FUN!!!
Some really cool things are going down as we speak! Virtually everyone in the music circles that Dani and I are associated with, know Emily Randle! Emily needs no introduction. We've had the honor of having Emily sit in with us at gigs over the years, plus, Emily has also recorded with me on my album “All The Best From Key West” (Her solo on Island Ladies will give you goose bumps!) where she was just outstanding! Thank you, Emily!
Emily has played with a plethora of artists from all over the U.S. She's also career military, in active service with The United States Army! She's currently assigned to do the logistics for the Army Band! That's got to be a juggling act!
Included in her juggling act, she's played with Peter Meyer, Scott Kirby, Thom Sheppard, The Shanty Hounds, Keith Sykes, John Patti, and many more!
Emily's Album available on Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Girl-My-Dreams-Emily-Randle/dp/B01M7VMVBZ
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Not all that many people in our circles are familiar with Ed Alstrom. However, at the very top of music circles, Ed is more than very well known!
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Ed and I went to high school together. Believe me, Ed is a musical genius. He's not one to blow his own horn about it. He's always been just a good, nice guy. His main instrument is the Hammond B3 organ, though give him ten minutes on any other instrument that he's not familiar with, and he'll have it mastered. (In high school he picked up a guitar, having never played a guitar, and had Ten Years After's song I'm Going Home, down, note for note in less than a week ... is that sick, or what? Easily one of the most incredible musical feats I've witnessed in my life. I was awe struck)
Larry Baeder, who in addition to playing Key West, also owns a studio in New York City, told me a while back that Ed is the “Go to B3 player in NYC".
That translates to Ed being the best Hammond B3 player in an NYC Metro area, population of 20,140, 470 (2021 stats). Add to that that NYC is arguably the largest music hub in the U.S. catering from everything from bar gigs, plays, jazz clubs, Latin music venues, street festivals, Madison Square Garden, The Metropolitan Opera House, to Carnegie Hall, and everything else.
A partial roster of whom Ed's played with include:
Bette Midler, Chuck Berry, Leonard Bernstein, Herbie Hancock, Eddie Fisher, Odetta, Dion, Larry Coryell, Blood Sweat and Tears, Darlene Love, LaLa Brooks, Ronnie Spector, Lou Rawls, Zubin Mehta, Donald Fagan, John Sebastian, Hubert Sumlin, Uncle Floyd, Peter Noone, Levon Helm, Al Kooper, Stanley Jordan, Eddie Brigati, Steven Van Zandt, Ben E. King, Cissy Houston, Chubby Checker, Rick Derringer, Melanie, John Lloyd Young, and many other notables.
Yes, that actually is THE Herbie Hancock, Leonard Bernstein, Zubin Mehta, Donald Fagan (Steely Dan)..... 😮
Ed is also living his childhood dream as the weekend organist for the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium. which he's been doing for almost twenty years!
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Last year Ed was gracious enough to play on my song “King Tide”, off my “Trimaran” EP! Thank you, Ed!
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Ed's album "Gettin Organ * ized" is available on Amazon!
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003644UP8/ref=dm_rwp_pur_lnd_albm_hd
Also, check out Ed's YouTube channel with around 250 songs listed
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC46viM3LlL9LlKn4N2DdNkQ/videos
Now the “FUN STUFF” going on at the moment!
As
we speak, Ed Alstrom is laying down tracks for my song “SMILE!”!
Up in New Jersey
Next week Emily will be laying down her
tracks for “SMILE!” as well in Washington DC!
After that, I'll add my additional tracks here in Key West.
After that, I'll add my additional tracks here in Key West, plus some guitar belches, hiccups and croaks and hopefully some guitar work, providing I don't fire myself.
Obviously, this is a very exciting thing happening! As I say, Ed is laying his tracks down as I write this!
The song has five verses and two chorus. Within that framework there is a solo for both Ed and Emily in the middle of the song. I've already laid down the rhythm guitar, along with Claire Finley on Bass, Randy Stindt on drums, Alan Jax Bowers on percussion, and Ericson Holt on piano.
At the end of the vocal portion, is where it gets really interesting!
The music continues on it's thirteen chord progression, the standard verse progression for this song. The solos will go on top of that, albeit with the solos divided on each progression. It will be a musical exchange conversation between Key West, Washington D.C., and the NYC Metropolitan area!
Total running time is 5:05. Long enough to showcase both the story, melody, vocals, and long enough to showcase the musicianship, yet at the same time, short enough to keep within pop radio's time limitations!
Wait! There's more....
It was a rainy night in Miami in early 1983. Rain isn't the right word, it was what I call “Fire Hose Rain”. It was coming down like a hurricane, but with no wind at all.
I was living in the back half of a nice, cozy little duplex, with my first wife, Mercy. Out the door was a good sized backyard. The house had a 6X6 vestibule with jalousie windows on two sides, plus the door. they were all about 3/4 open. As the rain was coming down completely vertical, I had no reason to close them
That rain was coming down so hard and so loud! I went back in and grabbed my guitar. It was a natural! I started playing to the rain coming down. The rain sounded like a band! I ended coming up with this cool music that pretty much highlighted the key of C and a bunch of chords rooted in the C chord. C . C Maj7, C6, C7, C6/9... etc. There were a dozen chords in the progression, plus, seven more in the Dm rooted chorus. It was really melodic, with a touch of a Brazilian feel to it.
I was really happy with it. The lyrics didn't come that night, but I knew they would. What I didn't realize was how long it would be!
I tried writing the lyrics the next day, but they never "flew through the room" as Keith Richards coins it. Finally, after a week or so, I stopped trying. Over time, about once or twice a month, or a year I'd give it a go, but nothing.
Then, on March 16, 2016, thirty-three years after the music was written, the lyrics came! The third verse was a little awkward and Dani helped me smooth that out, plus, she'll have vocal parts upcoming in the recording. In March, while recording the vocals at Warm Fuzz studios here in Key West with producer Ian Shaw, I changed the chorus! Ha Ha! Does it ever end? Make that thirty nine years to completion!
So, I see this recording to be a very special recording of a very special song! Thirty-Nine years in the making! 😮😮😯
Thank you to all who are helping!
Right now and during next week, magic is happening!
Ed, Emily, Randy, Claire, Alan, Ericson, Dani, And the unsung heroes behind the scenes who will make everything sound fabulous when the recording is finished, producer/engineer Ian Shaw and The Master of Mastering, Denis Blackham.
THANK YOU!!
Please stay tuned! I'll keep you posted!
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Also! My latest music release, "Trimaran" is now available through Amazon at only:
$2.97
for the download!
https://www.amazon.com/Trimaran-Key-West-Chris-Rehm/dp/B093CPZ2CH
"Time Traveler II - The Further Adventures of a Time Traveling Key West Bartender"
This book picks up where "Time Traveler The Oddities and Adventures of a Key West Bartender" leaves off!
Available at Amazon!
All The Best From Key West! Released in December, 2019, to rave reviews!
Only $5.94 for the download
https://www.amazon.com/All-Best-Key-West-Chris/dp/B082XFG8G7
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