I just noticed that a song I helped produce with Gaye Adegbalola during the covid lockdowns is released as a single on Vizztone, a blues cooperative co-managed by Bob Margolin. I thought the song cycle would be released on my own imprint Lions With Wings but the industry standard heavies that Bob deals with set me straight.
Gaye was on my books for an Earthwise Productions at the Mitch residency this winter but we cancelled due to worst-case scenario of the Covid Omicron being a threat. Gaye is a 77-year-old blues musican and activist in Northern Virginia. I was a fan of Saffire the Uppity Blues Women band and cold-called her after reading more about her in Bruce Iglauer’s memoir about Alligator Records.
Unlike most of the projects from Lions With Wings, Gaye waited until the threat of illness was manageable then booked time with a trusted studio in her community. The others made due in their home studios and by epistolary methods.
I am not sure how much our conversations and correspondence helped her create these songs but obviously I would be thrilled if it was as good for her as it was for me. Sometimes just telling a musician or creative person that there would be even one eager listener or viewer is enough of an inspiration for a work to take flight. I guess. I’m no Hal Willner. I’m just a guy with a cellphone and too much time on my hand. Or as Groucho Marx said “times flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana”. She’s talking.
and1: Groucho also said that prunes cooked like apricots taste more like rhubarb than watermelon water tastes like sasparilla. Do. Or dew. If you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce, they taste more like prunes than rhubarb does.
What if America had nothing but 77-year-old Black lesbian musicians as President for the next 250 years?
Plastic Alto with Mark Weiss 