“Stew” in the studio!!

Have a read, and a listen, by checking out the article in “Media” to get a ‘taste’.  Although I only went a couple of times (this blog shares the why) …. one of those times was featured in the above article, and includes the song we recorded.  Of course you can’t miss the accordion in it!!  I was suddenly nervous when the record button was hit!  (no retakes after all!)

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No one there would have realized it – but that evening was very significant to me.  No one would have known this until I wrote a tribute to the beautiful hearted and over- the-top talented Steve Soucy… RIP beautiful man…… missed by so many…..

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I decided to share a slightly revised portion of that tribute in this blogpost, the significance so dear to my heart – his words of encouragement meaning more to me than he could have known….  as I had just picked up my accordion again after about 20 years of barely playing!  In fact, I was without an accordion for many years…. until I found this pretty white and gold accordion for myself for Christmas about 8 months before that very night. 

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But first, from the Songwriters Stewdio website:

“Songwriters Stewdio is a magical musical stew created by gathering local songwriters, musicians and music lovers in a real recording studio for evenings of collaboration and connection. 

The flavour of a stew changes depending on the ingredients included. The same can be said for a musical jam session. When you place a bunch of musicians in an informal gathering to play unrehearsed and improvise ……. MAGIC HAPPENS! Add the unknown factor of an original song and a constantly changing mix of instruments and voices …

 

THE RECIPE

Time: 45 minutes (x2)

Ingredients:

1 Songwriter

2 Songs presented

1 Song chosen

Multiple musicians and vocalists

A variety of instruments

Limited time to simmer in the song

And on cue…….. RECORD what we have created

Songs …. recorded live – no auto tune – no correcting errors – just like the old days.”

 

This blogpost mostly centers around my tribute to Steve Soucy, loved by so many around the world, and why that particular evening meant so much to me….

 

Beautiful heart and beautiful mind.
The world lost another incredibly talented musician…..
One of the greatest keyboardists ever!
Absolutely brilliant…..

 

One of my favourite memories of Steve, which impacts me to this day, happened on this very evening at Songwriters Stewdio …this memory that was very significant to me as a musician, and always will be.

 

As mentioned, I only went a couple of times to Songwriters Stewdio.  The second time I went was the 2nd “Stewdio” session.  When the room was almost full, in walked Steve Soucy and Julie Massi!!  Think “The Parachute Club”  (Rise up! Rise up!)  I immediately thought “oh my God!  This is going to be soooooo awesome!! Those flying fingers!!  Her voice!! Heaven can wait!”

 

But Steve didn’t show off his amazing keyboard finesse – instead – this multi-talented man put on his producer’s hat.  And I got to witness brilliance in a whole new way.

 

When the chosen songwriter played his song for us – the one that we would be co-creating and record only an hour or so later – Steve immediately wrote a perfect line that brought the song even more to life.  And I was the lucky recipient he assigned the line to!  

 

When I heard it, in my mind I heard it repeated twice in different octaves, with a little twist and a little mini-trill at the end. And of course that cool expression that the accordion provides.

 

Steve loved it.  Phew! I couldn’t be happier than to receive this brilliant man’s line – and be able to add to it enough to come up with something he and the songwriter seemed pleased with.  I had been rather nervous that I really wouldn’t be able to contribute, with my lack of experience in ever trying to write anything – even one line ….. so as you can imagine I was majorly thanking my lucky stars for Steve’s arrival!!  And even more specifically – him coming up with a line that I could just embellish. Phew again!

 

Later that evening he expressed how talented he thought I was!  Those are the words right there that carried me for some time into believing in pursuing my dreams, even after all those years! Because they came from him.  And I respected him so much.  I had had a few recent setbacks and was considering that maybe I wouldn’t pursue my music after all…. But instead – I played the reel of his voice in my head whenever I needed encouragement.

 

When I told him how much I appreciated his kind words, I decided to let him know that that was the first time I’d tried “embellishing” - then he seemed very impressed and re-emphasized how talented he thought I was, saying how natural it seemed.  I always remembered him saying that – and so moving forward, I was able to use what I learned that night, to make songs in my repertoire more interesting and alive by doing such embellishments from that time on. 
 

Then each time we saw each other since – he always brought up how talented he thought I was. I was always rather embarrassed though, as he’s so brilliant and I am such a novice in comparison.  I’d always tell him he was being way too generous with his words – but each time he’d look at me with that serious look and insist “no. I mean it.”  

 

Steve was like that. Always incredibly encouraging of others…. He had a great voice too, but almost always chose to let others shine.

 

I often thought of that exchange that evening, and the gift that it was to me…. Such a big heart.  He always said we’d have to do something together one day, but I guess now that’ll have to be in heaven.  xo

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And the why of only going twice? Even though my experience there so special? 

The level of musicianship in the Okanagan is simply amazing.  There are SO many talented musicians….  VERY talented musicians, who are used to playing with other such musicians and creating as they go along, something I had never even attempted before – so I truly felt I’d be slowing these awesome musicians down, and this was the only reason I only attended the first two sessions of this spectacular concept….

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My music was so specialized…. and never actually having jammed with other musicians - I was so out of my element.  (See my Rococo blogpost to see the why of not having jammed even once before!)  I thought I should get at least some practice of that before coming back.  It didn’t happen though.  I got very busy with my repertoire as things took off for me …. And so I admired this wonderfully creative concept through their fb posts.  The creativity and brilliance continued to expand and had a constant flow of musicians / recording artists come and check it out.  Do a quick google to visit their site, and enjoy!  Although no longer running, I believe they ran for at least 2 or three years, bringing together so much talent, creating so much fun, so much music, and so much creative collaboration in the process!  A huge kudos to those very creative visionaries of this one-of-a-kind project!!

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