In 2009, I announced to friends and colleagues (in my most cavalier fashion) that I would commence work on a new Fester Spunk project ….composing a score for the 1920 Wegener film ‘The Golem.’ I set to work and quickly became overwhelmed with the enormity of an 84 minute piece. Over the decade since I have gone back to the project, playing with the mix, adding new parts, reworking others, or finding ways of repurposing parts of the work for other projects such as Songs of Extinction Theatrical compositions and tracks on other Fester Records such as Spackle & Glue, How to Combat Ghosts & Interference, and Tech Tonic. In the midst of end of term madness this Spring I opened up the ProTools project for the film and recognized that in fact with a little tweaking the piece was complete! It was the perfect distraction from my research, and actually recharged the batteries to get me through on all my assignments as well as the soundtrack.
An associated album is in the works, and I am now looking for a place to present the work
January 2019 Session with the Convo Combo (Rob Kovacs, Pat Perkinson, & myself) covering Ornette Coleman’s ‘Turnaround.’ Here’s a little video I threw together using Rubin Henriquez’s wonderful photographs from that afternoon.
After the 2016 Earthquakes in Ecuador some Hostos colleagues and I organized a concert to raise relief funds for the victims. Here’s a snippet of my set that night, playing with the magnificent John Arrucci and his band.
Oh, by the way, that’s a Roeboy! telecaster style build I’m playing going through a Roeboy! Deluxe… loving the tone that night.
I also built a stratocaster style axe called the Roeboy! Palamino Shad-o-caster which we raffled off that night. Here’s a picture of that guitar:
Butch Roxas and Rees Shad discussing their album project Half A World Away
My son Dylan and I packed up a trunk load of recording gear and headed over to the Philippines to reunite with my childhood friend Butch Roxas and record a record called Half a World Away. Here’s a little documentary about the experience…
For the last few years, I have been hard at work on an opera called The Watcher. It is a story of possession on many different levels, dealing with enslavement, abduction, spiritual possession, identity, and finally the possession of physical property. Inspired by actual events, the opera spins a yarn that weaves both fact and fiction into what I hope to be an engaging song cycle.
Here’s the Libretto: An escaped slave and his daughter seek shelter on the Underground Railroad but instead of being sheltered they are be betrayed by a stationmaster, a man known only to us as “the Leering Man.” The father is turned over to slave hunters, but the daughter is secreted away in a hidden chamber in the Leering Man’s barn. Within the chamber the daughter discovers the spirits of the Leering Man’s previous victims and rallies them to enact revenge. Once their revenge has been achieved, however, the daughter remains trapped in her prison. The spirits lay in wait for two generations until a workman discovers the hidden chamber, and they take the opportunity to possess the man and create The Watcher.
The Watcher Score completed and celebrated
In composing The Watcher, I have returned to larger thematic work as on my albums, Anderson, Ohio and The Riggley Road Stories. The project has been an enormous learning process as I have stepped away from my more traditional band arrangements to compose for string quartet and voices. The Watcher blends traditional opera with gospel and modern string music to deliver a shade of Americana that I have not found elsewhere.
In Applehead recording strings – Engineer Dylan Shad at the console, Barry Hartglass & I looking over the arrangements
The compositions and arrangements were created over a two-year period (2014-2016), after which I brought my pal Barry Hartglass in to help me refine the arrangements for recording sessions with the string section and various vocalists (with engineer Dylan Shad at Applehead Studios) in the Fall of 2017. Lots of other projects have held up the completion of the work, but I plan on finally mixing the opera in the Winter of 2019.
Applehead String Session with the string quartet (L to R) – Aimée Niemann on 1st Violin; Jay Julio on Viola; Blair Cheng on Cello; Nathan Kamal String Director & on 2nd Violin
Working with the string players at Applehead Studios
In addition, I have been working with my colleague Victor Pinnock and a number of my former media students to create an animated version of the opera. More on that soon….
One of my life’s blessings is having the opportunity to work closely with my son Dylan recording a number of albums.
