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November, 2007

Greetings, Everybody!

It’s been a long, long time since I’ve written. I know that many of you have wondered what ever became of me, and others have asked if they had been deleted from the mailing list. Well, I’m back, with great high spirits and lots to catch up on. I won’t bore you with excuses about why I haven’t written. After all, at this point many of you are a bit vague on who I am in the first place, and consequently are not too concerned about where I’ve been all this time. So suffice it to say that in recent years, my wife and I have basically devoted our lives to raising a wonderful son, and now that he is more independent, we have much more time to ourselves, to pursue music again and dust off our little business. It’s exciting to be back in touch with you all!

Of course, I never actually stopped making music all this time. I could no more do that than I could give up breathing, or Chinese food. And in fact, there have been some exciting adventures in the last couple of years. For one thing, many of you might not be aware that I won a Grammy Award! It was a highlight of my life, and I wrote a detailed description of it which I posted on this website. You can still find it here. It’s called “What It’s Like To Win A Grammy Award” (clever title, eh?). Check it out if you have a moment. I think you’d really enjoy it.

I also have played a lot of concerts over the last couple of years, throughout much of the U.S., as well as Europe and Asia. Many were solo concerts, and many others were performances with Paul Winter and the Consort.

For the last three years I was also the full time Music Teacher at our local public elementary school here in Maine. With only 55 kids in the building, ranging from Kindergarten through 8th grade, I combined everyone into one large chorus. We had a blast! Over the three years, we performed almost 150 songs in concerts. All from memory, and many with multiple verses. (There are at least seven in The Ballad of Davy Crockett alone!) It was breathtaking to see these young people just absorb dozens and dozens of songs and lyrics without any apparent effort whatsoever. And I will never again hear anything quite like the sound of those little voices belting out everything from Take Me Out To The Ball Game to O Sole Mio (in Italian, no less). It was truly a joyful noise, and I think all of us will remember it for a long time. There is also a story about my stint as a teacher on my website.

And now I have returned to being a full time professional musician, and Jill has returned to being my full time manager, so look out! We are already off to a flying start. Since September, we have produced a brand new CD, done a concert tour in Michigan, revamped the website, composed several new pieces for the Pilobolus Dance Theater, and gotten all of our wood stacked inside for winter.

Of course, there’s lots more in store. We have plans for new CDs, sheet music for many of my songs, and lots of concert appearances. We even have a theatrical production on the drawing board. So welcome to the New River Music. As Jill said when she came back on board, “we’re a start-up company with a long history”. Here’s to a long and exciting future!

My Irish Soul

The centerpiece of our Fall is the release of my newest CD, called My Irish Soul. It is something that has been rattling around in my head for many years now. I had sketched out melodies and fooled around with familiar Irish tunes for a long time, convinced there was something worth pursuing, but never having the combination of time and inspiration to actually make it happen. Well, as soon as Jill got back to being my manager again, she gave me the one ingredient I had been missing—a deadline. And now we’re proud to announce that My Irish Soul is finished and ready for sale.

My Irish Soul is a very personal CD for me. I am 100 percent Irish, and that has been a sometimes happy, sometimes not-so-happy, but always huge, part of my life. It goes far beyond wearing a green hat on St. Paddy’s Day, because along with all the Irish pride and bluster, I also inherited all the restlessness and moodiness of the Irish spirit. It’s a complex brew, and full of ambiguity. And until now I had never really tried to investigate it musically. But with this new CD I have at least begun the process, and I think you’ll be very pleased with the results. It’s strictly a solo piano record—no nature sounds or other instruments. I wanted to keep the music as starkly personal as possible, and it works best that way—just “me and my
piano”. The songs are mostly Irish tunes—some dating way back— ancient hymns and melodies from anonymous pipers and fiddlers centuries ago. But I also play some Irish American classics, like Danny Boy, Tooralooraloora, and When Irish Eyes Are Smiling. I wasn’t interested in Celtic Purity. I was trying to share my own personal experience, and those are songs I grew up with.

I used these tunes as a springboard, and improvised on them, arranged them and otherwise made them my own. Some arrangements stick closer to the original than others, but I am very confident that the old vanished pipers and fiddlers who first invented them would enthusiastically approve. I also wrote a few original pieces for the CD, which I am quite proud of. They are new and yet familiar at the same time. You’ll definitely recognize my style.

Another distinctive aspect of the music is that a lot of it oscillates back and forth between Irish music and African American styles, like jazz, gospel, and the blues. When I graduated from college I played in New York jazz clubs for my living, and during that time I would occasionally experiment with combining the Irish songs I grew up with and the jazz harmonies and rhythms I had fallen in love with. To my surprise, it was really a very easy connection, and both types of music seemed to have a lot of common ground. Over the years I have recognized that the common ground I discovered is really common to all kinds of authentic music, from all times and places. It’s very hard to put into words, but I think we would all agree that it’s a feeling of spirit, of connection, of joy despite the sorrow. I think the best word for it is “Soul”, and that’s why I named my CD My Irish Soul. It’s an acknowledgement of this beautiful spirit that all real music contains.

Another nice thing about the new CD...

In keeping with the “All-New River Music” theme, we wanted to tell you about our new CD packaging. We have elected to use ecofriendly packaging for all our new releases. These “Digipacs” are the same size as the old plastic “jewel” cases, with which we are all familiar. The advantage to the new packaging is that it uses far less plastic, weighs less, and does not require additional packaging to be sent safely through the mail. We can just slap a mailing label on and head for the Post Office. Digipacs cost us more, but we are not passing that cost on to you. We just think it’s a better way to go, and we’re willing to invest in it.

In Conclusion

It’s exciting to be back in business again, and to be able to offer you some new music. As I promised, there will be lots more. But meanwhile, both Jill and I want to thank you sincerely for sticking with us with your loyal friendship and support for all these years. We have always been unsure whether we have built up a business, or just a huge network of friends. It’s a nice question to ponder, and we’re very grateful for it. So thanks for being one of them!

Yours in music,

Paul Sullivan