2011 SongHall Induction

Last week I had the incredible opportunity to attend the 42nd Annual Songwriters Hall of Fame Induction Gala, thanks to my friends Jason Kingston and Peter Bliss. Here's a rundown of the night - a bit more in-depth than my twitter posts:

The event was held at the Marriot Marquis Broadway Ballroom in Times Square, and my ticket was for the balcony. I arrived around 7:30 after grabbing a hot dog and failing to find a street vendor with any knish. Sad day. I met fellow infamous "B Group" member Melvin Vasquez there, and we went in to find seats. Sadly, the way the seats were set up if you didn't get one of the first 3 in any row then you couldn't really see. But I was not to be detered. Luckily, I was able to finagle a seat that allowed me to see most of the stage, and practically all of it if I stood up (there was no one behind me). Then after some investigation I was able to procure a program for the event. Rock on. I snuck from my flask and prepared for the show.

After a brief welcoming introduction by SongHall Chairman Jimmy Webb, Billy Steinberg & Tom Kelly opened the show with a performance of their song, "Like A Virgin" (gee, who sings that?). They were then inducted by Pretenders lead singer Chrissie Hynde, who gave the crowd a fantastic version of "I'll Stand By You." This was the first of numerous times when I got chills. There are some serious people in this room.

Dwight Yoakam then came out and performed "Superstar," which was co-written by Leon Russell. Leon emerged with a white maine, sat down at the piano, and performed a beautiful rendition of "A Song For You." Afterwards he dedicated his award to his friends in the crowd who work to help him with his hearing problems, but who also work so hard to help hearing-imparred children receive the gift of sound.

Boz Scaggs inducted Allen Toussaint, and since I'm not really familiar with either of their work I'm not sure what song he performed first. However, the two of them did join together on a duet of "What Do You Want The Girl To Do." You know a song is great when you've never heard before it but can remember it the next day. I have some homework to do on them.

Dominic Chianese (Uncle Junior from "The Sopranos") gave the Towering Song Award to "It Was A Very Good Year," an his performance of the song was impressive. Jimmy Jam presented the Hal David Starlight Award to Aubrey Graham from "Degrassi: The Next Generation"...I mean, Drake. He performed a song that I didn't know, and to be honest it's not really my thing, so let's move on.

Skylar Grey did a great medley rendition of "Crazy For You" and "Human Nature" to begin John Bettis' induction. I guarantee that he's written so many songs that you know. He was officially inducted by Paul Williams, then performed "Top of the World."

Trisha Yearwood performed a medley of Hal David songs including "Do You Know the Way To San Jose," "I'll Never Fall In Love Again," "What the World Needs Now," and more as he was given the first Visionary Leadership Award. Sam Moore & Bill Medley then gave the Johnny Mercer Award - the SongHall's highest honor - to Billy Mann & Cynthia Weil, and performed a fantastic duet of "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling." And let me tell you, when the band slammed into the chorus after the breakdown the place was absolutely electric. More chills. Sam and Bill were actually really funny with their back and forth bickering. They should take their act on the road. Valerie Simpson then presented the Howie Richmond Hitmaker Award to Chaka Khan, who performed a rousing version of "I'm Every Woman."

The night's last inductee was Garth Brooks, inducted by Billy Joel. Garth was incredibly humble at the award, especially since he confessed that he's never considered himself a songwriter. He gave a fantastic performance of "The Thunder Rolls," then invited BIlly back on stage for a show-closing performance of the Billy song that Garth took to the top of the country charts - "Shameless."

The show was about 2 and a half hours long, and afterward I ended up in the elevator with Valerie Simpson. Cool. Watch a short video about the induction here.

I never did find my knish.


The Red Carpet (It's the only picture I got. Sorry.)

2011 SongHall Abe Olman Showcase

It's one of the worst parts of the music industry. If you play events or showcases you undoubtably suffer from hurry up and wait. You also suffer from it trying to get good concert tickets or when flying, but that's not what I was doing last night.

I showed up to the theatre just after 2PM and was able to soundcheck with Jason Kingston very shortly after that (we only had two run-throughs of the song, by the way). Then we had time to kill since the event didn't start until 6PM. So, we walked around Washington Square Park and got some food, then went back and were asked to prepare programs! Haha. But it was cool - after all it was a SongHall event and we were the SongHall representatives in the showcase, so I was more than happy to pitch in to help make the event as smooth as possible.

Jimmy Webb arrived around 5:45 and immediately went backstage. His master session interview began around 6:10, conducted by Phil Galdston, and it was good. He gave some great insights into some of his songs such as "By the Time I Get To Phoenix," "Up, Up, and Away," and "Adios," as well as the music industry and life as a songwriter. He ended the interview with a performance of his song "Where Words End," which is on an album released last year.

During the intermission we hurried backstage and then...waited. Again. Each award recipient was introduced and given their award. In my opinion, some of the intros dragged on a bit but for the most part it was good. Then we finally got to play, and we were the first performers. Now, if you ask Jason he will probably talk up my piano playing, but the truth is he's the one that really killed it last night. He's got a great powerful voice that can just knock you on your ass...and it did. I think we did our job of setting the bar very high for the other performers, and I'm hoping to have video to post soon. Some of the other performers that I liked from last night were Rachel Brown, Markeisha Ensley, and David Marenberg.

Afterwards a few of us went out and ate some average college food. Nothing fancy. But how's this for funny: my parents came to the showcase and a guy approached my mom and asked if she wrote The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. I think she should've said yes.

Below are a few pictures from the evening:


The award winners posing for pictures with their awards.


Jason Kingston introducing his song, "Lucky," while I futz with the damn piano bench. (Yes, I know the picture is terrible quality. Suck it up.)


A mini-reunion of the infamous SongHall Workshop "B Group." Me, Jason Kingston, SongHall Activities Coordinator Peter Bliss, Melvin Vasquez, and Loriel Leander.

Prepping For The Tony Awards

Sometimes being a musician and knowing people can lead to some cool opportunities. The drummer who played on my first CD is a guy named Chris Snykus. I've known Chris for over four years now; he's currently the drummer for Perfect Thyroid and The Big Shoe, and he's the shop manager at Firehouse Productions in Red Hook.

Firehouse Productions is a live sound company that handles sound for major tours and events such as Neil Diamond, Peter Gabriel, VH1 Storytellers, and the MTV Video Music Awards. This Sunday they are handling the sound for the 2011 Tony Awards at the Beacon Theatre in New York, and in an effort to test out some new equipment before it was all loaded in this week, I was asking to come be part of a small jam session last wednesday night. Very cool.

The equipment was actually a tractor trailer that is already completely wired to run sound for a live show simply by running little more than a few cables to the stage. It's compact, it's organized, it's easy to set up, it looks cools, and we got to be the guinea pigs. We set up on the complete other end of the building - Chris on drums, Eli on bass, Brett on guitar, and me on keyboards. We were miked, given in-ear and floor monitors, and basically told to have at it while they worked out any and all kinks that appeared in the system. We started out with some jamming and soon dug into legendary versions of "Too Hot" by Kool & the Gang, as well as "Careless Whisper" by Wham! And they gave us pizza and beer ("Steeeella!"). Needless to say my first trip to Firehouse Productions gets two thumbs up.

I wonder if they would let me move in.

So, what do you think? Too many links? I went a little happy here.