Bill Parsons--All that Voice…and a Lot of Heart by Richard Cuccaro
In another era, Bill Parsons and his muscular, Vic Damone-like baritone would've found himself in front of a big band,
standing in front of one of those big, sleek metallic microphones. That voice and his boyish good looks would have bobby
soxers screaming and swooning in the aisles. Frank Sinatra? Uhh…Oh yeah, that other guy…
But here we are in the day of the performing songwriter. Bill carries his heart on his sleeve and has the kind of mind to let it speak.
His signature song, "Oslo Blue," from his first CD, Unskilled Labor has the kind of original melody that rings in your mind for
days after you've first heard it, and creeps back in, every so often. It deals with the courage that people displayed throughout history
when faced with adversity, as the Norwegians did during the Nazi occupation in World War II. In a circular fashion, it also alludes to
the kind of courage it takes to walk away from a secure, safe path to "leave what you know for what you know you must do" In Bill's case,
that meant establishing a career as a singer/songwriter rather than someone playing cover songs in bars. The oft-heard expressions,
"pluck" and "determination" come to mind here.
What also comes to mind when confronted with Bill Parsons in addition to the depth of musical talent is the generous warmth of his personality.
In a unique reference to the performer/fan relationship, Bill refers to himself as "The Pants," complete with logo, and those people in his fan base
who support his efforts as "Suspenders." He has a newsletter in which he sends updates to those on his mailing list and each one begins, "Dear Suspenders…"
A news bulletin which Bill gave me (he just got back from a trip to China) that may not yet be in any other newsletter yet, is that he just signed a booking
deal with the Auburn Moon Agency, which is the #1 booking agency in the college market. Also, his second CD, Special Delivery received a 1999 Crossroads
Magazine Music Award -- along with David Wilcox and Patty Larkin -- in the Solo Contemporary Folk Recording Category
Bill was born in New York City, and says that his earliest musical experiences, "came directly from my mother's 8-track player in her buick station wagon
-- everything from Elvis to Fats Domino to Neil Sedaka. It was a mish-mash, but in hindsight I think I can say the common thread was melody
-- great pop tunesmithing and melody."
Oslo Blue by Bill Parsons
You didn't know me then, I was a sailing man
An upstart young punk, son of Eric by name
Bought me a wooden ship, thought I would take a trip
Find the new world, or die trying the same
And the sky was Oslo Blue
When you leave what you know for what you know you must do
German tanks in the west, I ran a printing press
Under a church in the Second World War
SS on motor bikes, teachers called general strikes
Guess we were more than they bargained for
Ah but they didn't count on Oslo Blue
When you fight for your soul, you'd rather die than lose
Whiskey was in the jar over an Irish bar
Seamus said, 'That bastard Paisley should pay'
Ian's the older one, said 'It's ugly what's been done
And I aint' so proud of the IRA'
And he knows all about Oslo Blue
'Cause the more that you see, the less you're sure is true
Sound waves off satellites, voices crack in the night
This ain't exactly what I had planned
No you did nothing wrong, maybe I'm not that strong
Maybe it's all more than I can stand
And how do I explain Oslo Blue
Yes I'm scared, no I'm not confused
Remember me as I'll remember you
Remember me as I'll remember you....
Continuing with background influences, he states, "In high school, I was pretty much into the icons from the last great singer-songwriter era: James Taylor,
Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel, Jackson Browne -- but also rockier stuff like the Beatles, Elvis Costello and the Talking Heads. Hopefully, my sound today
fuses the authenticity and lyrical emphasis of the singer-songwriter group with the attitude and willingness to rock of the latter."
When I asked about early musical training, he replied, "I had mandatory two years of piano from age 8-10 and then decided, erroneously, that you couldn't
play rock n roll on piano, so it was time to take up electric guitar. My parents relented and I had about five years of formal lessons on guitar before learning
the rest of my skills from other players in bands. I'm starting to take piano lessons again, though. I really admire artists like Jackson Browne or Susan Werner
or Ben Watt, who can put down their guitars and walk over to the piano. It provides a really nice textural change throughout the course of a show."
I asked which artists and recordings had been a later influence on his songwriting and he replied, "Elvis Costello's My Aim Is True, Jackson Browne's Running
On Empty and Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks -- for crack songwriting and absolutely no filler." His current influences "would include artists as diverse as
David Wilcox, Dan Bern, Patty Griffin and Ben Folds. Wilcox for insight, Bern for attitude, Griffin for authenticity and Folds for tunefulness and humor."
I always wonder what moments or series of events in the life of a singer/songwriter become turning points. for Bill, it went this way: "I've been performing
music in one way or another all my life and wound up in DC after college working for Ralph Nader and moonlighting in a couple of weekend warrior bands.
In 1991, I went down to the Kerrville Folk Festival and for the first time saw hordes of people who weren't famous writing songs and valuing the songs
that each other had written. I wrote my first song during that trip, quit my job as a political organizer with Nader in 1993 and never looked back."
Last year Bill teamed up with Eric Weinberg, a monster guitar player. Bill states: "He's got great (Berklee-College-of-Music-trained) chops, and is an
awesome roadbuddy. He's really infused the live show with a fatter, more textured sound that I enjoy making and I know audiences enjoy hearing.
Plus, he's one of the few good new friends I've made in the
eleven years since I got out of college. We've been doing some writing together and each of us brings some terrific complementary talents to the table.
I can't wait to make the next record.
Bill now makes his home in Washington, D.C. It comes as no surprise that he has been honored eight times with Washington Area Music Award nominations,
referred to as WAMMIEs.
Bill will be performing in Manhattan on Friday, May 12th at 8pm
at the Sun Music Company,
E. 71st St. & 1st Avenue
Bill can be contacted at his website,
www.billparsons.com, where you can order his CD's, get on his
mailing list, and find out where he's playing next.
Booking: 202-986-2387.
Dan Milner: No Bing Crosby, and Boy, Are We Glad by Barbara Horowitz
By the time he was 16, Dan Milner had lived in Ireland, England, Canada, and the United States. While, today, he embraces nearly all genres of music, from blues
to bluegrass, Bach to bop, he has never forgotten his roots in Irish music. When he performs, it's traditional Irish music and maritime songs--period!
"There was always singing in the house when I was growing up," he says. His father played piano and, although he knew a number of folk songs, his interests ranged
as far afield as opera. Dan credits the Irish Arts Center on W. 51st Street with expanding his knowledge of Irish folk music by exposing him to music he had not heard
either at home or on recordings. That was in 1972 and, in the years since, Dan has gone on to teaching a course there every few years "just to pay back the debt."
When he decided to accompany himself, he turned first to the bodhran (Irish drum) and was, in fact, one of the very first people outside of Ireland to play this instrument.
He also plays guitar, "simple rhythm and finger-picking, really. I've always been blessed by having friends who are great musicians. I got interested in maritime music
about 1961 when my brother, Liam, played recordings of Ewan MacColl and A. L. Lloyd for me. In 1970, Liam, again, dragged me down to the South Street Seaport
Museum to sing with a new group called the X-Seaman's Institute. Liam and I were with the 'X' for 2 years." In 1972, Dan and his brother started to sing at the Irish Arts Center.
"Around that time, I first heard the Irish group, Planxty. Their music was a total revelation in my musical life. Within the same musical performance, they combined the finest
attributes of Irish folk song and instrumental music. Nobody had ever done that before. It was at least as revolutionary as when Bill Monroe invented bluegrass."
In 1975, Dan and 3 other musicians formed a band, The Flying Cloud, to make neo-traditional music in the style of Planxty. "We didn't steal from their repertoire,
but I admit we did get an awful lot of ideas from them." Next, he opened up a now-legendary folk club at The Eagle Tavern featuring the band and providing a stage for
the best in Irish and British music. "Simply everyone played there. The Battlefield Band, Joe Heaney, Lou Killen, Peter Bellamy, Frank Harte, Martin Carthy, DeDannan,
and all the brilliant young musicians from the New York Irish music schools." After 10 years, pressures at work forced him to turn the club over to a successor, and for
the next 15 years he simply stopped singing. "I was like the fiddler who put his violin in a case and didn't take it down for a decade or two except that what was in the
box was my voice. The inspiration to start singing again reached me on the wind of corporate downsizing. I smelled early retirement and got revived. Brian Conway, t
he Irish fiddle virtuoso gave me a great deal of support and encouragement, as did my old friends Frank Woerner (from the X-Seaman's Institute), Bob Conroy, and
Jan Christensen. But I owe most to my wife, Bonnie; she never stopped nagging me for 15 years, God bless her."
Always the idea man, Dan approached South Street Seaport Museum in late 1998 about bringing back maritime music. The concept was embraced by Paula Mayo,
Executive VP of the Museum, and this led to the rebirth of The New York Packet, a group Milner had originally put together in 1979. They sing every Tuesday night
at 6 P.M. from June through September on board the tall ship, Peking, in concerts presented by the Museum and cosponsored by the (Pinewoods) Folk Music Society of New York.
In the last 2 years, Dan has toured extensively with banjo/guitarist Bob Conroy. This summer, they will be at festivals in England, Ireland, France, and Denmark as well
as around the U.S. "Bob and I are 2 sides of the same coin. We have a common meeting ground in maritime music and in Irish-American traditional songs. Now most
people think of Bing Crosby when they think of Irish-American anything. Traditional Irish-American songs are, first, those written in Ireland and brought to this country
by immigrants and, second, songs written by those immigrants about their experiences coming to and living here. It's only recently that people have begun to realize that
there is an Irish-American folk music tradition. Other than our friend Dr. Mick Moloney, no one was really studying this music." In that sense, it's a new field and one
that Dan is obviously pursuing with great enthusiasm. He points out that the Irish were the first non-Anglo group to emigrate to the U.S. after it became a nation.
"It's a very broad field with lots of great songs. Bob concentrates on the more American side--for example, railroad songs and songs from the lumber camps where these
laborers reflected on their arduous job of cutting and hauling timber through long, hard winters or songs about the camp owner and the camp cook or painting the town red
on their rare days off. He has a really nice touch for those kind of pieces. I tend to sing the songs about the immigrant passage and the recent arrivals who thought their
journey was ended when they got to South Street but who found it had only just begun. We both sing songs of the Irish in the cities, in the Civil War, and on the music hall stage."
On May 7th The New York Packet plus guest Water Sign present a sea music concert from 3 P.M. to 5 P.M. at the South Street Seaport Museum Gallery. For more
information, call 212-748-8600. Dan Milner's CD "Irish Ballads & Songs of the Sea" marks the first time Irish instrumental virtuosi are combined with N.Y.C. chantey singers.
The recording features Louis Killen, Mick Moloney, The Irish Tradition, Brian Conway, and chanteymen from the South Street Seaport Museum. To order contact Folk-Legacy
at their website http.//www.folklegacy.com/cd/cd124.htm. Dan's Oak Publications book of 150 traditional folk songs from Ireland, Scotland, and England, A Bonnie Bunch of Roses,
is also available through Folk-Legacy.