There are several things represented in this project.
Personal
I believe strongly that when people retire from their professions, they don’t necessarily slide away into a life of television, reading, yardwork, and dog walks. People can reinvent themselves in stimulating ways. I chose to start a rock band at 67, with no regular singing experience on my resume since about 1970ish. That doesn’t mean we’ll be good, bad, or mediocre. It just means a person can still try. I’d love to be able to inspire a senior citizen or two to do something fun and maybe a little crazy.
Why this particular project? I was very “into the arts” when I was a teenager. My first of many college majors was Fine Arts, I won some awards for my work, I acted in and directed some plays (and eventually wrote a few), I played in a concert band, I created some high quality drawings and collages, and eariler, I was a member of an All County choir. The arts were my thing (when I wasn’t playing basketball). But the arts made me crazy. I wasn’t mature enough to channel my artistic talents without obsessing to an unhealthy level. So I left direct contact with the arts behind and had a long and very successful business career where my most admired traits were leadership, passion, and creativity. When I retired, about all I initially knew was that I wanted to return to the arts.
I spent many years “on stage”, either literally or figuratively, as I created and led teams, and ultimately provided training and guidance for large groups of people. I was very comfortable on stage, and I loved commanding an audience, so I thought reinventing myself as a singer utilized my stage management talents … and I hoped my vocal talents could catch up… quickly!
So what would I sing?
Musical
I thought Dan Fogelberg got ripped off.
He died at 56 years of age in 2007 after a three-year struggle with prostate cancer. He was a prominent 70s singer/songwriter during the heyday of that genre, rivaling Jackson Browne, Gordon Lightfoot, and James Taylor in popularity, and I personally felt he was better than all of them. Superstardom was never his objective. In fact, he may have gone beyond being private into an almost hermetic lifestyle as the years progressed. Or at least very private. Here was a guy who, by the time his second album appeared, was being produced by some of the biggest names in popular music. The Eagles sang backup vocals. Joe Walsh was a featured guitarist. He was living in Laurel Canyon.
But that wasn’t the life he wanted.
He was very gifted musically. I’m sure some of it was in the genes, as his Mom was a classical pianist, and his Dad a band instructor and leader. As a vocalist, he had near perfect pitch, and his early producer said he was the only vocalist he ever worked with that didn’t benefit from layering vocal tracks because they all sounded the same. As a musician, he produced multiple records where he was the only instrumentalist. My bandmates who were not familiar with his music thought of him as fitting snugly in the Easy Listening category, and it’s true he was almost always found on the Adult Contemporary charts for a few decades, but he was much much more than that. Now that the band has dove into Dan’s music, they find some complex musical compositions and arrangements, some unique chords, rhythms and syncopations, and some deeply moving lyrics. He was, as they say, a poet who played an instrument. And he couldn’t be pigeonholed into any genre other than singer/songwriter. He wrote and performed country rock songs, bluegrass songs, songs with Spanish and African influences, some angry rock songs, some intimate love songs, and songs that ranged from elation to melancholy on the emotional scale. Fast songs, slow songs, ballads, long songs, short songs, and everything that filled the gaps.
Souvenirs, our Dan Fogelberg tribute band, is dedicated to breathing a little life back into the music of an artist who deserved to enjoy the Golden Years, but died too early to bask in the glory now being bestowed on the best of the 60s-80s singer/songwriters; and make no mistake Dan deserved to be listed with them. Knowing Dan’s preference for a very private life, he probably wouldn’t have basked anyway. Our show features a sampling of Dan’s work and not just his radio hits. All of these songs are acknowledged as one of his Greatest Hits, but only a few would be in his Top Ten. We cover songs from several genres, and our instrumentation is as broad as our band of local professionals can offer.
My desire is simple. I’m hopeful his spirit permeates our performances, and that my talents and those of my bandmates are elevated to a point where the older Dan Fans get their fill, and new fans are created.
He deserves that.
John