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?

More Attribution Mysteries

The Whodunnit plot rethickens

Believe it or not, the story continues, and maybe Robert "Missing" Link is indeed the missing link in the evolutionary process of "(That Slippery) Slide Trombone". Robert recently wrote me, saying,

I should have told you that I knew Bill Oler when he was a freshman and I 

was a senior; I assume that he's the reason that Song Fest got into the 

Whiff repertory. Also, a many years friend of mine is Brower McClintock, 

'40, a founding member of O&Bs. If it's in the O&B repertory, I assume that 

Brower got it there.

So the trail has not gone cold. Oler, Brower.... Connections and all part of the evolutionary process.... By the way, Mr. Link was made an honorary Whiffenpoof in 1947, as I said before, but is also an honorary O&B. Connections....

Connections... and another Whodunnit

Another fun whodunnit story surrounds the classic Whiff arrangement, "I'll Take Romance". I engraved this long time favorite many months ago from a manuscript that was marginally readable. Before and after screenshots of a few measures this piece can be found on our home page, Acappellanation.com. Of side interest, this note: there is an error in that screenshot that has since been corrected in the actual engraving.

But I digress, don't I? During some months last Summer after making that engraving, I also engraved another half dozen or so arrangements by the same Whiff arranger, but these from his undergrad years in the Bakers Dozen. This arranger is Lewis Girdler, known for "MacNamara's Band" as well as "When Sunny Gets Blue", among other gems. I wrote about him before as the man I believe introduced the faux string bass line in a cappella singing. This humble genius probably turned the a cappella singing world on it's ear in the late 1950's and opened the door to some of the expression we have seen flourish in our genre ever since. That's another investigation....

I'm still digressing, but it's a story! Well, I attributed the arrangement to him because I could make out his name in the top, right corner where it emerged from a black cloud caused by too many xerox generations. I also recognized the handwriting, but so many of the works I engraved had been recopied by others hands making this evidence less credible. However the style of the arrangement, it's voicings, pace and rhythms all sounded like classic Girdler, so I had no reason to doubt it was his.

Arranged by "Unknown"!

Nonetheless months after I submitted it, our lead editor and musicologist bounced it back to me saying to change the arranger to "Unknown". I looked at the original xerox (interesting combination of words there). Girdler's name was clearly legible at the top and I was baffled. Perhaps the black cloud from which it emerged had said, "copied by", but the rest of the evidence suggested otherwise.

Luckily, I had come to know Mr. Girlder while doing the Bakers Dozen engravings, and I sent him a copy of the copy asking, "What about it?". Yes, he replied, and thanked me for sending the manuscript so he could say for certain. It turns out our lead editor had asked Lewis about 10 years ago at some Whiff function if he'd arranged "Romance" and well, he wasn't sure he had. So rather than take credit for what might be someone else's work, he said, "No." Remember what I said about humble? Besides, Mr. Girlder's contribution to both the Whiff and Bakers Dozen repertoires is vast and this is but one sweet "Romance" that slipped his mind. ;-)

Once Mr. Girdler recognized his own hand writing, we'd solved this whodunnit. Luckily, he's still matriculating along with the rest of us, otherwise this piece might have remained forever "Unknown".

Dick Peaslee's Garden of Earthly Delights on Broadway now!

Quick note before I depart: Dick Peaslee, another Whiff and Bakers Dozen arranger I've mentioned in earlier blogs, has a new musical on Broadway, called "Garden of Earthly Delights". Click on the name to visit the web page about it. The man is a powerhouse. I am currently engraving another bunch of his works from the 50's that he'd saved away in his attic and there are some great songs there! 

 

Bob