Summer Encore Music Fest

          THE ROAD TO 'SUMMER ENCORE'

                 AND BEYOND                       

     The road turned out to be long, and varied in pavement texture.  The past two years' ride, has been a wild, frightening, exciting, fun, and often bumpy one.   I'm talking horse drawn buckboard, bumpy.

     Part I:  Turn the key.

     I started this journey with an idea that seemed reasonable at the time.  I love the music genre' known as Trop Rock, and I love raising funds for my favorite charities.  It seemed reasonable (there's that word again) that I could blend the two into a cohesive unit, and do some good on both fronts.
     That's the last you'll hear of reason.  It turned out it never was part of the equation. 
     Adding up the above mentioned parts, I decided that holding a musical event for charity was the way to go.  I'd get a lot of Trop Rock musicians together, in Binghamton, NY, and raise a lot of money and awareness for my favorite charities.  The charities closest to my family's interests, and beliefs are:  *Wounded Warrior Project, **Humane Society, and ***Magic Paint Brush Project.  You'll find the urls for these great causes, at the end of this blog.
     The trip began when I finally decided it was something that could be done.  I mean, I was convinced that I could jump right into the mix, and make something happen.  Then, I had a shocking realization.  I knew nothing about either holding a Trop Rock event, or being a fund raiser, independent of a larger entity.  Alright, I'd participated in a few fund raising efforts, helping area sports teams, and the leaders of other charities, have events to benefit their causes.  How to go about raising funds as an independent effort?  No clue. 
     For many years, my wife and I have attended a lot of Trop Rock concerts and festivals for charity, and I decided that these events would be a good place for me to learn something useful.  I did, too.  I learned that the artists are wonderful people who want to help as many causes as they can, within their limited time constraints.  I learned that charity and musical events, take a lot of cooperation, among a focused group of people, to be successfully staged.  I also learned that a lot of what you "learn" on the surface, turns out to be less than accurate.
     For several months, my lovely, and patient, wife, traveled with me to Massachusetts, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania.  We enjoyed and, participated in, many Trop Rock fund raising events.  At each one, we talked with the organizers, artists, attendees, and bartenders/wait staff.  We wanted to gather all the information that may be helpful to my plan, that we could.  
     By Spring 2011, I thought I had all the information I needed to set the  event preparation gears, in motion.  I was a founding member, and a member in good standing, of the local Parrot Head Club.  They were Trop Rock lovers, one and all.  Who would be better suited than this group of phriends, to help stage the event. I'd partied, traveled, shared hotel rooms, and been friends, with this phlock, for several years.  But, there were hidden factors, within this group, I was unaware of.  More about that later.
     The proposal was made to the club, a meeting was scheduled, and a group was formed, to make my dream come true.  Well, friends.  It's possible, I've learned, that your dreams may not be as contagious as you think.  Maybe your ideas sound great to others, and they are enthusiastic as long as you are willing to make those ideas a reality, before their eyes.  They'll even give you plenty of room to work, and not get in your way.  I had twelve volunteers.  I soon found that there were only six of us who had the dedication, desire, and time, to make the concert/fund raiser come to fruition.  A couple of the other original committee members, had the desire to help, but little time to spare.  After delaying the change over way too many months, I decided that the six of us would soldier on alone, and way too late, left the others out of the loop.   I am now convinced that an earlier switch to the streamlined group, may have made a ton of difference in the outcome.  Trying to get that many people on the same page, was beyond my organizational skills.  It was not their fault, but mine for not knowing my own limitations.
     First we needed a date.  Then we needed an all-weather venue, which could host a two day show, and provide on site lodging for the artists and guests.  We found one locally.  The Binghamton Riverwalk Hotel & Conference Center was perfect.  It has a large ball room with a spacious and well equipped stage, for any musical act I may wish to present.  Once we contracted with them, we needed only to fill that stage for the now established, two day show.
     Very quickly, a combination of solo artists and bands, sixteen in all, were hired to play the event.  All were enthusiastic and looking forward to coming to Binghamton to play for the charities and adoring fans.
     Right from the start, we fielded an elaborate web presence.  Our web expert provided a beautiful website, with new information added, eventually.  We set up a facebook page, to promote the event to all the loyal fans who frequent that social media.  We had a dozen or so excellent sponsors, and a lot of generous businesses, signed up for our event brochure.  We were off and creeping.  
     We thought our journey was half over.

     Part II:  The downhill run.
  
     Long story short:  Here are some facts of life.  Most of the artists we'd hired, pushed "Trop Starz & Tiki Barz", on their web sites, and newsletters.  My hat is off to Loren Davidson, Dani Hoy, John Friday, Chris Sacks, David McKenney, Tropical Soul, Pirate Dreams, Frank Vieria, Mike Cadden, Harbour Knights, and Jimmy & the Parrots.  All mentioned us numerous times, and brought us to their fans' attention.  Possibly due to oversight, the other acts didn't.  
     Frustratingly, a local Parrot Head Club member continually countered our facebook posts, and Parrot Head emails, with ads, promos, and personal recommendations, for Trop Rock events elsewhere in the region.  I don't know if it hurt, but I'm sure it didn't help.
     Maybe July 6th and 7th in beautiful upstate New York are a bad time.  Maybe the economy is too depressed.  Maybe $75.00 tickets were too steep, for a 2 day show.  Maybe we just didn't strike a chord with the fan base.  For whatever reason, ticket sales stayed parked at the curb. 
     With thirty-one days to go before the event, we had to cancel.  We felt that was as fair as we could be to the acts, the ticket holders, and the sponsors.  We refunded all the tickets, returned the sponsorship money, and didn't get any of our deposits back from the acts who'd required one.  One act which hadn't required a deposit, because of our association with the local Parrot Head Club, demanded compensation for the scheduling change.  We gave them what we could, which wasn't all they'd asked.  All the money in the event account, had already been paid out in refunds.  No problem.  They deserved something for their kindness.  I dug into my pocket.

     Part III:  The rebirth.

     At first, a huge letdown, after all those months of intense planning and preparation.  Once we wrapped our heads around the disappointment of failure, the road ahead looked a lot smoother.
     A chance to breathe, for the first time in over eighteen months.  No artists to cheer up, and no sponsors to worry about giving good value for their investment.  No angry ticket holders to placate.  Life was easy for a change...I thought.  
     My confidant, and partner in foolish endeavors, Rick DeBacker, pointed out that The Riverwalk didn't/wouldn't refund our deposit!  Crap!  Just when life was good.  Rick had put up the deposit, which meant it was a total loss to him.  I offered to split his loss down the middle.  I'd already given money to the insistent, hold out band, "so what's a few hundred more?" I thought.
     "No," he said.  "I want them to earn that money." 
     "What's your idea," I asked.
     "What if we have another show?  A smaller one, and use that deposit up, in food?" he asked.
     "OK, let's do it.  We ought to be able to get some players to come.  Let me ask a few artists." I said.  Trinity Logistics, our biggest sponsor, and a generous fan/benefactor, had informed us that they would stick with us.  With those lucky breaks, just a small crowd would be enough to make it successful.
     The date was decided, and I asked Dani Hoy, David McKenney, and Jim Jowsey, my three top picks, to come.  All three said they would.  Then, all I had to do was line up the local Trop Rockers, to round out the show.  David Shoudy, of The Outer Reef Band, and the entire Susquehanna Rum Runners band, agreed to play.  We figured that five acts, over a seven hour period, would be a nice day of entertainment. "Summer Encore" was born.
     All the same arrangements as for "TSTB" were made.  We set up a Website, facebook event page, sent letters to the Parrot Head Clubs in the region, posted lots of bulletins on the appropriate facebook pages, Trop Rock sites, and blogs.
     Then, I took a wrong turn.  "What if we have a song writers forum after the 'Summer Encore' show?" I asked Rick. 
     The very generous Scott, from Mad Moose, agreed to host the after party at his Mad Moose House of BBQ & Wood Fire Pizza.  The wrong turn I made was into a dead end.
     It didn't occur to me that people would be too whipped after seven hours of Trop Rock, & Americana music, to go to a nine to one event, too.  
     The 'Summer Encore' crew and two loyal fans were all that turned up at the Mad Moose.  The artists didn't want to take up space in the restaurant, for such a small group.  They decided to play in the hospitality room we'd set up at the Riverwalk Hotel.  After a delicious meal at The Moose, we repaired to Room # 612.
     The acoustic music was fabulous, and the camaraderie was palpable.  The birthday cake for our two birthday celebrants, capped the night off, perfectly.
     
     Part IV:  The bottom line.

     The the 'Summer Encore' show was a success.  Funds were raised for Wounded Warrior Project, and the Binghamton Humane Society.  Trop Rock fans filled the Carlton Room with laughter and singing along to the music they love so well, and the cheer flowed all day.
     We were disappointed that we couldn't have the after party we wished for, and we know we let the Mad Moose down badly.  We hope Scott will let us make that up to him.  We will do our best to do so.  We were also sad that we had to drop the Magic Paint Brush Project from our beneficiary list.  A three way split, with such a downsized show would not have done justice to any of the charities.

     Epilogue:

     Headache, heartache, riotously humorous mishaps, downsizing to make the show fit the budget, all the amazing people who attended, and our super talented performers, made 'Summer Encore' a hell of a trip.
     Will Rick, I, and our astute money manger, Mike, ever stick the keys in the ignition for another wild Trop Rock ride?  As our Trop Rock guru, Jimmy Buffett, says, "only time will tell."


*Wounded Warrior Project - http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org
**Binghamton Humane Society- www.bchumaesoc.com
***Magic Paint Brush Project - www.magicpaintbrushproject.org

Even if you didn't make it to 'Summer Encore', please consider donating to any or all of these very worthwhile charities.  You will find donation information on their websites.  Thank you.

    

    
     
    

A FAMILY LOSS

I don't have a picture to put at the top of this blog.  I don't have words of wisdom, passed along by him, to help me deal with the things in life, a younger sibling follows the elder through.  What I have is a mental image of a 39 year old giant, with a serious look on his face.  In my mental image, he's packing up his life, three small children, and a dour wife, and flying off to Germany.  A career Enlisted man, he's taking the family to Europe, for a long deployment with the US Army.

Fast forward about thirty-five years.  The phone rings.  From the handset, I hear another brothers' voice.  I know it's bad news.  This brother never calls unless he has bad news to pass along.  When he says he's in El Paso, I know what that news is.  

I was a pre-schooler when my third oldest brother, the veteran mentioned above, became an adult and no longer lived in our family home.  He would occasionally stop by, but not for long, so I don't have fond memories of an older brother, that you'd expect a kid to have.  He's been dying of cancer, in El Paso, for the last couple of years.  Now, before the brother on the phone spoke, I knew the Texan had died.

This is not the time to air the strange relationship a couple of my brothers have had with we family members who've remained residents of upstate New York.  I will say, that the soldier, and the brother who follows him, chronologically,  on the branches of the family tree, decided decades ago, to separate themselves geographically, and emotionally, from the New York crowd.

I haven't seen him in over thirty-five years.  His choice.  Once, many years ago, I, my wife, and children, tried to visit him.  We were a few blocks away from his home, with an evening to kill in Washington, DC.  At that time, I hadn't seen him in nearly ten years.  I called him.  After a brief conversation, he said goodbye and gave me permission to call him again, if I was ever back in the area.

The brother calling with the bad news, and his wife, had taken a quickly arranged flight to Texas, the night before. He had been notified by one of the retired GI's children, that their dad had gone to the hospital. They thought that this would be his last trip.

I surmised, from events that subsequently unfolded, that my moribund sibling's progeny got quite a surprise, when they called their uncle to tell him their dad had died.  Surprise!  He was in El Paso, and was sorry he'd missed saying goodbye to his brother.

The reason I say that they were probably surprised by the news of his arrival, is that it seems that they didn't welcome his presence.  My brother's voice was thick with disappointment that he was not being welcomed by my late brother's family.  They wanted him to know that they had a grip on everything, and "the family" didn't need to do anything.  It was soon learned that  meant, even a family gesture of flowers for his funeral, would not be "necessary".

If I ever had any doubt, this set of circumstances drives home, that you truly do "reap what you sow".  My brother is dead.  I will never see him again.  What he sowed was the seemingly uncaring attitude of his children.  He most likely passed that, perhaps inadvertently, down to them.  They will probably never realize, even if they read this, that a gesture made upon someone's death, is not for the dead person, and possibly not even their children.  These postmortem gestures, are often to help the mourner deal with the loss, in their own way.  

I have decided, that I'm going to deal with it my way.  I'm going out and, buying a card of condolence.  I'm mailing it this morning, and it will be received by my brother's children.  His widow, I've just learned, is suffering extreme Alzheimer's Disease, so the children will be opening the mail.  Then, I'm going to follow the obituaries from El Paso, and send flowers, if not to a funeral parlor, to my brother's home.  

I feel no guilt, and the loss of my brother happened decades ago.  My gestures will simply make me feel like I've said "goodbye", in some small way, to a brother whom I never really knew.