Hi There Good Folks!
It’s been a fun time of practicing and prepping for this week’s Thursday night livestream concert. Here we go!
Live(ish) at SpragueLand Episode 16
Peter Sprague Plays Pat Metheny
The Fields, the Sky
Today we’re talking about an artist whose influence on music is right up there with the greats. The whole idea of mixing jazz with a midwestern twang, with a Jimmy Webb classic, with an Ornette Coleman interstellar space odyssey makes perfect sense to Pat Metheny and that’s why we love his music. Add to it his incredible, innovative skills on the guitar and you’ve got a hurricane blasting it’s way through the Bermuda Triangle. Pat Metheny— the human Cat 6!
For this episode we’re exploring some of my favorite Metheny compositions including “Have You Heard,” “In Her Family,” and “Are You Going With Me” plus we have Rebecca Jade in the loop singing beautiful lyrics (written by Randy Phillips) to some of Pat’s originally instrumental tunes. What a sound, what a story!
And a first for us, we’ll play “Wichita Lineman” in which Pat once said “all of my songs are attempts at writing ‘Wichita Lineman’ again and again.”
I LOVE this tune!
The band includes some of the best with Rebecca Jade on vocals, John Opferkuch on piano; Mack Leighton on bass; Duncan Moore on drums; and Peter Sprague on guitar. Plus a special guest appearance all the way from Denver —Grammy Award winner Dianne Reeves will sing a classic Metheny song that’s been her opening number on recent tours. I’ve been on the gig when she sings this song and the audience goes wild and understandably so —the blendo of Dianne’s vocals with Pat’s magic tune touches all the right spots of the human condition.
Link to concert
Price of admission? Actually the concert is free but we will have a “virtual tip jar” complete with PayPal, Zelle and Venmo info for you to donate whatever you feel good about. Also, old reliable snail mailing checks works too. You folks have been super generous with this and it makes us happy.
Paypal: petersprague@sbcglobal.net
(It’ll show up as Satyam Music, that’s my music company)
Venmo: @PeterSprague
Zelle: Peter Sprague peter@petersprague.com
mail checks via snail mail to:
Peter Sprague
311 East Glaucus St.
Encinitas, CA 92024
A few notes:
You don’t have to watch the show live. The same YouTube link will bring up the recording for you to view anytime.
If you do watch it live (and we recommend this), you can participate in the live chat during the concert as long as you have a YouTube account.
Click here to watch a vid, leading you through the easy process of creating a YouTube account. Maybe do this before the concert begins.
If you do have an account and you’re logged in, you can type something fun into the chat box and that’s how we create modern day jazz community in this era of the pandemic. Maybe start with something simple like “Hi, this is Lisa from Wyoming” or “Hi, I’m Reggie from Portland.” By doing this we’ve got an app that will magically take your name and location and drop a pin on a spinning globe. During the show we’ll visit all of the listeners and say hi and marvel at your exotic places of residence. No worries about privacy…How many Lisa’s are in the entire state of Wyoming? Or “Reggie’s in Portland, Maine?
That’s the story for now ladies and gents and see you soon in the great algorithm of the sky…
adios, Peter