Mark Shepard: A Life In Song

It started off quietly enough. My son Andrew and I showed up at the Trod Nossel recording studio in Wallingford, CT at about 10:00 in the morning on Friday, April 25, 2008. Bill Rodman was outside with Paul, the SIFA Choir director and Christine the young soloist who would be experiencing her first recording session today.

The weather was perfect, mid 60’s, sunny, trees blossoming all around, first leaves beginning to emerge. With a few last looks at the beautiful weather we dove into the cave like recording studio. As you enter Trod Nossel there is a waiting room with comfy chairs and walls covered with framed CD’s of recording projects past. One of them was from Motley Crue.

Make a left turn and and a right and through a door is the control room that looks like the business end of the star trek enterprise. separated from the control room by a door and sound proof glass is the actual recording area. It’s rare these days to have a recording room that can handle a large group of people. This room could hold all 20 SIFA choir members with plenty of room to spare.

Soon microphones were being set up by Tyler and Paul the sound engineers. Christine began some last minute rehearsing with Terry Eldh to get her part down as well as to fine tune some of her English language pronunciations. Since Christine’s native language is Ugandan it was an added ability that we could all admire. Not only had she bravely journeyed half way a round the globe to sing songs she already knew in her native tongue, now she was experiencing the added challenge of recording a new song, with new words, in a new environment with a film crew sticking their cameras in her face.

She did an awesome job.

Shortly after we got sound levels and started recording Christine, Rilee O’Neill arrived with her dad John and John’s friend Mike. The the video documentary crew arrived and started setting up lights and cameras in between recording takes…Then some of Bill Rodman’s Neighbors arrived…Then the 20 plus members of the SIFA choir and their chaperones arrived…Then Bill Rodman’s 3 kids (with some neighborhood friends) and his beautiful wife Elizabeth…then my friend Peaches Quinn showed up (she was indirectly responsible for all of this cine she’s the one who invited me to the Sushi lunch group where I met Bill…

It was an amazing circus of people coming and going and all the while part after part being rehearsed and recording one after another.

By 6:00 PM they we’d moved through all of my songs, “Together We Can Change the World”, “Beautiful Person”, “Music is A Bridge”, and were recording some of the SIFA choir material so it would be captured on video with great sound.

I was exhausted and I hadn’t really done anything! It was wild to be the guy that wrote the song and then pass it on to others to sing it. I was truly honored to have their voices bring my words and melodies to life….

I have a few little video clips to share with you but my computer is not happy with editing them today so I’ll do my best to get them up asap so you can get a visual in the next day or two.

Thanks again for peeking in on this process. If you want to get more up to the hour updates go to www.twitter.com and search for markshepard (you may have to sign up but it’s a cool miniblog thingy).

that’s it for today.

Mark

Powered by Bookmarkify™

Hey everybody,

Here’s a short video of a conversation I started with Bill Rodman about the upcoming BIG RELEASE of the “Rilee Project” I know it’s just a tease we didn’t have time to get fully into it…I promise to get the full story up here as soon as I can…

Mark

p.s. if you have any questions feel free to leave a comment by clicking in the space or link below this post…

Powered by Bookmarkify™

The Cherry Blossoms are in full bloom today! I shot some video on Friday and put it to the sound track of my cherry blossom song. Hopefully it will bring a small piece of the experience to you wherever you are…

Powered by Bookmarkify™

Yesterday, (Friday, April 18, 2008) was pivotal in my life as a songwriter.

There’s a long and complex back story that I will be sharing with you in the next few weeks… but here’s the first installment which picks up on the story somewhere in the middle.

(Please note, for technical reasons I had to take this video out. As soon as I get those issues ironed out it will be back)

This video is of the rehearsal of “Together We Can Change The World” which I originally wrote at Bill Rodman’s urging for Ginny Dye (Learn more about Ginny Dye and her Social Entrepreneurship )

Bill Rodman called Thursday night giving me the time and location for a rehearsal of 3 of my songs by a group of teens from Uganda. They call themselves the SIFA choir. What’s important about these kids is that the majority of them have lost their families to the African AIDS/HIV epidemic. They are here in this country on tour to raise money to help themselves and others like them live better lives.

See them in full costume performing…

Friday afternoon, I met up with Bill Rodman and Joe Mennona as well as the SIFA Choir kids in order to rehearse 3 of my songs in preparation for next week’s recording session. I found them at a summer camp in Clinton CT and immediately I knew there was something special about these kids.

I walked up the driveway and they were so warm and open I was immediately touched.

So as we gathered together to begin rehearsing, several camera people were filming the whole process as part of a documentary that will be released in the next few months. My friend Rob Bronsen was there with is cam-corder so that I could give you an unofficial sneak peek into the process.

Joe wrote 3 separate parts which the kids learned easily and rapidly.

Please feel free to share this story with others who may be interested. I also appreciate your questions and comments.

Some of the key characters we’ll be introducing in future blog posts are:

Bill Rodman, former ESPN producer who has created a company, 4E Productions to create meaningful and positive message entertainment for children, teens and adults in various formats.

Ginny Dye, “Social Entrepreneur” CEO of a family of companies designed to make a positive difference in the world through the leverage of the internet and network marketing.

Rilee O’Neill, 12 year old singing prodigy who I’ve been writing songs for as part of a musical called “Letters To Daddy: A musical detention”

John O’Neill, Elementary School Teacher, Rilee’s dad and Bill Rodman’s friend and partner in developing the “Letters To Daddy” project as a character education program

Joe Mennonna, multi-instrumentalist, arranger, sound engineer. My long time friend and trusted collaborator, Joe is a virtuoso pianist, as well as flutist, saxophonist, accordian player, guitarist, and holds his own on trumpet, trombone and tuba.

Powered by Bookmarkify™