*Please forgive the recording quality. I am making these rough draft recordings to give would-be band members a sense of my songs. Until then, most of the instruments must be imagined. I am seeking a drummer/arranger, fiddler, cellist, and an upright bassist. If you're into this, by all means drop a line.

Charlene's Ordination Song?

It's true that, from time to time, I do some creative writing during church services. Stand up and sing a hymn, back to the notebook, take my place in the choir, to the notebook, pick up the French horn for the offertory, to the notebook, to the notebook, to the notebook. It's my own private call and response.

And it's a happy coincidence that today, during the ordination of the new Reverend Charlene Han Powell [WAHHOO HUZZAH!], I finished writing my latest song [YAAAAY]. What's unusual about this song is that it is finished and I still really like it. (Usually, now would be the repulsion stage in my process.)

You know how rappers will often start with an exposition, like "My name is ... and I'm from ... and this is what I'm about ... so I'm here to say..."? It's like that. Sort of. This is definitely an album opener and a show opener. Also you hafta hafta hafta imagine that it opens with a drumline cadence, then perhaps a brass pedal drone and/or a double stop in the violin before the voice comes in. And there's a banjo. And harmonies and lots of strings and drumline action as it picks up.

untitled

my father was a barber / and my mother made our home
in the sweet idyllic country / Wilderness and Locust Grove
honeysuckle spring and summer / maple leaves in early fall
without fail one day the truth prevailed I somehow lost it all

so long I've tried to say it / but I couldn't find my words
displaced Americana / hymn sings and hope deferred
fantasy or pure conviction / you can claim that I am wrong
but i do not need your third degree to put this into song

lay low, let it go
there are stranger works of fiction that I know
since then, where I've been
is the place where grace moves in

studied Carter, Ives, and Barber / dropped the needle one by one
symphony and private lessons / Theory IV and Methods I
it took several years of schooling / just to finally learn one thing
that I do not need a third degree to stand up here and sing

lay low, let it go
there are stranger works of fiction that I know
since then, where I've been
is the place where grace moves in
(repeat)

----- instrumental break w/ much drumline ------


my father was a barber / and my mother made our home
in the sweet idyllic country / Wilderness and Locust Grove
honeysuckle spring and summer / maple leaves in early fall
without fail one day the truth prevailed I somehow lost it all

----- transition to 3/4 time + 4-part harmony ------

I thought it was over
I thought I was done
some kind of an old soul
found out I was young
(repeat x3)

----- end humming the coda + add drumline to finish -----

Why I Am Leaving Boosey & Hawkes

It has been a most adventurous 5 1/2 years but Friday, September 3 marks my last day as an employee of classical, jazz, and avant-garde music publisher Boosey & Hawkes.

I don't believe I'll ever find another workplace where CEOs are farewelled with staff productions of Meredith Monk's PANDA CHANT II, where it is decided before singing HAPPY BIRTHDAY in which composer's style it will be performed (Carter! No, Del Tredici!), where upper management consistently supports innovation not only in the artists represented but in its own staff, where I very occasionally get the opportunity to tell Steve Reich what to do and he listens, or where I might routinely mistake a piece of music for hard-hat construction on another floor (usually something from Steven Mackey or the Universal catalogues...).

Perhaps it is for these reasons that I'm not going to another workplace. It has been my long-term goal to go free-lance as a music publicist. At the same time, one thing I learned in my experience at Boosey is that I love collaboration. I mean...LOVE it. Therefore I have decided to team up with another Brooklyn-based publicist who is the yin to my yang. I'll soon be taking on select clients and projects, providing creative strategy and full-service PR to artists and organizations.

I hope this more modular business will also allow me to infuse more time into music-making of my own, rounding out my lifestyle and making me a better everything. (The French horn calls, after all, and so do the pen, the voice, and the piano.)

As I prepare for my departure, I'd like to take a moment to thank my colleagues at B&H for teaching me to listen intelligently and open-mindedly to sounds in order to hear them for what they are rather than for what they are not, and for never responding to crazy ideas by asking Um, why?? but rather by asking Hey, why not?

Good night, composers. Good night, stars. The next adventure awaits; I hope to see you there.