Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Our music and the democratic party - we are Musical Community Organizers/Democratic Party
We are witnessing the power of music to influence and delight and are becoming more engaged in democracy than ever before. This amazing process has been a gift and inspired us to continue to work hard and share with as many people as we can.
We were invited last week to come to a meeting for the 48th district democrats. This is their monthly meeting. We were allowed to speak quickly at the end of the meeting and talk about the music we've created in the context of having people use it for campaigning as well as be interested in helping with our hurricane efforts.
At the end of the meeting I got up breifly and opened with "We're music peddlers". Which is the first thing that popped out of my mouth (sometimes an uncomfortable trait that can either work really well or not so well or even very poorly) depending on the circumstances. Well in this instance it worked very well. Mind you this is a group of 40 or so democrats, very tired after a 2.5 hour meeting and with a few congressman and states representatives in the room. I explained quickly what we were up to and then played the music "Fired Up, Ready To Go" from our new album "Seven Songs For America".
Mostly people ignored me or a few came up and pretended to listen. I was kind of asking myself what good I'd done by being there. Well for starters I learned a lot more about the inner workings of the democratic party. Also I met Michelle Gregoire who had come out to speak on her mother the Governors behalf. Also we heard some really good stuff from some Obama team members & organizers.
We stayed to help cleanup, since there were yard signs and various implements all over the room that needed collecting.
We then helped close up the meeting room and walked out with the organizer Diane. As we helped her to her car and discussed the up and coming East Side Democrats dinner, she was explaining that the schedule was already set and that it probably wouldn't work for us to play our music video as part of the entertainment. As we were discussing it States Representative Ross Hunter casually walks up and overhears us talking. I said hello and told him that I was States Representative Deb Eddy's (his peer) neighbor. We filled him in on the fact that the schedule was set. I told him that the album had The Total Experience Gospel Choir on it. He said to Diane (jokingly) "well if the Total Experience wants to do it, we'll make room".
We ended our conversations and thanked Diane for considering us for the dinner. That evening I went home and called Pastor Patrinell Wright (as I do many nights lately) what with all the music work we have been collaborating on over the past months. I mentioned Ross's statement about "making room for the choir" and to my surprise she pulled out her calender and said "We will do that".
After finishing the phone call, I drafted an email to Diane stating the fact that the choir would do it and that I'd call her in the AM.
When I called Diane, she said that she had gotten the email and was intrigued by this new development. She said it would be difficult and couldn't make any promises but she'd take it to the comittee. She asked how late she could call me that night to let me know. I said up until 11:00pm.
As the afternoon and then early evening progressed, I started to think, well they aren't going to have us.
At 10:57pm by my clock the phone rang. It was Diane. She said that she'd contacted all but the director for the commitee and that the concensus was a resounding "Yes!".
She didn't think there would be any more argument and confirmed it with us.
Pan forward to the day of the gig Sunday Sep 21,2008.
The choir already had two gigs lined up for that day. One happened to be in our neighborhood. So we went to the church that they were doing the service at. They followed us back to our house and we had a rehearsal and Julie & Pat got sub sandwiches for around 30 people. The choir took off and went to their afternoon performance. We met up later at the Newcastle Golf Club and performed two excerpts "Rise Up" and "Fired Up" from the new album. The governor stayed and listened which was a real honor for all of us. We followed the Governors chant of "Fired Up! Ready to Go!", "Fired Up!, Ready To Go!", it was very invigorating.