The most important thing in my life (after relationships, of course) is music.
“Sometimes it is the artist’s task to find out how much music you can still make with what you have left.” Itzhak Perlman
“After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is Music. Aldous Huxley
“Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.” Victor Hugo
“Life is like a piano, what you get out of it depends on how you play it.”
“Musical training is a more potent instrument than any other (for education) because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul, on which they mightily fasten, imparting grace, and making the soul of him who is rightly educated graceful, or of him who is ill-educated ungraceful.” Plato
“You lads and lasses should always remember that 24 record companies turned the Beatles down and that John’s Aunt Mimi said, ‘The guitar’s all very well, John, but you’ll never earn a living with it.’”
“Never quit on your music.” from August Rush
Eagle River in the style of Wikipedia:
Ken Dravis and Eagle River is a five – six piece band of seasoned musicians that formed in 2015 as a tribute band to John Denver – also featuring the original songs of Ken Dravis, who worked for John Denver as a young man.
By March of 2016, the band consisted of lead singer, guitarist and founder Ken Dravis; co-band leader Allison Kitto, Bill Schneider on upright bass, Duane Moore on percussion and Cherry Odelberg on piano. The piano bench was previously occupied by Amber Hopkins. Susan Watts Brenann was vocalist with the band for some time in the early months, having been part of the catalyst that ignited Eagle River. In May of 2016, Joe Talucci ascended to the drummer’s throne.
Ken Dravis has been performing, writing, recording, and producing music most of his life. He is one of a very few lucky songwriters /musicians who can say they actually sat in the backyard of Starwood in Aspen and shared original music with John Denver. Ken worked as a security guard for John and Annie for a couple years, but his own music has spanned several decades.
Allison Kitto, is an accomplished violinist, mandolin player and all around musician having played with the Grand Junction Symphony Orchestra for 25 years. She now mentors young string players through the Valley Youth Symphony and continues her career as a session musician with locally and internationally known bands.
Bill Schneider, by his own account, has played many types of music in some amazing places with some interesting people. By all other accounts, he is a solid bass player and a sought after ski instructor in many amazing and interesting Colorado locations.
Duane Moore has been dubbed “a veterinarian with a knack for rhythm.” He has played in rock, blues, country and jazz bands across the western United States since 1974.
Cherry Odelberg has made a lifetime of raising young musicians and pleasing audiences in retirement centers. She has never met an acoustic piano she didn’t long to play.
THE MEMORIES WE LOST IN 2016
Nineteen years since I have seen him, yet the face in the photos is so real I can hear his voice, remember his manners, sense his body heat emanating from the mixing board, read his language. Harvey has been dead for three years, but I didn’t find out about it until 2016, so it’s been a shock getting used to his absence these past few months. Harvey was nine years younger than me. He is not supposed to be dead and me alive. The last time I talked to him was by phone. Dallas to Denver, long distance. He was getting married, he said. Honeymooning in Colorado, he said. Did he need to rent a four-wheel drive to make it to Georgetown safely? That was 18 years ago. His eulogy said he was married for 15 years before his death. I found the video of his funeral online. I recognized several of the photos in the section titled early years – the ones taken during the brief years we worked together. Wrote music. Recorded music. Wrote musicals. Directed children’s musicals. Those years are still real to me. Moments of success and fulfillment. And that is how I found out Harvey had passed. I went looking for him via Google one night. My musical life had taken yet another U-turn, I was playing in a band, reconnecting with a musical acquaintance from 1984 and I found myself wanting to reconnect with Harvey of 1996. I left contact information on the website of the DJ service he used to run. His former business partner got back with me and broke the news. Harvey is gone. Who will validate my memories? Harvey’s widow had barely entered the scene when I exited for Colorado in 1997. She knows nothing of those years we spent as musical colleagues in shared studio space, though pictures of his individual musical successes proliferate. 2016 has been a year of loss for so many. When you lose someone, you lose a part of your memories. I am aging, increasingly losing more extended family members and high school peers. Who would have thought learning of the loss of a cowriter with whom I had lost contact would come as such a jolt? But it does. We are all intrinsically connected – especially those with whom we have made music. There is no going back. There is only forward. Treasure the music you make today. Treasure the people with whom you make music. Sing a new song every day.
Musique as it was in February 2012. Lead; Ruth Levine, Bass; Janice Frame, Baritone; Judy Davis, Tenor(and on the piano) Cherry Odelberg. Musique was a Sweet Adelines quartet producing velvet a cappella harmonies