Saturday, May 22, 2010

More Songs from the East Village


Oy, it's been awhile since I wrote. There's a lot going on. After a month in Ireland during which I completed a Music Network Traditional Music Tour with Paddy O'Brien, Cillian Vallely and Aidan Brennan, my daughter and I joined Lorin Sklamberg and Donogh Hennessy in Germany for a Saints & Tzadiks tour there. In Ireland the weather was temperate throughout and we enjoyed travelling in our minivan, but in Germany, while it was very cold, we travelled by train which was very relaxing. Barely even saw an autobahn the whole time.

Before I left New York in January I had finished up the album Songs from the East Village, but while we were away the EVCS Parent's Committee made a request that I was delighted to receive, which involved more work when I came back. I had long felt that being a CD from the Lower East Side, it would have been wonderful to have a Puerto Rican track, and that is what they felt aswell, so when I returned I went back to the studio with a wonderful local pianist Ray Santiago, whom I knew from performances in the local community garden Dias y Flores. Ray recorded piano and congas for two songs and the vocals were provided by students, parents, grandparents and teachers. The school's vice principal Bradley Goodman brought the project to Kickstarter to find the finds we needed to finish the album and we quickly reached our goal: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1027059394/songs-from-the-east-village
Now the album really is done and we're going to prepare to launch it nationally in September.

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