Michael Smith writes:
Hello folks, it's April already and things are very busy for me...
Barbara and I moved from the apartment we'd been in for thirty years, to a house (still in Chicago, but five miles north). It's been a long time since we lived in a house and we've been moving, it seems, for about two months.
Meanwhile seven lovely things have happened for me in my musical endeavors. I have to make a list but they're not in order of importance.
One:
The Snow Queen continues apace, I am working with Frank Galati who
is
directing and adapting, and with Blair Thomas (www.blairthomas.org),
who is
designing the piece. We recently finished a five day reconnaisance at
Victory
Gardens with Dennis Zacek, the artistic director, and I am very happy
with how
things are working out. I think if you like what I do you'll like
this.
We'll open at Victory Garden's new theatre, the renovated Biograph, in
December
2006.
Two:
Jamie O'Reilly (jamieoreilly.com) has recorded an album of music that I
have
written for the poetry of Chicago's Pat Monahan, which is based in
Celtic
mythology. The album is called: Songs of a Kerry Madwoman.
Three: Barbara and I have been rehearsing with a band, Barrowsmith, and we'll be playing at the Old Town School's Folk and Roots Festival this summer.
Four: Anne Hills (www.annehills.com) is recording an album, The Heartsongs of Opal Whiteley, my settings of the diary entries of the Oregon naturalist whose childhood diary was a best seller in the twenties. This diary has appeared in a new and lovely edition edited by Benjamin Hoff.
Five: Lisa Asher (www.lisaasher.com) is working on a one-woman show of my songs to be directed by Peter Glazer, who directed Michael Margaret Pat & Kate, and created and directed Woody Guthrie's American Song.
Six: John McDermott (www.johnmcdermott.com) has recorded an album with me as a guest. It's called Just Plain Folk. John also has sponsored an album for me that will be released this summer on EMI Canada called Michael Peter Smith: Anthology One. More about that when it comes out.
Seven: I have my own music room in the basement and I plan to get plenty industrious in terms of new songs.
And now in response to a diminishing number of requests: The lyrics to The Wonderful World of Sex, recorded by Steve Goodman with great rhythm and great interpretation. I wrote this when I was twenty-five. Be kind.
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