Dave Werry, Shaggs and Electric Guitars
(The Shaggs open May 12! Click for tix) The first time I ever touched an electric guitar, I was awestruck. I tried plucking a note, tried to make it sing like the Beatles could, but …
Listening for Grammys
It’s the nominating season for the Grammy Awards. In the mailboxes of recording academy members like myself, CDs are arriving in droves, hungry to be considered worthy of nomination in their respective categories. (My own …
Bertolt Brecht and Me…
In 1976, at the beginning of my Junior year of college, I was working at a little desk in the basement of the music department, handing out keys to the practice rooms. A professor of …
Edward Albee and I Chat in NY
Edward Albee will moderate while I and all the other creators of dramatic works for Playwrights Horizons will chat. Onstage, with you in the audience tossing questions our way. And we’ll enlighten you about the …
Svetlana Village now on DVD/Download!
In the fall of 2000, I traveled to Russia to make a documentary film about a farm that my brother had been working at for the previous 5 years. A Camphill Village, where half of …
I love the recording studio.
I still feel a thrill every time I’m in a recording studio, with the huge consoles full of buttons, the mics, the speakers, the layers of glass between the control room and the recording space. …
My Romantic Tendencies
I have always been a closet romantic. I enjoy the sentimental side of things. As a pre-teen, listening to my little panasonic transistor radio every night late into the night, it was almost all love …
Recording Bandon at Skywalker (video)
Here’s another video taken from the recording session for “Two Hands”. It’s not the take that is on the CD (that take was not caught on camera). If you compare them you can hear the …
Our Amazing Brains (aka My Sony Tape Deck)
When I was 15, a friend and I worked most of the summer painting my family’s house. With the money I earned I bought a reel to reel tape recorder. It was one of my …
Embarrassing tales from a piano player
Piano is really my main instrument. I taught myself guitar and piano from the age of 15, and then started classical piano lessons at the age of 17 (practicing 4 hours a day), then went …
Dads in Uniforms
Coming from the library the other day I passed by our local uniform store. Pleated, boring cotton/poly blend workclothes and uniforms were awkwardly displayed behind barred windows. And I suddenly felt comforted. Comforted? I’ve always …
Performing as Catharsis
I was watching Janis Joplin in “Festival Express” recently. She was cathartic. I don’t think she knew how to hold anything back. Performing for her seemed like an all-or-nothing thing. I was thinking how other …
The thing about Singing Telegrams is…
Okay, so you’ve just graduated with a bachelors degree. You studied music theory and composition. You’ve somehow got to make some money. You’ve got to get a job. You write music for (and direct music …
Evolution of a Musician Part 2
The Listening Years… Up until February of 1964 (when I was 7), music just didn’t really mean much to me. On that particular night, we were at my grandparents house in Los Gatos, California, and …