With A Little Help From My Friends

Like so many other musicians, during this enforced quarantine I’ve been collaborating online with my pals. In my case it’s the group of talented players and singers I get together with every September for a musical retreat out in the Isles of Shoals. I put up a mix a little while back of one of the songs we’ve been working on, and now we’ve made it into one of those multi-paneled music videos that have been popping up everywhere.

Here it is:

The personnel: Kemp Harris on lead vocal. The guitars are by my boyhood friends Carl Sturken and Joe Abelson. Ray Castoldi (music director at Madison Square Garden, and organist for the New York Mets) is playing the keyboards. On drums is Gary Lue, and on bass & congas we have Al Hospers. Ray’s wife April played tenor, while Joe’s two sons Rico and Max, and Al’s friend Michelle Boggs, rounded out the horn section. The high female part in the background vocals is Christie Moran, and the other female singers are Jackie Muniz and Erin Dow.

My own contributions: percussion, background vocals, editing and mixing.

7 Comments

  1. Whitewall says

    Nice work! I have never seen a guitar player stand in front of his washer/dryer. Kind of funny though. Maybe it replaces the feel of a set of amps?

    Posted April 28, 2020 at 7:09 am | Permalink
  2. Jason says

    A wonderful way to light a candle in the darkness “with a little help from your friends.” I look forward to more of such greatest hits.

    Posted April 28, 2020 at 7:27 pm | Permalink
  3. chedolf says

    Malcolm, great comment at Spandrell’s about the “Roche limit,” which I’d never heard of before. (Responding here because I didn’t want to clog up what’s already a long thread over there.)

    Posted April 29, 2020 at 12:31 pm | Permalink
  4. Malcolm says

    Thanks, chedolf. I’d mentioned the same idea three years ago, in this post.

    No comment on that video? Too disappointingly mainstream for this blog?

    Posted April 29, 2020 at 1:04 pm | Permalink
  5. epicaric says

    Nicely done. Though I do have to say that every time I see all of the faces in the little squares I start to look for Alice the housekeeper in the center.

    Posted April 29, 2020 at 9:29 pm | Permalink
  6. MikeZ says

    Fantastic!

    Posted May 1, 2020 at 2:32 pm | Permalink
  7. tango says

    Just simply outstanding collaboration! Fantastic group of Friends you have, Sir!

    Posted May 5, 2020 at 12:09 am | Permalink

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