Thank you Tanya Hogan, Thank you Bruce Willis, Thank you Sun Valley
I'm back from the whirlwind trip to the Sun Valley area for the concert with Will Ackerman, Jeff Oster, and Patrick Gorman ,and I'm not exagerating when I say that it was THE most fun I've ever had playing concerts. Things got off to a rocky start on Wednesday night when I arrived at the Sun Valley airport only to find that my luggage had been lost by that the crack crew of professionals at United Airlines (motto: we'll get you where you want to go, but your luggage belongs to us). Fortunately, the airline delivered the luggage to my hotel before noon on Thursday, which is a good thing, since I was starting to wonder if I could somehow construct a toga from my bathroom's shower curtain.
(about the hotel- we musicians stayed at the Americinn of Hailey, ID. It's a wonderful hotel- very new- and has a great staff. Because of my desire to get their complimentary breakfast, they saw me stumble into the lobby every morning of my stay looking like something the cat coughed up. And they still talked to me!)
On Thursday morning, Will and I had breakfast at a cool little place called Zany's. There we met Ted Macklin, the guy running the sound for our shows. Ted is a great guy, and he turned out to be just about the most necessary part of the show. As we found out in rehearsal at the Liberty Theater later that day, Ted knew what he was doing- all the musicians were commenting on how good things sounded, and we all knew that it wasn't just the space we were playing in. Even the best of spaces can sound bad unless there's a sound person who knows what they're doing. But Ted had a good place to work with- the staff at the Liberty Theater were wonderful and helpful, and their set-up was state of the art, thanks to the owner of the theater, Bruce Willis. In the mid '90's, he bought the place and renovated it, adding state of the art touches everywhere
I grabbed a quick swim at the hotel (don't picture me in swim trunks unless it's been a few hours since you've eaten) and it was there I met Patrick Gorman and his wife Colleen for the first time "face to face". I'll admit- Colleen looks VERY much like someone I used to know, and I spent a lot of time not making eye contact with her, and looking, in general, nervous, sorry and guilty. I quickly got past that, because Colleen is such a sweet girl who overflows with joy.
The rehearsals were fun, and I was able to run through a song of mine with a local high school cello player named Travis Job. Tanya Hogan thought it might be good to have someone from the community play a duet with one of the artists. I was a little surprised (read: terrified) when I heard that my duet partner was a high school student, but I decided to make the best of it and hope that a flurry of emails to Travis giving him a crash course in improvisation would bring results. It turned out my fears were unjustified; Travis was a great player, so much so that Will recruited him to play a song on a song of his.
After the rehearsals, we hit the town and ended up at a great resturant called CK's. By that time, Christy Walker had shown up in town, for the sole purpose of helping Tanya get ready for the show- yep, we all wish we had friends like that. My unofficial "chauffer" Aaron was also at the meal, keeping everyone entertained, if not a little perplexed, by his constant stream of wordplay and puns; when I've had a long day of rehearsals, the last thing I need to do is think. Have a good meal, throw in some great conversation, tease Jeff Oster a little about turning 50 that day, and finish it off with a scoop of homemade blueberry ice cream (YUM!) and it was off to the hotel for a little sleep.
Friday morning comes early for me (remember, my body is still on east coast time, two hours ahead of Idaho time- so at 6:30 am east coast time, I was awake and ready to go. Unfortunately, that time is also 4:30 am Idaho time... :( ) and I grab a quick breakfast, grab a quick swim (thirty-minute rule?!?!? HA HA HA!! I live dangerously!!!) and started rehearsing in my hotel room- this lasted for a few hours. Then it was off to the theater, where a great lunch was delivered by Tanya- her husband Steve is owner of a resturant in town- Chester and Jake's- and is an amazing chef. The shrimp salad topped with grilled salmon was"standing ovation" worthy, and held me over until supper time- a light salad eaten at the brew pub across the street from the theater. I tend to eat VERY light, if at all, before a performance. In my past experience with him, Will Ackerman was the same way. So you can imagine my surprise when I saw Will Ackerman eating a cheesburger roughly the size of a tractor wheel. He said that he'd had one the day before for lunch, and it was great. I'm wondering just how many he ate during the trip.
It was time for the show, and Scott Burwell (please write him and ask him to put somewthing up on his myspace page!) was there to tune up Will's guitars. Will's been producing Scott, and the music is outstanding- Scott is a great guitar player- certainly the kind of guitar player that I'd hate to follow at a concert. So you can imagine my reaction when Will told me, ten minutes before show time, that Scott was going to be playing a song that night- right before I started my songs in the first set. ("what?!?! I have to follow HIM?!?! WHY, GOD, WHY?!?!?!").
Will went on first and played two songs. Of course, he played wonderfully and had everyone in stitches with his stories. Then he introduced Scott- who, as luck would have it for ME, was raised in the Sun Valley area, so he had that "local boy" thing happening for him- and Scott delivered a beautiful song- perfect, actually. Then Scott introduced me, and I went onstage with the Chapman Stick, mumbled out a story, and played a couple of tunes. I did ok, and the crowd threw nothing at me, so I exited and Pat Gorman went on for a tune- and he was followed by Jeff Oster. That's the way Will likes to do these concerts- instead of overybody playing their set all at once, it's spread around- this gives some nice variety to the evening, and gives Will a chance to re-tune his guitars while the rest of us are playing. We all joined Will for the last song of the set- his wonderful tune "Last Day at the Beach" and it was magical- Lars bringing in subtle ocean sounds, me providing some low Stick notes and some subtle leads, Jeff Oster playing some VERY restrained and lovely muted trumpet, and Patrick playing a piano improv which put the song "over the top"
The first set of the show ends, followed by a 20 minute intermission, then the second half begins, like the first, with Will. He plays a solo song, then myself and Lars Hidde (who, with a G5 running all sorts of voodoo, is literally Jeff Oster's "backing band") join Will for one of his tunes. Adding some wonderful vocal textures on this song is a local musician named Amy Clifford- simply a great person with one of the most unique voices I've ever heard. She was also visibly pregnant, and I'm certain that, at rehearsals, she got tired of me offering to get her a chair, get her water, carry her across the street, etc.... I stayed on stage, told a story, played a couple of songs, and brought out Jeff Oster, Pat, and Lars. Backstage, Will told me that the combination of songs I'd played- "Almost the Moon" and "Jasmine in Lingering Light"- were "devestating", and that my meager attempts at humor went over well. Feedback like that from someone like him- well, it means a lot.
Will went out and played the last song, after some thick-sounding and "arranged" songs (these descriptions are meant in the best sense, by the way) from Jeff Oster. We all agreed that the crowd was wonderful, and were looking forward to playing again on saturday night. After the show, we all talked with whichever audience members stayed around to talk- and by my estimations, it was all of them. Pack the Stick up, head back to the hotel way too late, and get some sleep.
Morning came too early, I did the "zombie creeps into hotel lobby with gravity-defying hair to eat a bowl of cereal" routine, and I went back to my room to start rehearsing again. This may seem to be overkill- rehearsing so much on show day- but it's something that I feel I "need" to do when I get the chance to. How much talent a person has is always open for debate, but what's NOT open to debate, for me, is how "hard" a person can work. I may or may not have a lot of talent, but whatever I'm lacking in the talent area, I can "make up for" in the "work like an army of caffinated ants" area. Besides- I HAD to rehearse, because I had a surprise for Will Ackerman at that night's show (insert scary music here....)
So- a few hours practice, I head to the theater to do a quick soundcheck with Travis the cello player. The show starts, and it's pretty much the same set as the night before. However, I'm the odd man in that my saturday night set and stories were different than the friday night set. I do this for MY benefit- I like to stay "engaged", and I have a hard time doing that when I play the same set over and over. I started my first set by letting the audience pick a key signature, and I performed a work of "spontaneous composition" in that key signature. I then played "In the Silent Years to Come" from my "Lingering Light" cd, then I was off the stage. Will was of the opinion that his playing was a bit "sloppy" as compared to the night before. I can state with complete confidence that he was the only one who thought so, because the rest of us musicians were pretty knocked out by what we heard. Still, I could tell he was pretty bothered by his playing, which led to the following exchange:
Me: Don't worry, Will- it sounds great. And besides, I have a surprise for you during the second set.
Will: Is it dancing girls?
Me: Everything is negotiable
The second set begins, and Will tells the story about his encounter a few years ago with Gene Simmons from Kiss. He plays one song, We join him for his second song, and Travis and I play "Almost the Moon". It was nice hearing a cello with the Chapman Stick, and it makes me want to try more of that in the future. The song is over, and I tell the crowd that I'm going to deviate from the set-list and play a Will Ackerman song. Surprise, Will... I heard the crowd laughing shortly after I said this, and I turned my head to see Will Ackerman coming out from stage left, his hands extended in preperation to wring my neck, with a look of mock-anger on his face (at least I hope it was "mock" anger).
What happened next requires a split screen. While I'm talking about the song of his I'm going to play, Will goes out the back door of the theater and walks around to the front of the house, so he can take a seat in the audience. I'm talking about how the following song meant a lot to me three years ago when I lost a friend of mine, and that it brought me to a place where I could start writing the music on "Lingering Light". So- thinking that Will was stowed away in his dressing room, tuning his very expensive guitars- guitars which he'd NEVER break over the head of a Chapman Stick player- I played his song "Sound of Wind Driven Rain". It's a delicate tune- a kind of melancholic lullabye for the broken. I don't say this often about my playing, but on this song, I hit every note and nuance I aimed for. And that was accomplishment enough for me because: a) Will's song was written on guitar, and it's not exactly "Chapman Stick" friendly, and b) the second half of Will's song featured Ugandan singer Samite, and I haven't figured out how to get THAT sound on the Stick. Yet.
The song was over, and was received by this ever-appreciative crowd. I knew there was a problem, though, because I felt a mountain-sized lump in my throat. I introduced Jeff O., Lars and Pat, but my voice broke. Luckily the audience was understanding.
Split screen time again: I exit stage left, Pat Gorman passes me and said "Will was in the crowd listening". Uh oh. While I'm walking down the stage stairs, Will gets out of his seat, literally runs down the aisle, enters the back stage area just as I'm coming to the bottom of the stage steps. He's visibly moved, looks straight at me and says "Pearce, you sweet, sweet bastard", and gives me one of those hugs of his that you need the jaws of life to escape from. Nothing like being hugged by Will Ackerman. Nothing like being called a bastard by him, either. Both were great.
The rest of the show proceeds pretty much as the night before, Will plays his last song, then invites the rest of us onstage for a final bow. Tanya comes out and gives each of us a hug, we bow, and get ready to leave the stage, but someone starts the chant of "MORE! MORE! MORE!", and pretty quickly, they start stomping the floor hard enough to shake the stage. So we take our places, and all play Will's song "Hawk Circle". On record, it's an intense song, but fairly sedate. But thanks to Patrick Gorman's electronic drums (yes, his solo cd is piano, but he was a drummer first, and he's an AMAZING drummer!) the song became intense and LOUD. Will, perhaps in a state of temporary insanity during rehearsals, had appointed me somewhat of the "band leader" for this song, so it was up to me to visually cue everyone to when the sections were changing. Kind of hard to do this when everyone plays with their eyes closed... so I resorted to screaming out "1 2 3 4!" at a throat shredding volume. It did the trick, even though it left me sounding like cookie monster the rest of the evening.
Again, after the show, the crowd just wanted to talk to every musician they could, and we were there past midnight. The show started at 7:30 and went to 10:30, but I heard so many people say something to the effect of "it felt like you guys didn't play very long- time just flew by!". I said my goodbyes to Will, Pat, Jeff O., Tanya, and to Samantha- a co-worker of Tanya's with whom I felt an immediate "connection", and enjoyed many conversations with. Then I headed back to the hotel, groaned when I saw what time it was ("12:30 am?!?! My flight leaves at 8:30 tomorrow and I have yet to cram five days of dirty laundry into my luggage!") hit the sack, and received my wake up call all too soon. Christy kindly gave me a ride to the airport, after receiving less sleep than I, and then I found myself once again at the mercy of United Airlines (motto: "You have a CONNECTING flight? You're NEVER going to make it!"). Many hours later, I arrive at the mountain free state of Indiana, and a couple of hours after that, I pull into my driveway and see "Welcome Home, Daddy!" scribbled in chalk on the garage doors.
I will admit: I had some SERIOUS doubts about whether or not Tanya Hogan could pull off this show. She'd never done a concert before, and booking one act would have been hard enough. But booking FOUR performers for your first concert? You'd have a better chance of successfully juggling Faberge eggs while playing soccer on a frozen lake. Even experienced promoters have put me in a hotel room where you just KNOW there's a chalk outline on the floor (*cough!* *cough!*Harrisburg*) or lined up a venue that would have had to do major upgrades to get to the status of "condemmend" (*cough!**cough!**Pittsburgh*). But Tanya did EXACTLY what she said she would do- she took care of all the arrangements, and promoted the daylights out of the show, using every available media- newspaper, radio, internet, television. I'm fairly certain she even covered Morse code and smoke signals. There are very few people like her, and I'm blessed to know her.
So thank you Tanya Hogan, thank you Sun Valley, and thanks a heap United Airlines. You can be certain that I'll be seeing two of you three again.
(about the hotel- we musicians stayed at the Americinn of Hailey, ID. It's a wonderful hotel- very new- and has a great staff. Because of my desire to get their complimentary breakfast, they saw me stumble into the lobby every morning of my stay looking like something the cat coughed up. And they still talked to me!)
On Thursday morning, Will and I had breakfast at a cool little place called Zany's. There we met Ted Macklin, the guy running the sound for our shows. Ted is a great guy, and he turned out to be just about the most necessary part of the show. As we found out in rehearsal at the Liberty Theater later that day, Ted knew what he was doing- all the musicians were commenting on how good things sounded, and we all knew that it wasn't just the space we were playing in. Even the best of spaces can sound bad unless there's a sound person who knows what they're doing. But Ted had a good place to work with- the staff at the Liberty Theater were wonderful and helpful, and their set-up was state of the art, thanks to the owner of the theater, Bruce Willis. In the mid '90's, he bought the place and renovated it, adding state of the art touches everywhere
I grabbed a quick swim at the hotel (don't picture me in swim trunks unless it's been a few hours since you've eaten) and it was there I met Patrick Gorman and his wife Colleen for the first time "face to face". I'll admit- Colleen looks VERY much like someone I used to know, and I spent a lot of time not making eye contact with her, and looking, in general, nervous, sorry and guilty. I quickly got past that, because Colleen is such a sweet girl who overflows with joy.
The rehearsals were fun, and I was able to run through a song of mine with a local high school cello player named Travis Job. Tanya Hogan thought it might be good to have someone from the community play a duet with one of the artists. I was a little surprised (read: terrified) when I heard that my duet partner was a high school student, but I decided to make the best of it and hope that a flurry of emails to Travis giving him a crash course in improvisation would bring results. It turned out my fears were unjustified; Travis was a great player, so much so that Will recruited him to play a song on a song of his.
After the rehearsals, we hit the town and ended up at a great resturant called CK's. By that time, Christy Walker had shown up in town, for the sole purpose of helping Tanya get ready for the show- yep, we all wish we had friends like that. My unofficial "chauffer" Aaron was also at the meal, keeping everyone entertained, if not a little perplexed, by his constant stream of wordplay and puns; when I've had a long day of rehearsals, the last thing I need to do is think. Have a good meal, throw in some great conversation, tease Jeff Oster a little about turning 50 that day, and finish it off with a scoop of homemade blueberry ice cream (YUM!) and it was off to the hotel for a little sleep.
Friday morning comes early for me (remember, my body is still on east coast time, two hours ahead of Idaho time- so at 6:30 am east coast time, I was awake and ready to go. Unfortunately, that time is also 4:30 am Idaho time... :( ) and I grab a quick breakfast, grab a quick swim (thirty-minute rule?!?!? HA HA HA!! I live dangerously!!!) and started rehearsing in my hotel room- this lasted for a few hours. Then it was off to the theater, where a great lunch was delivered by Tanya- her husband Steve is owner of a resturant in town- Chester and Jake's- and is an amazing chef. The shrimp salad topped with grilled salmon was"standing ovation" worthy, and held me over until supper time- a light salad eaten at the brew pub across the street from the theater. I tend to eat VERY light, if at all, before a performance. In my past experience with him, Will Ackerman was the same way. So you can imagine my surprise when I saw Will Ackerman eating a cheesburger roughly the size of a tractor wheel. He said that he'd had one the day before for lunch, and it was great. I'm wondering just how many he ate during the trip.
It was time for the show, and Scott Burwell (please write him and ask him to put somewthing up on his myspace page!) was there to tune up Will's guitars. Will's been producing Scott, and the music is outstanding- Scott is a great guitar player- certainly the kind of guitar player that I'd hate to follow at a concert. So you can imagine my reaction when Will told me, ten minutes before show time, that Scott was going to be playing a song that night- right before I started my songs in the first set. ("what?!?! I have to follow HIM?!?! WHY, GOD, WHY?!?!?!").
Will went on first and played two songs. Of course, he played wonderfully and had everyone in stitches with his stories. Then he introduced Scott- who, as luck would have it for ME, was raised in the Sun Valley area, so he had that "local boy" thing happening for him- and Scott delivered a beautiful song- perfect, actually. Then Scott introduced me, and I went onstage with the Chapman Stick, mumbled out a story, and played a couple of tunes. I did ok, and the crowd threw nothing at me, so I exited and Pat Gorman went on for a tune- and he was followed by Jeff Oster. That's the way Will likes to do these concerts- instead of overybody playing their set all at once, it's spread around- this gives some nice variety to the evening, and gives Will a chance to re-tune his guitars while the rest of us are playing. We all joined Will for the last song of the set- his wonderful tune "Last Day at the Beach" and it was magical- Lars bringing in subtle ocean sounds, me providing some low Stick notes and some subtle leads, Jeff Oster playing some VERY restrained and lovely muted trumpet, and Patrick playing a piano improv which put the song "over the top"
The first set of the show ends, followed by a 20 minute intermission, then the second half begins, like the first, with Will. He plays a solo song, then myself and Lars Hidde (who, with a G5 running all sorts of voodoo, is literally Jeff Oster's "backing band") join Will for one of his tunes. Adding some wonderful vocal textures on this song is a local musician named Amy Clifford- simply a great person with one of the most unique voices I've ever heard. She was also visibly pregnant, and I'm certain that, at rehearsals, she got tired of me offering to get her a chair, get her water, carry her across the street, etc.... I stayed on stage, told a story, played a couple of songs, and brought out Jeff Oster, Pat, and Lars. Backstage, Will told me that the combination of songs I'd played- "Almost the Moon" and "Jasmine in Lingering Light"- were "devestating", and that my meager attempts at humor went over well. Feedback like that from someone like him- well, it means a lot.
Will went out and played the last song, after some thick-sounding and "arranged" songs (these descriptions are meant in the best sense, by the way) from Jeff Oster. We all agreed that the crowd was wonderful, and were looking forward to playing again on saturday night. After the show, we all talked with whichever audience members stayed around to talk- and by my estimations, it was all of them. Pack the Stick up, head back to the hotel way too late, and get some sleep.
Morning came too early, I did the "zombie creeps into hotel lobby with gravity-defying hair to eat a bowl of cereal" routine, and I went back to my room to start rehearsing again. This may seem to be overkill- rehearsing so much on show day- but it's something that I feel I "need" to do when I get the chance to. How much talent a person has is always open for debate, but what's NOT open to debate, for me, is how "hard" a person can work. I may or may not have a lot of talent, but whatever I'm lacking in the talent area, I can "make up for" in the "work like an army of caffinated ants" area. Besides- I HAD to rehearse, because I had a surprise for Will Ackerman at that night's show (insert scary music here....)
So- a few hours practice, I head to the theater to do a quick soundcheck with Travis the cello player. The show starts, and it's pretty much the same set as the night before. However, I'm the odd man in that my saturday night set and stories were different than the friday night set. I do this for MY benefit- I like to stay "engaged", and I have a hard time doing that when I play the same set over and over. I started my first set by letting the audience pick a key signature, and I performed a work of "spontaneous composition" in that key signature. I then played "In the Silent Years to Come" from my "Lingering Light" cd, then I was off the stage. Will was of the opinion that his playing was a bit "sloppy" as compared to the night before. I can state with complete confidence that he was the only one who thought so, because the rest of us musicians were pretty knocked out by what we heard. Still, I could tell he was pretty bothered by his playing, which led to the following exchange:
Me: Don't worry, Will- it sounds great. And besides, I have a surprise for you during the second set.
Will: Is it dancing girls?
Me: Everything is negotiable
The second set begins, and Will tells the story about his encounter a few years ago with Gene Simmons from Kiss. He plays one song, We join him for his second song, and Travis and I play "Almost the Moon". It was nice hearing a cello with the Chapman Stick, and it makes me want to try more of that in the future. The song is over, and I tell the crowd that I'm going to deviate from the set-list and play a Will Ackerman song. Surprise, Will... I heard the crowd laughing shortly after I said this, and I turned my head to see Will Ackerman coming out from stage left, his hands extended in preperation to wring my neck, with a look of mock-anger on his face (at least I hope it was "mock" anger).
What happened next requires a split screen. While I'm talking about the song of his I'm going to play, Will goes out the back door of the theater and walks around to the front of the house, so he can take a seat in the audience. I'm talking about how the following song meant a lot to me three years ago when I lost a friend of mine, and that it brought me to a place where I could start writing the music on "Lingering Light". So- thinking that Will was stowed away in his dressing room, tuning his very expensive guitars- guitars which he'd NEVER break over the head of a Chapman Stick player- I played his song "Sound of Wind Driven Rain". It's a delicate tune- a kind of melancholic lullabye for the broken. I don't say this often about my playing, but on this song, I hit every note and nuance I aimed for. And that was accomplishment enough for me because: a) Will's song was written on guitar, and it's not exactly "Chapman Stick" friendly, and b) the second half of Will's song featured Ugandan singer Samite, and I haven't figured out how to get THAT sound on the Stick. Yet.
The song was over, and was received by this ever-appreciative crowd. I knew there was a problem, though, because I felt a mountain-sized lump in my throat. I introduced Jeff O., Lars and Pat, but my voice broke. Luckily the audience was understanding.
Split screen time again: I exit stage left, Pat Gorman passes me and said "Will was in the crowd listening". Uh oh. While I'm walking down the stage stairs, Will gets out of his seat, literally runs down the aisle, enters the back stage area just as I'm coming to the bottom of the stage steps. He's visibly moved, looks straight at me and says "Pearce, you sweet, sweet bastard", and gives me one of those hugs of his that you need the jaws of life to escape from. Nothing like being hugged by Will Ackerman. Nothing like being called a bastard by him, either. Both were great.
The rest of the show proceeds pretty much as the night before, Will plays his last song, then invites the rest of us onstage for a final bow. Tanya comes out and gives each of us a hug, we bow, and get ready to leave the stage, but someone starts the chant of "MORE! MORE! MORE!", and pretty quickly, they start stomping the floor hard enough to shake the stage. So we take our places, and all play Will's song "Hawk Circle". On record, it's an intense song, but fairly sedate. But thanks to Patrick Gorman's electronic drums (yes, his solo cd is piano, but he was a drummer first, and he's an AMAZING drummer!) the song became intense and LOUD. Will, perhaps in a state of temporary insanity during rehearsals, had appointed me somewhat of the "band leader" for this song, so it was up to me to visually cue everyone to when the sections were changing. Kind of hard to do this when everyone plays with their eyes closed... so I resorted to screaming out "1 2 3 4!" at a throat shredding volume. It did the trick, even though it left me sounding like cookie monster the rest of the evening.
Again, after the show, the crowd just wanted to talk to every musician they could, and we were there past midnight. The show started at 7:30 and went to 10:30, but I heard so many people say something to the effect of "it felt like you guys didn't play very long- time just flew by!". I said my goodbyes to Will, Pat, Jeff O., Tanya, and to Samantha- a co-worker of Tanya's with whom I felt an immediate "connection", and enjoyed many conversations with. Then I headed back to the hotel, groaned when I saw what time it was ("12:30 am?!?! My flight leaves at 8:30 tomorrow and I have yet to cram five days of dirty laundry into my luggage!") hit the sack, and received my wake up call all too soon. Christy kindly gave me a ride to the airport, after receiving less sleep than I, and then I found myself once again at the mercy of United Airlines (motto: "You have a CONNECTING flight? You're NEVER going to make it!"). Many hours later, I arrive at the mountain free state of Indiana, and a couple of hours after that, I pull into my driveway and see "Welcome Home, Daddy!" scribbled in chalk on the garage doors.
I will admit: I had some SERIOUS doubts about whether or not Tanya Hogan could pull off this show. She'd never done a concert before, and booking one act would have been hard enough. But booking FOUR performers for your first concert? You'd have a better chance of successfully juggling Faberge eggs while playing soccer on a frozen lake. Even experienced promoters have put me in a hotel room where you just KNOW there's a chalk outline on the floor (*cough!* *cough!*Harrisburg*) or lined up a venue that would have had to do major upgrades to get to the status of "condemmend" (*cough!**cough!**Pittsburgh*). But Tanya did EXACTLY what she said she would do- she took care of all the arrangements, and promoted the daylights out of the show, using every available media- newspaper, radio, internet, television. I'm fairly certain she even covered Morse code and smoke signals. There are very few people like her, and I'm blessed to know her.
So thank you Tanya Hogan, thank you Sun Valley, and thanks a heap United Airlines. You can be certain that I'll be seeing two of you three again.
posted by Jeff Pearce | 10:04 AM
6 Comments:
Jeff Pearce, you are amazing.
It was an amazing experience indeed.
THANK YOU for your artistry...
I sure hope we get a chance to do it again soon.
Jeff Oster
Hey Jeff, it's JohnnyV (the DJ, emcee, and amazed audience member). Thanks again for coming to our valley to play what turned out to be 2 incredible nights of music. You and Will and everyone else involved really captivated everyone in the audience each night, and I truly hope you all come back to see us again. It really was OUR treat!
Plus, I knew by your Star Wars t-shirt at soundcheck that you were alright by my book!
JV
Jeff Pearce,
... You are a pure and radiant gem. Thank you so very much for coming to the Gem State and making it glow still more beautifully. ..
Jeff, as each of you was fretting over everything coming out successfuly, please know that [by the time the shows started, but not before that time] all I could think of was, "I know full well that Patrick, Will, Jeffrey, Lars, Scott, Travis, Amy and Jeff are only playing for me and hoping they do a good job." And from the time I heard the opening notes of the first rehearsals, I had zero doubt after that. By the time you each performed, I could only think of how to keep my mascara from bleeding. ... Steve had to rescue at least 3 women stumbling up [and down] the aisle[s] for the same reasons. .. I was dumbfounded and only thought, "Did this really happen?..???...did this really happen...?. ... Thank you my God.. Thank you for sending these people into my life so that I could share their talents, from You, with them.. Thank you, Jehovah, our Creator and beautiful God.."
I will never forget these incredibly beautiful days and nights spent with you, my community and my family.
Thank you Jeff, for coming out here and opening to Sun Valley that endless landscape of beautiful music and the peace that comes from it.... And, as Jeffrey Oster said, I sure hope we all get together here, again, soon... because, I hope you know, Will won't let me rest until we do.. lol...
WE LOVE YOU!! And I love all of you performers.. you so simply amazing. .. wow
Tanya A. Hogan
Prove It Promotions
You're as good a writer as you are a musician--thoroughly entertaining, if not slightly embelished. Those first three comments pretty well covers our unanimous Idahoan perspective: we were a privileged few witnesses to something incredibly special, probably a once in a lifetime experience. So as the phrase goes, "oh no no NO, thank YOU!"
Dear Jeff,
I still get a kick out of reading this, two months later.. You are a true delight to the senses. When I'm feeling overwhelmed, it is with this, your writing and my memories that I can look back on these events, mumble "I did that..I can do more.." and I pick myself back up again..
Thank you, Jeff...
Tanya
I still love this blog.. Thank you 'still' for posting it then. It's so full of color and vitality. .. It's beautiful.
tah
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