Positively Patsy Part 21

We went back to the house Monday morning and Jake and the band showed up for lunch. We were sitting down eating, and Greg told them why he wanted to see them. “Guys, I walked off the stage in London thinking that I would be dead in a few weeks and intended never to again grace a stage.”

“As you saw in London, I have not only graced a stage but did so in a choir and playing classical guitar. I have to say that it looks like I have been given a second life and I want to do something that had been in the back of my mind since I was a young lad. I have the time and the money to indulge myself and I want to tour the Deep South to explore the roots of the blues, learning the true way to play the songs and performing for the locals. For this, I need a band that is good enough to perform to the standard I require. I have listened to your blues album and I think you are the guys. What do you say?”

The guys had questions about where he wanted to go, where he would stay, and the type of music he was looking for. Jake said “Surely it has all been mined out by now?” and Greg said that this may be so but it would take some time to befriend the locals and, maybe, find artists that have not been ripped off. He said it could lead to a serious album of genuine blues that could be used as a teaching aid in music history courses. He then said that, although his career had been on an electric guitar, his early training had been acoustic and playing the classical guitar lately had reawakened his need to play seriously. “I do not need, nor do I want, to be the Grog of my past. I have my knighthood to uphold now” he said with a smile. The guys said they would think about it and let him know by dinner time.

In the afternoon I showed the guys the revamped stables and they saddled up horses and went off for a ride over the grounds to chat in private. Luckily it was a cool, but not wet, day. By late afternoon they were back and, with the help of our two stable hands, the horses were looked after and returned to the heated stable block. At dinner, the guys declared themselves as Gregs’ band for as long as it took for him to scratch his itch. Jake also told us that the latest ‘Amazon’ album was up for a couple of awards at this years’ Grammys and that Riordan, Nina and Julia would be attending, seeing that we were all busy. I realised that I was not worried about that these days as I had so many things to keep me occupied and the guys agreed. We decided that we only need a new album each year to keep the fans happy and that we had no desire to tour the band any more. Anyway, it would be hard to top the last tour.

On Wednesday we had the choir visit and we recorded ‘Lucky’ and ‘When I wake’ with Greg, Jake, Keith and me playing acoustic guitars as accompaniment and Peggy and Joanne in the choir. They really sounded good and I emailed the wave files to Simon and asked him if they would be suitable as a single record in the classical market. The girls told me that the London designer friend of Maxine had been in touch and wanted them all to go to her studio to talk about a photo shoot. I showed them my photo album with the pictures of ‘Amazon’ doing her last production and they were amazed at the clothing, especially Jake and Keith in tails. They wanted to see more fashion pictures so I pulled out all of the L’Estrange catalogues that we had been in.

One of the girls commented that it would be wonderful to wear such beautiful dresses so I said “Well, I have all of the dresses that I have kept in my room upstairs. Why don’t I take you up to my room and you can come back down and show us how beautiful you all are once you have found something to fit you.” They all jumped up and down so I took them up to my room and opened up the walk-in robe and told them to knock themselves out. About an hour later they came back into the ballroom in the dresses and they had made themselves up to suit. We lined them up in model mode and took pictures for them to take home with them. We had an elegant dinner and then they went back upstairs to, reluctantly, change back to their normal clothes before all getting into the coach to go home. During dinner my phone chirped with a text and I read it out to the assembly. It was from Simon who said that the single would be on the market in a week or so and he congratulated them on great songs. As the choir master was leaving he took my hand and told me that the choir had come on by leaps and bounds and he was very grateful for my input. I just told him that this was what I seemed to be here for, these days.

Early February we saw the pictures of Riordan accepting the ‘Best Rock Album’ award so I sent her an email of congratulation. She sent back to say that if it wasn’t for my songs it wouldn’t happen. I settled in to write more choir music as the format had grabbed my interest. Greg and the guys made ready for their song hunt and they put together all the kit they needed, guitars, drums, small amps and a ‘recording studio in a suitcase’. Greg had pulled out some of his special guitars to take. There were two more Fenders that had been tweaked and he and Jake had a few sessions on them, mainly to see who could bend a note the most. Boys will be boys. They got a small container delivered and packed it with the musical equipment and some suitcases of clothes and it was sent off for storage in New Orleans. They then flew to Nashville to start the hunt by asking Alice if she knew anyone in the south who could help. It seemed that Ron Bose had been told about the quest and volunteered to take some vacation time to help with any recording. It was starting to look like a safari.

After they had left we had the house to ourselves and we sorted out the bedrooms for our music school. When I asked Mary what we are teaching this time she said “You won’t believe this but we will host an all-girl choir from Kent. It was organised late last year so is a real coincidence. There are twenty in the group, plus the choir master, and they will share the bedrooms. They are coming to concentrate on performance and have a number of songs that they have not rehearsed yet.” I thought that this would be interesting. It would help me concentrate on choral music, although I did need to get some more ‘Amazon’ songs together for recording in the summer and I had not begun to think about a follow up to the ‘Ballads and Blues’ album. I asked Peggy and Joanne if we should think about another ‘Angels of Joy’ album and they thought it may be worth aiming at the Christmas sales period with one of carols and Christmassy tunes; a bit like ‘How much is that Barbie in the window?’

When the coach load of girls turned up we found that they were all disabled in some way, which caused a bit of worry until the choir mistress told us that every one of them was determined to get along with life without letting their problems overcome them. They were a cheerful bunch and called themselves ‘The Oast House Singers’. We got them sorted out with their rooms and sat them down for lunch. I told them that we had a recording studio in the house and when they were ready we would make a professional recording. I told them that the last choir here to record was ‘Cotswolds Choristers’ and they were impressed as they all had heard the choral album. I played them the two new songs that were about to be released and they got quite excited. The choir mistress asked if there were any songs I had that had not been recorded yet and I told her that I was in the process of writing some new ones. We came to an arrangement that they would rehearse the standard choral pieces that they intended to, but, if I could come up with new works, they would work hard to perfect them as well. I told her that if they came up to scratch I would send a master to Simon, in New York, to see if we could get an album on the market for them. That sorted out we had given them a reason to excel and, for the next month, they worked on the standard pieces.

Part 22

It was a good month as the girls worked hard. I was exposed to more choral pieces and a few writers I had not heard of. I was amazed at how many living song writers there were in the choral scene. At the six week point we took the choir into the recording studio and they had a whole new experience to learn. It took a few days to get them to relax and not shout at the microphones and, by the end of the week; we had a dozen songs on record. Over the next three weeks I took them through four songs that I had written and that the choir mistress had approved. It took a little while to get them right and then we went back into the studio and recorded them. I sent the resulting sixteen songs to Simon and, while we were waiting, the girls had riding lessons as a reward.

Some of them were already good riders and we put them to work with the newbies. In order to let everyone have a go I rented ten horses from the local riding school and one of their teachers came out with them and stayed with us for the few weeks. A week after sending the files to Simon we got a reply. He congratulated me on finding another good choir and said that, as soon as the accompanying contract was signed, there would be an album released into the classical market. The choir mistress signed on behalf of the choir and we scanned it and sent it back. In the week before the girls left, a big box arrived with two hundred CD’s in it for them. I kept one back for my collection and the choir took the rest. They were as pleased as punch at having a professional CD out there and I told them that they would find that this was just the beginning. They would be far more respected in future, especially when the album sells well. The skills they had learned were more than just getting a song right, they had learned that they could do much more than they had been able to do before.

The next group to join us was a team of riders practising for an up-coming three day event. This is held in an area where there is a cross country course and a ménage or arena. The first day is cross country over a range of jumps, the second is horse control and presentation, while the third is show jumping. The team spent a week doing our little cross country course and three weeks in the ménage, with half of it show jumping. They were very happy with our set-up, especially as we had all of the usual show jumping jumps.

When they left we were quiet again as we did not have a cooking school organised. Joanne, Peggy and I were able to really get our heads down with song writing and tryouts. Mary spent her time on a tour around the country with brochures we had produced, to see if she could get us bookings for a couple of years. I kept in touch with Minh and her songs, as well as with Riordan and getting ‘Amazon’ songs organised. In October we had collected enough ‘Amazon’ numbers to make an album so contacted Jake, in the Deep South, to come to New York with the band.

Joanne and I flew to New York and we all joined up to spend three weeks in the big studio. We ended up with a new album that we were all happy with, one that was a bit more bluesy than usual. Jake told me that the safari was going well. Carl had been told of the quest by Ron and had come down as well. It seemed that he had connections with the area from decades ago and was very helpful in finding a few artists that had been around in the earlier days. Of course, they had plenty of guitar sessions together and Jake was surprised to find that Carl could fingerpick. He told me that they had recorded enough original early music for an album and that Greg was looking fitter every day.

After the ‘Amazon’ session, Joanne and I flew down to Nashville to help out Minh with another of her albums. She had created a real following among the pre and early teen set and they all had parents and grandparents who bought them albums. Alice and Sarah were now very busy as the new studio was very close to being opened and they asked us to stay over for the official ceremony. I took some time to spend it with Ruby. I know that I had not seen enough of her in person but she had been happy to get my phone calls every few weeks and told me time and time again to go with what I was doing as it was helping so many people. Alice had been sending her the various CDs I had been involved with and she said she loved the choral music.

Another happening was the premiere of Lorraines’ movie and we got the whole band together in Los Angeles for a Red Carpet event. Again Maxine came through with some fabulous dresses and we all got our photos in the paper. One fashion magazine rated us all as an eight or nine with Lorraine getting a ten. The movie was a far cry from the one we had walked in to all those months ago. It had been revamped as a love story set in a small town that had a rep company putting a stage show of Calamity Jane on, and various problems around the staging. It allowed Lorraine to sing a lot of the original movie songs as well as having some very tender scenes with Burt, ending up with their wedding. It was quite good and got good reviews, especially Lorraines’ singing. She told me that the wedding scene made her cry and that she and Burt may well do one of their own. She asked me if I would be the Maid of Honour.

Back in Nashville I had become increasingly worried about Rubys’ health and, just before Christmas, she died in her sleep. I was glad that I had been around for her last few weeks and we arranged a funeral for early January. It was an interesting event, with all of ‘Amazon’: Greg and Peggy; our ‘support crew’ and many K Beat staff and current artists as well as Peter Logan and his family and the guys from the music store. It was presided over by J.P. Jackson, a blues singer from the sixties who went by the name of ‘Bopson Jackson’ then, but had always been an ordained priest. Alice and Riordan took the front of the coffin as we carried it in, with Joanne and Lorrain in the middle and me and Minh at the rear. At the end of the service, as the coffin was lowered out of sight, the six of us sang ‘Amazing Grace’. It even had some column inches in the paper with a picture of the six of us singing at the end. The headline was ‘Local Music Identity Farewelled by The Stars.’

Of course, Maxine took the opportunity of us all being together to organise another photo shoot. This time it was just ten days in Mexico doing another spring and summer collection. It was a good time to relax a bit with friends around and get over my grief.

When I was back in Nashville I went to see our personal banker, Bruce, who took me through my accounts, pointing out ways I can increase my wealth. I asked him to investigate the purchase of commercial properties with tenants as I was certainly not going to gamble with stocks and shares. We then went through the account for the charity and he congratulated me on how we were going. The income from interest, the sales of our double album, and the percentage from Rogers’ books almost covering our outlays on the ‘Reece Manor’ and Marys’ employment. Our income from the riding teams added to that. I told him that the house was still in Gregs’ name and that there would be extra costs when it was transferred but that I couldn’t see that happening for some years yet.

Before I flew back to the ‘Reece Manor’, Bruce called me about a large car yard that was up for sale. We went to have a look at it and I then took him to see Peter. I explained to Peter why we were there and I asked if he was interested in expanding his franchise as my tenant. He told me that he had considered buying the property himself as it was on the other side of town, but his accountant had advised him that it would severely cut into his cash flow. He got hold of his accountant and we all went back to the yard. We walked about it and discussed improvements that the landlord (me) would need to make before he could take it on and we came to a mutual agreement on terms and everyone shook on it. On the way back to the bank Bruce told me that it was a pleasure to see me work. I asked him to finalise the purchase of the yard and to get Peter to recommend a builder for the improvements when he signs his agreement to lease.

Joanne and I then flew to the Bahamas for a few weeks true holiday, lazing around a pool and dining in various restaurants, before flying back to Heathrow.

Marianne G 2020