March News

This week I went to Staunton VA. My old friend Lorie got the film “Coal Country” placed in a small film series at the Mockingbird Café/performing arts center. This is a film by Phylis Geller and Mari-Lynn Evans that I scored. Her daughters, Molly and Sally, had performed one of the songs that we used in the film. Also, and I had forgotten this, Lorie and I sang a song for the film. The event was simple: a screening of the film after it was introduced by several local “green” luminaries. And after the film Lorie, Molly, Sally, a fiddler named TJ, and I were to perform three songs. What an interesting screening. It was a thoughtful crowd. After all this is REALLY coal country. The film is largely about West Virginia – and the mountaintop removal sites that are in this film are less than 200 miles away. The music performance, however, was wildly well-received. Molly and Sally sang beautifully. I just played guitar and Lorie played bass. When we were done the audience roared for an encore. I had to push (not tooooo hard) Sally and Molly right back on stage. Then I went out to the audience to listen and had a rural/old-timey transcendent moment hearing them sing their next two songs. One was called “Working Girl.” Stayed the night with Lorie and her family out on their farm. It was all very snowy and beautiful and a real break from my regular life.

Earlier in the week I had lunch with Karim Chrobog. He is the director from “War Child.” I suspect he will be a very big success in the film biz someday.

Also had a terrific Chaise Lounge session with Pete and Tommy. We recorded rhythm tracks to Bali Ha’i and and a song called “I’m Going to Ruin Your Day.” We are on the way to producing another very good Chaise Lounge CD.

Starting work on my first 3-D film. It is a film by Dave Clark for the Field Museum in Chicago. It is pretty cool and they want an orchestral score. All big fun for me.

Until next time.