Glass Harp strings fans along with CD
Gray Areas
Andy Gray
entertainment writer for the Tribune Chronicle
Thursday, June 21, 2001
Those lucky enough to see Glass Harp’s sold out concert last October at Power’s Auditorium raved about how great the band sounded, both as a trio and backed by members of the Youngstown Symphony Orchestra.
Now there’s proof that those fans weren’t just giddy with anticipation over the band’s first Mahoning Valley appear-ance in nearly 30 years.
“Glass Harp: Strings Attached,” a two-CD recording of that show is being released today, and the trio - Phil Keaggy, guitar and vocals; Daniel Pecchio, bass and vocals; and John Sferra, drums and vocals - will celebrate its debut with a release party from noon to 4 p.m. today at Powers Auditorium, 260 Federal Plaza West, Youngstown.
The set, mixed and engineered by Mike Talanca at Tune Town Recording in Newton Falls, has a clean, polished feel and showcases three musicians, who sound as if they’ve been playing together every night for years, instead of old friends who’ve only played occasional gigs in the last decade.
“I hate to brag, but it sounded nice to me” said Sferra, who lives in Howland.
And it was the quality of the recording and their happiness with the performance that led to the CD release, which wasn’t part of the initial plan.
“You try to record things like this just so you can have them, to go back and review, and on the off chance that you might have a great live recording,” Sferra said.
The band brought in several digital audio tape machines to capture the per-formance and about a week later decided to review the tapes.
“The performance was pretty strong that night, we felt, so we went back and looked at it, and it really came out pretty good,” Sferra said. “After a week or so, we could hear some blemishes and the flaws, but it still held up under real intense scruti-ny.”
The trio went to Tune Town to do some overdubbing and edited out the between-song down time. Only one song from the October concert, a short jam called “Let’s Live Together; Let’s Live in Love,” was cut to make the show fit on two CDs, which fea-ture about two hours and 20 minutes of music total. It also comes with a 12-page booklet featuring several photos from the concert by Bob Jadloski, whose work regu-larly appears in the Tribune Chronicle.
Sferra said he enjoyed playing with the orchestra, but his favorite moments come when it’s just the three of them.
“I like the improvisation parts, when we have the jams,” he said. “On the first CD, there’s a lot more room for some jamming, because we weren’t tied to the orchestra and the music ... On one of the newer songs, “Chalice,” which I co-wrote with Phil, there’s a nice jam session on that, some nice lead playing and some nice dynamics. We went into some realms where we haven’t been before, and that’s the most exciting thing for us. When you go on stage and come up with some new music, that’s one of the biggest thrills.”
Fans can expect some new music when Glass Harp plays Stambaugh Auditorium in Youngstown at 8 p.m. July 1.
Sferra said they’ve worked out new arrangements for “Everlasting Light,” a song played at the 1997 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame concert, and “Nothing But the Blood of Jesus,” a bluesy gospel song that Keaggy recorded for one his solo albums. Glass Harp also will be doing a cover of Blind Faith’s “Presence of the Lord.”
The trio will be joined by a 10-member strings section, four horn players and Chris Queen on keyboards and drums for the Stambaugh date. Tickets are $35 and $25 and are available through Ticketmaster.
Sferra, Pecchio and Keaggy will be at Powers Auditorium today, where they will be signing copies of the CD. Sferra said they might even up making a little music.
“I might bring an acoustic guitar with me, and I know Phil will have his guitar with him,” Sferra said. “Who knows, maybe we’ll end up strumming a few. Play a few acoustic numbers and have a hooten-anny.”
“Strings Attached” will sell for about $22 at Glass Harp shows and on the band’s Web site - www.glassharp.net - and Cleveland-based distributor Action Music will have the discs in area record stores in the coming weeks.
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Glass Harp
Live, on-air release party marks appearance of local favorites' newest CD
By L. M. LoSASSO
Salem News Staff Writer
Sunday, June 24, 2001
Salem News
Youngstown Glass Harp re turned home with a warm welcome from friends and fans at the "Glass Harp Strings At-
tached” CD release party, which was aired live on Y-103 Thursday afternoon and hosted by Smokin’ Bill at Powers Auditorium.
The party was slated to begin at 1 p.m., but anxious fans be-gan showing up at the front doors at 11 a.m., some carrying previously collected memor-bilia to be signed.
By noon people were lined up out the door and around the corner. Fans were buying up to seven CDs at a time. By three o’clock, the CDs were sold out and the line was still moving. Singer and legendary guitarist Phil Keaggy said it best when he commented, “It reminded me of the parable of the loaves and fishes because I could al-ways see the end of the line but it never stopped.”
The three band members sat at a long table at the top of the steps, in the entrance to Powers Auditorium. They were just three hometown guys greeting their fans like they were old friends visiting them in their own homes. Many smiles, sto-ries and memories were shared.
“It was kind of unexpected,” said band member John Sferra about the incredible welcome they received. “The line was non-stop. We even had people come in on their lunch breaks ... and we ran out of CDs.”
“I’m obviously over-whelmed,” band member Dan Pecchio added. “We never ex-pected the reaction we got.”
Before their last live per-formance at Powers, Keaggy, Pecchio and Sferra hadn’t per-formed together in Youngstown for over 20 years. The sold-out show last October proved that their Youngstown-area fans haven’t forgotten them and are still as loyal as always. The band accepted the welcome with open arms and, with the assistance of the Youngstown Symphony Orchestra, Glass Harp gave the audience a per-formance they would not soon forget.
Several months before the October concert, the band members contacted local musi-cian Jeff Bremer, who performs with the Youngstown Sympho-ny and is also known for his talents in other areas of local music, to ask for help in putting the show together.
Bremer, who has been in-volved with the symphony from a very young age and is a long-time fan of Glass Harp, agreed to help the band, not knowing the extent of the large role he would be asked to play.
“Jeff was responsible for all of the orchestration,” said Patri-cia Syac, executive director of the Youngstown Symphony So-ciety. “Each part is on a sepa-rate sheet of music and there is a great deal of work involved.”
Bremer worked closely with Sferra, listening to old record-ings and trying to get it as close to the original sound as possi-ble. Bremer explained that the originals were all done in-stu-dio. He said they would listen to one song at a time and try to find the parts that were needed instrumentally to pull it all to-gether.
Bremer said the first time the score was played, it was distrib-uted in handwritten form to try to make sure it would work. He had only about 10 weeks to write the score.
“I didn’t realize they needed the actual music written,” he said.
When they were working on the arrangement of “Child of the Universe,” a song that Pec-chio wanted to include in the concert. Sferra and Bremer had an idea for the instrumentation of a certain part of the song. At the time, Pecchio was unaware of the fact that Bremer and Sferra were discussing putting something similar in the same spot in the same piece of music.
“Dan had an idea for a picco-lo- / trumpet-sounding high part, so he sang it into John’s answering machine and John brought a copy of the tape to me,” Bremer said. “It was per-fect because he was thinking the same thing we were.”
Between Bremer and June Byo, who assisted in organizing and putting the music together, and organizing and binding the conductor’s score, they were able to put together the score for the music that captivated and enchanted the entire audi-ence.
Mike Talanca, owner and operator of Tune Town Recording in Newton Falls, said he knew that the October concert was going to be recorded, and they asked him in advance to mix the tracks for the final product. Although the guys in the band knew, along with Talanca, it was a pleasant surprise to the masses of long-time followers who showed up for the concert.
With 25 years of professio-al experience, five of which were spent in New York City, Talanca was the one the guys approached when it came to putting the whole project to-gether. He said the mixing process took a little over 200 hours.
The mastering of the CD was done by Dan Shirey, own-er and operator of Oakwood Audio.
The ultimate success of the concert and CD release party can be attributed to many people. Keaggy, Pecchio and Sferra all shared their sincere, heartfelt thanks with every one of them on the inside cover of the CD.
Glass Harp will perform at Stambaugh Auditorium on July For those unable to attend this concert date, Glass Harp also will present a free outdoor concert as part of Mill Creek MetroParks’ 7UP Summerfest Spectacular on Aug. 11 at the Morley Pavilion in Youngstown.
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