Hey, KT:

I still have three today... actually two, but singing with two different groups at the same program.. One program is all spirituals.

Last night was interrresting. For the first time in the nine years that we've been together Joe and Frankie didn't make it at the last minute. The other member of our quartet moved to Florida, so you know that he wasn't there. So, it was a new first for me. I was the first one white man/black gospel quartet in History. Not that it bothered me particularly. I've performed alone most of my life, and I recognized several of the others groups because we've sung with them in other churches. I also sing alone in nursing homes all the time, so it felt right for me. I've gotten known as that white guy who sings in the black community, so I was right at home.

The greatest thing about the night was that they had a group called the Gospel Express. I talked to them awhile before the program and know one of the women who sings backup. The groups is fantastic. Think James Brown crossed with Wilson Pickett as their lead singer, and the three women sounding like the backup singers for Ike and Tina Turner. Throw in a lead guitar who sounds like he's off a Temptations album, and fine bass player and an 8 or 9 year old drummer that is already going professional, and you've got the group.
The lead singer is a soul singer who got the Spirit, and the lead guitar player (who is even older than I am) sang lead on one song that sounded like Hank Williams should have done it. My son Pasha from Ruth's first marriage was there with his wife, and Pasha and I were having a great time. We both love the old soul music. Never mind that Pasha is Muslim. He can still get down.

As for rhythm and blues (dubbed doo-wop many years after the fact, I have put together what I modestly think of as the definitive collection of rhythm and blues groups starting with the first black groups like the Ink Spots, the Mills Brothers and the Ravens, right up to a track from Paul Simon's failed Capeman musical. That's where I learned to sing harmony. Living next door to New Haven, I keep meeting singers from the early groups. Fred Paris, who sang lead on In The Still Of The Night is a good friend of a mutual friend who lived just a door away from us, Jimmy, who replaced Bill Kenny as the lead singer in the Ink Spots when Kenny went solo sings in one of the male choruses that I sing in, as does Doug, who sang with the Flamingos for something like 17 years, and also sang with the Coasters. New Haven has always been a hotbed of quartets, and still is. Now, it's gospel quartets... They're coming out of the woodwork.

Gotta get packed up to go..

Polly put the kettle on..

Jerry