Message From The Editor
by Tamara LaTorre

I am pleased to bring you the Spring edition of The Morning Star. In this issue, you will find a continuation of Peter's entertaining account of his European trip, information on the upcoming Beatles CD, March 2010 Little Flock Cruise, news and much more.

Happy reading!

Tamara

Welcome
by Peter Mayer

Editor’s note:
The following is a flash back to the end of February. We spent five days in beautiful Hawaii (some of you were there!) with Jimmy Buffett. I’m currently in Miami, Florida on a quick one-day jaunt through Dolphin Stadium, or is it Landshark Stadium?
I think I can speak honestly for the PMG and myself, when we say we miss seeing you out on the road, and we miss playing. It’s been studio time for us with the Beatles project. Soon enough we will be back out there once again. Please drop us a line, let us know how you are. Let us know which Beatle song you hope makes it on the CD. And until then, be well and keep on singing!
All my best,
PM

Hello friends, familiar and those we’ve never met,
Welcome to the not so regular Morning Star, newspaper, rag, periodical that is temperamentally tardy, but always keeps you connected by a thread to the goings on around this music we share, and to the happenings in the Peter Mayer Group (PMG) world!

I’m currently sitting with an ocean view in a hotel room on the Hawaiian Island of Oahu, that overlooks dancing palm trees, persuaded by a breeze that will not quit, and waves and white caps as far as the eye can see, that are subject to the same powers that put the awe in awesome. I’ve proceeded to P.O. friends, spouse, and relatives alike by having to work in these conditions, but just so you know, instead of walking the beach, I’m tapping on QWERTY, and actually getting some work done, so there!

We played a show last night at Jimmy Buffett’s new club here called Jimmy Buffett’s Beach Combers. It’s a nicely done, great location for a club that not only is a music venue and a restaurant, but a surf museum as well. Before and after the show, the band got to hang out on the rooftop restaurant with a beautiful tiled pool in the center. It was perfect weather and a good bit warmer than our chilly night on Maui at the Arts and Cultural Center a few nights earlier. It was the Coral Reefers’ first night back in about three and a half months, but it all went off without a hitch. We had the extra bonus of having the phenomenal Jake Shimabukuro with us on ukulele as well. What beautiful music coming from such a tiny instrument!
It takes some awesome pull to keep one indoors while this glorious weather is playing for free outside my balcony window. That power for me now is the privilege of working on our new Beatles CD. A group of great friends and great players including Roger Guth, brother Jim Mayer, Dan Rubright, Mac McAnally, R. Scott Bryan, Chris Walters, Glen Worf, the incredible bass player that tours with Mark Knopfler and has played on countless other artists’ work, violin player Maggie Estes, Nadirah Shakoor, flute player Mark Holland, Jeff Taylor accordion player, and Jim Feist, percussionist all met to add their voices to a celebration of some of the greatest songs of all time. A St. Louis guitar player, arranger and friend of mine contacted me five years ago to take part in a series he had begun called Crossings Concerts. The idea was to take pop, jazz, and blues players and have them join forces with a string quartet of St Louis symphony musicians to form a unique meeting of music from different artist streams, styles and traditions. Dan, brother Jim, and I all took turns arranging our favorite Beatles songs including both the rock band, and the string quartet. The result was so successful that five years later we are still performing the concerts and now have decided, it was time to capture many of these songs in a recording.

I would have been the first of those of you who might be saying; “hey isn’t that like pulling on superman’s cape, or spitting into the wind?” What makes you think you can take on...ok we’ll stop right there. This is all about the fact that we didn’t think about it, if I had, I never would have taken up a slab of wood with six strings on it in the first place to strum for my gainful employment. When I heard “Please Please Me” in India bla bla bla years ago, if I had thought about whether they were following grammatical rules for the English language when John, Paul, George, and Ringo, shook their shags and sang; “ Please Please me oh yeah like I please you” I wouldn’t have noticed the goose bumps that were rippling down my 6-year-old, Lutheran, prepubescent spine. If I thought it was foolish to run in from out of doors from whatever it was I was doing with my friends to turn up the radio when “Let It Be” came on once we had moved to America, it would have meant that I actually had something to do with this mess I’m in. I had nothing to do with choosing this music. It chose me. No one in his/her right mind recreates a Beatle song with the intention of doing it better. It is simply our way to sing along. We don’t need to keep these songs alive, they have kept me alive more times than I can count, so… it’s a thank you to the Fab Four that we offer on “Beyond Abbey Rd,” the upcoming CD.

Choosing the songs to include was a much more challenging prospect then trying to explain why we were doing it in the first place. For any of you who have seen us perform over the years, you have noticed that we’ll pull out a Beatles song once in a while and build a jam on it. You borrow a song, and sign it with whatever voice you’ve got. You get called to the songs that caught and taught your voice in the first place. So I went down the memory of many songs with a guitar in my hand. When a song opened the gate to a garden of sounds and possibilities, I followed it on in. Given we had a string quartet to think about on these arrangements, hundreds of hours were spent working the unique quality that strings bring to the table into the works.
“Here Comes The Sun,” “We Can Work It Out,” “Hello Goodbye,” and “Michelle,” are just a few of the ones that will be on the CD. We had great ideas to get the CD done by March 20th when we will be performing the Beatles concert at Southern Illinois University, near St. Louis, but it turned out we need a few additional weeks to get it done. We’re excited about it though and can’t wait for you to hear it. It’s coming soon!

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