THE MUSICIANS and SONGWRITERS
(and how to find them)
Helping me open the CD, singing Jan Harmon’s lovely round, CLEAR HORIZON, are my three dear friends (in order of appearance) Crystal Reeves, Jeannine Herron and Marilla Pivonka. (More on Crystal and Marilla later.) We all worked together, in some overlapping fashion, for Jeannine’s non-profit educational research organization, developing phonics-based software that teaches young children to Read, Write & Type. (If you have a six to nine year old and a computer, you MUST have this wonderful program.)
Jeannine is not only a brilliant neuropsychologist, but a fine musician as well. Always mindful of children and active in the peace movement, she wrote a poignant peace song entitled Civilized World, in response to the 9/11 tragedy and the events that followed. She’s making the song freely available, arranged for piano and cello, and hoping that lots of children’s choruses will sing it.
You can learn more about gifted songwriter, the late Jan Harmon, and can find her music at http://www.harmonpublishing.com
Recording the chorus for Greg Brown’s IOWA WALTZ was such a thrill. The singers are all my friends… half of them from my years in California and half from Iowa. Most of the Iowa gang are women with whom I spent the summers of my young adulthood, working at the Girl Scout, Camp Conestoga. It was where, as a child, my singing was nurtured and encouraged. We sang day and night. I still have scores of rounds imbedded permanently in my brain from my years there.
Playing fiddle on the on the IOWA WALTZ is the amazing Crystal Robin Reeves. (More, I promise, on Crystal later.) The CD’s recording engineer and my co-producer, Dave Wellhausen, plays the sweet mandolin instrumental. After many years playing blues harmonica, Dave got drawn to bluegrass music. He applied his considerable talent and focus on learning to play the mandolin. You can find him, these days, playing and singing tenor with the bluegrass band, Carolina Special. If you’re interested in working with Dave on a recording project, visit his web site, at: http://www.davewellhausen.homestead.com/
Greg Brown is a well-respected Iowa folk musician, with several albums/CDs to his credit. He has been a regular guest on Garrison Keeler’s radio show, A Prairie Home Companion. You can find more of his music at http://www.gregbrown.org
I learned Michael Peter Smith’s THE DUTCHMAN from the recording done by Chicago folk musician, the late Steve Goodman. (One of Steve’s songs, LOOKIN’ FOR TROUBLE, is also on this CD.) This song evokes strong memories for me of my grandparents, who were married for 62 years.
The dulcet baritone harmony you hear on THE DUTCHMAN is none other than my baby brother, Bill Kuebler. I let Bill sing with me on the CD even though he told me he didn’t like me "because you have freckles." OK. OK. He was three years old at the time, but still… I changed his damned diapers. What an ungrateful brat! I have to admit, though, we do harmonize pretty well together. It must be in the genes.
My unofficially adopted brother, Randy Zamorski, plays the scrumptious lead guitar on THE DUTCHMAN. Tackling an acoustic/folk lead was a departure from his usual, rock-jazz fusion. But a good musician is a good musician, and Randy’s instincts and ear shine through. Randy and brother Bill have worked together in a couple of bands over the years… first in college, with their bands, Vector and Vanguard, then later in a hot Fresno band called Strings Attached. These days Randy is in the process of forming a new band, called Famous Trees, with musicians John Koontz, Jeff Beasley and Greg Young. They've been writing and recording original tunes for the last several months. For a sample of their work, check out the MP3 page on this site.
Joni Mitchell has been my musical idol since I was thirteen, my sister brought home her Ladies of the Canyon album and I heard the song For Free. I was hooked. So, of course, she had to be represented on this CD. Since I first fell in love with her music when I was young, I chose CHELSEA MORNING, one of her earlier songs, to include on this project. The mandolin lead is, once again, Crystal Reeves. (Yeah….later.) To learn more about Joni Mitchell’s music and artwork, check out http://www.jonimitchell.com/
Steve Goodman was a gifted and prolific folksinger/songwriter out of Chicago. Probably his best known song is City of New Orleans. Sadly, he died in his mid-thirties of a long-time illness. Luckily for us, he left a wealth of whimsical, powerful, poignant songs as a legacy. LOOKIN’ FOR TROUBLE is one of them.
Back in the late 1970’s and early eighties I lived in a big old farmhouse in the middle of an Iowa cornfield. I had a vintage, oak, upright piano with real ivory keys that I bought for $200. I was making my living as a folksinger. Through a friend, I met two students from the University of Iowa, in Iowa City… John Swinton and Sam Thompson (more on Sam later)… who both played the hell out of the guitar and sang, as a duo, a mixture of old country, folk, blues and original tunes. We hooked up briefly as a trio, and they made me a much better guitar player and expanded my repertoire of music styles. We did some great three-part harmonies. We spent some happy and hilarious weekends practicing and hanging out in my farmhouse. When we first performed together, we called ourselves Live Music, telling people we’d performed everywhere. Later, we performed as Three Carrot (long story).
John has long since abandoned the guitar for the piano. When I moved to California I left him my old upright, which he carted with him on his move to Austin, Texas, a few years later. He also, sadly, stopped performing publicly and is now working for the state of Texas. But you’ll get to hear him play the hell out of the piano on my CD in LOOKIN’ FOR TROUBLE.
I learned Tom Waits tune, SHIVER ME TIMBERS, from an old Bette Midler album, years ago. For me the song is about leaving home. I’d forgotten all about it and actually had another song recorded for its slot on the CD, when a friend put the old Midler album on one night. It brought back so many memories that I decided, then and there, it had to be on the CD.
The lyric viola and violin in the background of SHIVER ME TIMBERS is none other than the multi-talented, Crystal Reeves. OK. Now I’ll talk about Crystal, who’s been one of my best pals almost from the instant we met through a mutual friend fifteen or so years ago. Crystal’s another transplanted Midwesterner, having grown up in Columbus, Ohio. She is a classically trained violinist who was drawn by and has an incredible ear for improvisation. She cut her musical teeth playing in country rock bands in Columbus, before moving to California in the ‘80s. That’s where we met.
Crystal’s talents know no bounds. She is equally adept playing fiddle, violin and mandolin. She also plays guitar and sings like an angel. We hooked up as a duo for a while, but we weren’t destined for fame and fortune. We made/make beautiful music together and have a helluva lot of fun doing it. Neither of us, however, had any urge to go out and book gigs, so we ended up performing only a couple of times a year. So, since the chance of seeing a Gannon and Reeves performance may be rare, I’ve included several of my favorites from our repertoire on "Songs I Wish I’d Written."
Over the years Crystal has enhanced the music of performers such as Robin Flower and Judy Fjell. For the past several years she’s lived in the Ashland, Oregon area. Our loss has been their gain. Ashland area musicians have taken full advantage of her talents. She currently sits in with all-woman rock band, Blue Lightening, bluegrass band, Siskyou Summit, and several other local bands. She performs regularly and can be heard on a new album called "In Her Eyes" by Oregon singer/songwriter, Lorraine Rawls. She’s even been called by the theater, recently performing in a production of the Ashland Shakespeare Festival.
I’ve included one original and previously unrecorded tune on the CD, called SANE PASSION. Songwriting is not my particular gift. But I like this song. And Crystal plays a scorching fiddle lead on it. Also adding some mood and texture is Roy Whelden, playing viola da gamba. For those of you who aren’t familiar with this instrument (I wasn’t either until Dave introduced me to Roy), it is a baroque instrument that looks and plays kind of like a cello but has a range that is a cross between a cello and a viola. You can hear more of the instrument and Roy from his group, American Baroque.
J.D. Souther’s beautiful and heartbreaking song, FAITHLESS LOVE, had to be on the CD. I’ve been singing it for many years, first adding harmony to Sam’s melody in our Three Carrot days, then later taking the melody with Crystal singing harmony. Crystal’s and my version is on the CD, but I must give credit to Sam (Thompson) for the challenging vocal arrangement.
Some of you sixties kids will probably remember an incredible duo called Brewer and Shipley. When I went searching for them on the Internet, I was thrilled to see that they are still together and still making music. Besides writing great songs, their albums featured luscious two-part harmonies. One of my favorites has always been CAN’T GO HOME, which became part of my repertoire with Crystal.
Now, back to Sam Thompson. When I told him I’d decided to write the bio for him on this site, he said it frightened him. He needn’t have worried. I opted for talking about my connections with people, with a few bio-like tidbits on the side. Sam, who grew up in Wichita, Kansas, has been writing and singing for a very long time. He was just a sweet young thing of twenty-one when we made music together, and he was already a prodigious songwriter. For the last thirteen years he’s been performing as part of a knockout Iowa City band called Big Wooden Radio, who play a mixture of original music and standards, and feature fine instrumental work combined with tight four-part harmony. They have two CDs to their credit, with several of Sam’s fine original tunes included. If you ever find yourself anywhere near Iowa City, you MUST go see/hear them perform. They’re a great live band with a well-earned, devout audience. Or…get on their mailing list and, through the wonders of technology and streaming audio, you’ll be able to hear them the next time they perform live on the radio. For a sample of Sam's work with Big Wooden Radio, check out the MP3 page on this site.
While working on the CD, I contacted Sam and asked if I could do one of his songs. He gave me a couple of choices, and the one that grabbed me was PAPER BOATS. The clean and lean guitar and rich tenor you’ll hear is Sam, with John (Swinton) adding a few 2nd guitar goodies and a third-part harmony.
Back in the mid-eighties, I went to see a then up and coming folk duo, the Indigo Girls. They were terrific, but the young man who opened for them, David Wilcox, blew me away. You know you’re hooked when you find yourself weeping uncontrollably through one song only to find yourself laughing through the next. This guy’s got it all. He’s an incredible songwriter, plays a mean guitar, and sings beautifully and with feeling.
His song, LEAVE IT LIKE IT IS, is one that makes the listener chuckle while, at the same time, delivering a message. I worried that I would not be able to do it justice, instrumentally. I will never be the accomplished guitarist David is. So, I asked Randy (Zamorski) to sit in and play some tasty, bluesy guitar lead, and it turned out quite well,
I think. See if you agree.
Marilla Waecshe Pivonka was my inspiration for making this CD, having undertaken a similar project with her original music a couple of years before I began mine. I witnessed her delight at being able to go into the studio as she had the time and money, bringing her friends in to play or sing on some of the songs, and I thought, "Hey. I could do that, too!" The result of her effort is a CD titled Inner Landscapes … it has haunting piano instrumentals, tender love songs and a great ode to friendships…. and you can buy it right on this web site. You can also listen to a few of the tracks from the CD on my MP3 page. Besides writing music, Marilla is also a gifted visual artist. In her spare time, she does family counseling (as, interestingly, does Sam Thompson).
The germ of Marilla’s song, LOVING YOU AGAIN, came while the two of us were on a trip to visit Crystal in Oregon. We decided to take a scenic route home, travelling through Lassen National Forest. It was a choice that added several long hours to the drive home, but produced this tender reminiscence. Marilla plays piano and lends her smoky, sexy alto to the mix, with Crystal adding a third-part harmony on the chorus.
Karla Bonoff’s, HOME is one of those songs that people ask me to sing practically every time I pick up my guitar. You may have heard Bonnie Raitt’s version of this, which is where I learned it. Joining me on my CD rendition is Crystal Reeves, playing both fiddle and mandolin (It’s one of the fun things you can do when you’re recording.) Janet Rachel, June Bonicich and Nancy Y who, with me as the fourth, performed as a lesbian a capella group called Out on a Clef, provide the harmony for HOME. The four of us sang together for two or three years, doing twisted renditions of barbershop and swing music, much of it arranged by June. The quartet continues and I occasionally get to sit in and sing lead with them.
SONG OF BERNADETTE was co-written by Jennifer Warnes, Leonard Cohen and Bill Elliott, for inclusion on Jennifer’s outstanding album, "Famous Blue Raincoat." Since I was raised a Catholic and attended Our Lady of Lourdes Elementary School, this song is especially poignant for me. I knew I wanted the arrangement on the CD to be special and was thrilled when Dave (Wellhausen) said he’d like to add a harmonica part. It’s just what the song needed. I hope you’ll love it as much as I do.
ALL YOU CAN DO has always been my personal favorite of all the songs Crystal and I sing together. Martha P. Hogan wrote it, and I learned it from a Lui Collins album many years ago. Sadly, I have not been able to locate Martha to let her know that I’ve included her song on my CD or pay her a license fee. If anyone reading this knows her whereabouts, I’d appreciate hearing from you (or her.)
Finally, I close the CD with a traditional Scottish/Irish tune called THE PARTING GLASS. I have been singing this song since I was in high school and first heard it on an old Clancy Brothers album of my mother’s. I sang it at my father’s funeral. I feel very fortunate to have my brother, Bill and my sweet friend, Sam Thompson, singing it with me on the CD.
OK. Enough of my rambling. Go listen to the music!
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