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Matt performs with Al Stewart at the Old Meeting House in Francestown, NH on August 17, 2007 If you are a lover of great folk music, then you know of singer/songwriter Al Stewart. He has had a slew of hits over the years, including “Time Passages,” “On the Border” and probably his biggest hit, “Year of the Cat.” He puts on a fantastic show with his fellow acoustic guitar player, Dave Nachmanoff, performing both old and NEW hits. He is a spellbinding, extremely humorous storyteller, and his song lyrics are amazing (in addition to his music). Al Stewart was booked to perform in our town as part of an ongoing concert series to raise funds to renovate and maintain a beautiful, historic and acoustically amazing building…our Old Meeting House. He had planned to do a completely acoustic guitar performance. However, the person who booked Al is a LONGTIME fan of his. When asking about Al’s technical requirements for the show, she asked about his piano player, knowing “Year of the Cat” is a piano-based song. The answer came back that he and Dave could do an acoustic guitar version of the song. But Lisa felt the song HAD to have piano. It just wouldn’t be the same! For all you “Year of the Cat” lovers, you know what she means! Lisa mentioned that she happened to know of a fantastic local pianist who could step up to the plate and play the piano for that one song, mentioning MATT. (Thank you, Lisa!). Al and his manager checked out Matt’s music on his web site and Al said it would be FUN to perform “Year of the Cat” with Matt. Thus started another unique and memorable musical experience! Al’s manager sent Matt a CD the week before the concert with the original recording of “Year of the Cat” on it. But she also included a note. There were no charts (music) to go along with the song and there was one other detail. Al no longer performed the song in that same key. He now sang it a half-step lower, in Eb Minor. She said to let her know if there would be any problems with Matt’s learning the song or learning it another key. Well, Matt sat right down and in ONE procedure, transcribed and transposed the song onto staff paper. He would have done it onto the computer, but the song-writing software he uses is slightly cumbersome for certain kinds of uses, and in this case it was a faster process to just write down the score. Then we went onto YOUTUBE to listen to different versions of the song. He wanted to get a real feel for the song. He also listened to OTHER songs by Al Stewart, and unbeknownst to me, researched his biography. I learned from my son that Al was born in Glasgow, Scotland. I am a fan of his music and didn’t even know that! On the day of the concert, sound check was scheduled for 6:15 for an 8:00 PM show. At about 6:45 we got word that Al and Dave were stuck in traffic due to an accident on I-93 and they didn’t expect to arrive for another 45 minutes. The doors were supposed to open to the audience at 7 PM, so people patiently waited outside. At 7:45, Al and Dave came rushing in (to the cheers of the people in line) and did about a 3 minute sound check. Plug in the guitars, tune on the fly, play a little bit, do a bit of adjusting and go. Matt was prepared to go over the song with them, but there was no time. The sound guy (Phil) had already adjusted the level of the piano while we awaited the arrival of the guitarists, so everyone felt comfortable that all would be fine. Dave looked at Matt’s handwritten transcription of the song, scanning it quickly. He nodded and said that Matt had written it perfectly, and that everywhere other instruments soloed on the recording that HE would do improv on the guitar. Matt asked when HIS improv would occur. Dave smiled and asked, “Do you WANT to solo?” Of course the answer was, “Definitely!” So Dave said that they would play things by ear at a particular section of the song and watch each other and after Dave did some improv then Matt would have his chance. And there was one other change about which Matt should know. The plan was to end the song “freely” instead of as it was on the CD, finally resolving to an Eb chord. Matt corrected Dave, saying, “Eb Minor.” Another smile, “Yes, Eb Minor.” With that, sound check was over and the audience started filing in. No song rehearsals, but great expectations of spontaneous music. Matt and I listened to the entire concert with exhilaration and excitement. Al and Dave are GREAT to hear live in concert. You get fantastic music, riveting stories and lots of ad-libbed humor. I used to play guitar pretty well (which probably explains my passion for folk music BK (before kids)). I used to spend long hours with friends in college playing the guitar and singing and occasionally actually PERFORMING. So I was eating up the phenomenal guitar playing. I peeked at Matt and he was, too. I wonder if someday he’ll pick up a guitar and want to learn to play that instrument along with his others? Anyway, at the end of the second set, Al said that he had a special guest performing with him that night and called Matt up to the stage. Matt sat down at the stool and Al made a crack about Matt having that “Harry Potter thing” going in his looks, which of course made everyone laugh (except Matt, who was already so focused mentally to perform that he didn’t even really HEAR Al). Al then proceeded to segue into the fact that Matt probably NEEDED a little Harry Potter to rub off on him, telling the audience about Matt’s having been sent only a recording of the upcoming song in order to learn it. “And then we gave him the BAD news,” he quipped. “We weren’t going to play it in that key.” “We wanted to separate the men from the BOYS.” After humorously delighting the audience with the back story and stating he had no clue how things would transpire as there had been no time to rehearse, he sweetly “covered” for Matt “just in case”, saying that if any mistake were to be made in the playing of the tune that it would most likely be HE who made it. Did I mention that Al had never before heard Matt play the piano live? Poor Al must have been VERY nervous about things crashing and burning during the performance of his beautiful song. I’m SURE he must have been silently berating himself with, “What was I thinking when I thought it would be fun to play with a kid?” Ever the consummate showman, he smiled and said that people would know the next song, and looked at Matt. The room got silent. Matt played a few beautiful notes and let them hang in the air. Then he played a few more. He did this incredibly beautiful intro, and then slid into the familiar chords of “Year of the Cat.” The audience applauded. Big smiles went all around, and the musicians ate it up. As the song progressed, you could see the looks of amazement and pleasure on Al and Dave’s faces, and when it came to Matt’s improv, they both faced Matt and gave him the spotlight. It was so magical. For those of you who would like to have seen Al’s show, you’ll have to trust me that it was fantastic and attend another of his concerts! But if you’d like to hear the “magic” that transpired that evening somewhere in the land between jazz and folk, Al graciously allowed me to videotape the performance and put it on YOUTUBE. If you click here, you can enjoy Matt’s interpretation of “Year of the Cat” with none other than Al Stewart and Dave Nachmanoff. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btv0BZdQYNw
Matt and I would so much like to thank everyone who made it possible for this evening to happen. From the initial idea to the immediate embracing of the idea to the idea’s coming to fruition, it took special, open and supportive people on all sides to “trust” that Matt was the right “man” for the job. To all of Al’s people, thank you so much for everything. Matt completely enjoyed participating in such a fun and “different” kind of event. To Dave, you are an incredible guitar player. I’m glad you retired from Academia to become a fulltime musician. And to Al, Matt and I very much enjoyed meeting you. You are a fascinating and delightfully articulate man, filled with humor and insight (BESIDES being a top singer/songwriter!). I hope that next time we see you we’ll have more time to just hang out. And one final note of thanks to KEITH! He is a fan of Al’s who graciously switched seats with me just before “Year of the Cat” was performed so that I could videotape. Keith, if you read this, check out the YOUTUBE video, so you can now see what I saw from your seat (even though you still saw it from just a few feet over). Your kind gesture made it possible for me to capture a special moment in time. Thank you.
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