The Mayor's Emergency Fund Telethon

Let me tell you a story about the Mayor's Emergency Fund Telethon in Melrose, MA. Blue of a Kind were invited to repeat our appearance which was quite successful last year. In 2008, we sang a holiday song and a blues number, and we met the incoming pledges dollar-for-dollar while we sang. Well, a telethon is a wild and woolly thing so every dollar was matched. Why shouldn't that be that case?

This year, we decided to put up 50 of the "To the Sky" CDs as a challenge and give them away to the first 50 callers who pledged $50 or more. We knew that the offer would be taken and matched either during our singing, or soon thereafter.

What is it like being Super Stars?

The local cable station was a little reluctant to go with the offer. They thought we might not push out all 50, or we might cheapen the value of our brand. But I figured we'd raise $2500 for families in need in all of about 5 minutes if they'd go with it. So we stood our ground. It was a 50-50-50 deal - 50 CDs for the first 50 folks to pledge $50.

We sang our first song - "O Come All Ye Faithful" and it was warm and lovely, powerful and rich. The guys were in good form and terribly psyched about raising serious money with our 50-50-50 deal. After the 1st song, the MC announced there had been a single pledge against our offer. Oops...

Cut to commercial...

The station cut to some pre-recorded material. After a minute and a half, we were live again, and apparently the phones had been ringing. Real time is sometimes a bit slow... folks have to rise from chairs, relieve themselves, collect the phone, dial, talk... The Mayor was all excited about the "TOTE" board and directed us to the video screen for the current total cash raised. Well, a couple of grand had come in in about 3 minutes. Wow!

They held us on stage to sing a few more songs. We sang a Hunnukah number, "Hanerot Hallalu" to reach out to our Jewish neighbors and friends. It was equally warm and lovely, and the "TOTE" numbers continued to soar. We nailed a blues number just to add to the joy of the season, "The Tears Came Rollin' Down" and the pledges kept coming in.

They held us longer, introduced guests to stand in front of us, asked us for an encore. The dollars continued to pour in.

What is it really like to be Super Stars?

Yes, I ask the question again. My blue guys know what it's like - they got to be Super Stars tonight. You don't get to do this without sticking your necks out, putting in lots of hard work and having Faith. I had hoped to raise $2500 for the cause in a few minutes of singing. It turns out in all of about 8 minutes, we raised nearly double that. Lots of hard work to create music and fun turned into some powerful relief for families who desperately need some help. My guys know what it's like to be Super Stars. Blue of a Kind were champions tonight.

Trouble Soon Be Over posted to YouTube

A video of Blue of a Kind performing "Trouble Soon Be Over" is available on YouTube. You can just click on the title to view it, or search YouTube for "Blue of a Kind".

Second tenor, Ron solos on a recent Melrose MA TV telethon for the Mayor's Emergency Fund. We made a challenge to callers to do a dollar match on all pledges made while we sang and the calls spiked! The telethon raised a sum more than 4 times it's goal. We were proud to be a part of it.

Blind Willie Johnson's song goes back into the 1920's. This treatment is based on Geoff Muldaur's way of performing it, with a little fancy footwork to make it work for a cappella.

Bob

Blue of a Kind CD project - Michael Clem and Eddie from Ohio

Home Stretch for Blue of a Kind CD, "To the Sky"

We're tracking the solo overdubs, doing little fix ups and preparing for the final mixing and mastering. I gathered some images and ideas and tossed them over to our graphic artist, 2nd tenor Bob Griffin. Bob drove rough ideas to realization. Once he made his presentation, we had a unanimous conclusion: the CD was going to be entitled, "To the Sky". Wait until you see it!

The imagery is stunning, and the font and design decisions were not only professional, but inspired. He connected with the concept.

A trip to HarryFox.com and I was able to secure licenses for the "intellectual property". You need to set up an account (it's free) and then you can search their database for the composer and songs. If you don't find the title or artist there, you still have to track them down. I rely on HarryFox, but there is often someone "outside the box". On the Whiffenpoof CD, this was Fred Hellerman, who wrote "Delia". On this project, it was Michael Clem of Eddie From Ohio, composer of "Walk Humbly, Son".

Eddie From Ohio Rocks!

First, let me say I'm a huge fan of this band. They are 4 diverse talents each of which composes for the "best band you never heard of". In truth, lots of people have heard of them. Blue of a Kind has been singing one of their songs, "Walk Humbly, Son" for a couple years, ever since I heard EFO sing it on a CD I bought from them at Club Passim.

Michael Clem wrote this song. It's full of his slightly offbeat humor, but has a powerful message. I had to do some heavy lifting adapting it for men. In the EFO treatment, Julie drives the melody in the stratosphere. I also wrote to EFO back then and bought the official chart so as to align myself with what Michael was doing harmonically. EFO and I had a little email exchange and they were excited that we were mounting the piece.

Now, it's going on the "To the Sky" CD. And I was not able to locate Michael Clem on HarryFox.com. So the rule is: find the composer and make a negotiation to give them their due. You can look on ASCAP, but I haven't yet figured out how to actually pay the composer there. It must be easy, but....

So I visited the EFO web site and sent an email via their "contact us" link, explaining what we're doing and how I want to pay Michael for his beautiful work.

This morning, he wrote me back. I only have to attribute the song correctly and send him a copy of the CD. He's flattered and pleased that we want to cover his song.

One of the great things about this job

Being a musical director, you get to realize projects over 6 months or a year's time. You get to herd cats, week in and week out. You get to rant and rave, and you have to keep it fun. Don't get me wrong, it is fun and I understand where my guys are coming from.

But one of the great things about this job is getting a response like that from Michael Clem. Or writing to Geoff Muldaur about "Trouble Soon Be Over" to tell him I am arranging the song after his treatment and would he be cool with that, and he writes me back saying, "Have at!" These guys just love doing what they are doing and are downright glad that folks want to cover their stuff.

And they know who we are, that we're just a bunch of guys with a couple hours a week scratching together all the money we made in the last year to make a CD, sell it and have our little place in the sun. That's pretty cool, don't you think?