The Creative Process as told to a Grant Panel

I have been writing songs for many years.. My work samples that I am presenting are parts of songs written in that last five or six. My work is impressionistic rather than consciously thematic; and the songs are reflective of the particular time/space coordinates of that place in my life. Songs written when my son was born are very different from those written when I was breaking up with my ex-boyfriend. I have recorded CDs worth of songs, nine of which have been released. My creative process has thus far followed this process: I hear song fragments in my head, and I hum them, embellish them, write down lyric strands. When several songs are whirling around in my head, and the fragments become more intricate, I feel it is time to take them from the ethereal to the material.

I would describe this step as downloading the melodies, beats and lyric couplets from my mental hard drive. Usually I will play the piece, without a complete lyric, on piano, and I write out a simple chord chart, and offer it to band members to play. I will usually fill in most of the blank spaces in the lyric before rehearsal. More recently, using a Garageband program, I have found a new way to show new work. I upload a tape loop and then play a piano part, to indicate key, tempo and song structure. Then I overdub scratch vocals to the computer. Once those are complete, I will send the songs via Skype, or per snail mail, on CD to the musicians in my live band. They will listen, and practice a rudimentary form of the tune. When we get to the rehearsal room, we play the piece together. This is where suggestions are made. I work with extremely skilled players, who are able to embellish the piece, in their own style. A simple bass line will be made more rich by the bassist, and additional guitar lines and sax lines are suggested. At the end, a song is ready for live recording and/or live performance. We first lay down basic tracks together, bass, drums, guitar and a scratch vocal. Overdubs are next. A keyboard or sax is added as needed, as are backing voices. Solos are added. Then the permanent lead vocal is put on, and then the piece is mixed.

Drummers are dancers who are sitting down!!

My sister LOVES to find grave sites of famous people and long dead relatives. While looking for our great-great grand mother, Susan Anastasia Marcella Goldrick Whelan, she took a side trip to the tomb of Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, a deity in my sister's tap dancing world, right up there with Jimmy Cagney, Ginger Rodgers and that other Irish guy..oh yeah, Gene Kelly. I have a theory that Irish dancing was a brief form of flamenco dancing, learned by the Irish as the Spanish Armada was camped out, poised to attack the English heretics who had left the True Church..in what? 1600? Anyhoo, the Tudors wailed on the Spanish, and they went home, leaving the Irish as the English punching bag for 400 following years..and in addition, the flamenco instruction was incomplete..the Irish never learned the arms part of the dance, leaving only the dead arm position of Riverdance. Oh well..

Singing at the SaPPHIRE!!

I like the name of the place..The Sapphire Lounge. It sounds like a club that existed in a Raymond Chandler novel, or an Alfred Hitchcock movie.
I got to sing with Margold, McDermott and Satten, no not a law firm dedicated to medical malpractice, but a jazz trio created by 3 escapees from the rock n' roll wars. Jim Satten has played with Mary Wells, Bo Diddley, Ronny Wood and Ronnie Spector, just to name a few, and Denny McDermott was with Steely Dan. Mitch Margold, who played with the brilliant guitarist Cornell Dupree and Toots and the Maytals and I got into a conversation about the worst jobs we ever had. We both had had bad vibes after playing gigs in prisons, and we decided that they were some of the wierder gigs. (Steve Marshall chimed in to say that his worse gig was at a frat house, where there was so much beer on the floor that the band was getting electrocuted everytime they touched a microphone..Toga..toga..toga..)
Anyway, we're videotaping these sessions for local TV, so every Tuesday nite at 8pm we play at the Sapphire Lounge, 249 Eldridge Street, on the Lower East Side, right off East Houston, where my great great grandparents lived before the Civil War, and before moving to Holbrook, Long Island, where they scuffled around as farmers, for a while. Their spirits are in the neighborhood, and I get a warm and fuzzy feeling just walking up to Allen Street.