[Music] [Music] ban for the this bridge session Bill and Kate Isles this is too exciting we we're going to be blown away we know it okay if you want to count off if you want to count off count off you can't like it's whatever makes us all comfortable so however you want to do it is great 1 [Music] 2 what were your initial reactions when you learned you were um participating in this series I was shocked I was I was really surprised and uh thrilled and it was sort of a coming home thing you know we've played all over the country and in Ireland and uh and to come here and and have have an organization like this invite us to perform is just a huge huge honor we just it's just kind of a kind of completes things for me I was really nervous coming in I've I've worked with other musicians but I am not a composer I mean I write songs and I write stories and Story songs and so when I've produced our albums I bring in musicians and I don't tell them what to play I tell them how to play say I want you to build this up right in this section and then come back down here be really quiet and with a group like this that I didn't we never played with and we've we've only seen them perform they never probably never seen us perform and uh so I was very nervous about it but I thought you know we're just going to do our songs they're she's arranging them based on the structure of our albums you know the song structure so I um I just thought I'm was going to go with it and it just kind of just created this went from chaos in my mind to to a world that was you know that made sense I used to dream that I was weightless I just push [Music] [Applause] [Music] on yeah I like that yeah that's great lovely thank you with Bill and Kate it's um this wonderful uh folk idiom that lends itself to a lot of different styles but really I think it's it's entrenched in storytelling and um and folk which makes I think room for Wendy our um arranger to do lots of really imaginative things in the orchestration to kind of highlight the text and I think it's a very text forward type um type of Storytelling and singing and so there's lots of opportunities for interesting things to happen neas ples and Grandma's [Music] hands little blue can you tell me a little bit about the song little blue and what that one is about well I appreciate that that song uh my mother and my cousin Mary were plain air painting along the little blue River in Nebraska and my mother gave me her painting little blue and I was sitting in front of it one day and playing the guitar and that song just started happening and I thought you know I should write a song about little blue but I should write a song about my grandmother from Nebraska so in the song little blue refers to my grandmother and the ri River and that part of Nebraska where that I know well okay happening is where I have the chorus yeah you're somewhere it's always like two measures you're almost one to two measures early than what I have in the part so I think there's just well I'm not where when she starts seeing it does not line up if I'm looking at all the measures I have with rest bill can we I mean I can just jump now that I I know it I can just jump and not worry about it but I don't know if everybody else I think he dropped I think it's like we just she's just dropping one measure before each verse so she's dropping a measure before chorus and then she's dropping well no it's happening every time right yeah can't remember this one but there was one that was actually two for me on according to my work music that's why something's off so I I I we might I think we should drop this song want to do it we're going to drop this song out of the show I think are you sure yeah cuz I I don't have a lot of Rhythm and I don't count and tap my foot the problem is it's in the recording we have extra measures what I would say is give us one more shot now that we kind of know what's going on part of this is just figuring it out and what what might what I'm playing off now okay is that I'm not going to count just when you start singing I'm G to jump to where you are sounds good we'll try it and we'll see how it goes see and then if you still don't don't it we can cut it it's not that I don't like it I just don't I'm not a pro so here we go and you don't and well you are in no but yeah let's do that [Music] then the beginning beginning little blue measure four measure [Music] because I straddle multiple different worlds and I speak multiple different musical languages I'm keenly aware and I you know we have meetings with our guest artists up front and one of the first things I I say which really surprises them is that the Orchestra musicians are nervous they're going to be nervous and they're like what are you no we're going to be nervous I'm like no trust me they just want to do it right they want you know everybody's like we're used to you know Mozart and Beethoven and all the you know all the classical and they they don't want to disappoint and they want it to be in the right style and have it sound good when you are finessing these parts to this music how does that kind of go about in your brain I have to toggle back and forth a little bit I um in my other life I play in a bluegrass band but it's helpful when we're doing things like this so I'm thinking stylistically of not playing this as a classical musician but um when it calls for it there are going to be moments where the way Wendy has written it like it'll be a little bit more classical with int with intentionality um and then there are other things where you just want to be a little bit more in that folk genre so that will affect how I approach it and how so my brain is kind of going all the time and going okay classical here less vibr here you know smoother here bumpier here you know all all different kinds of things and just sort of navigating it and part of the rehearsal process is sometimes I'll try something and then I'll try it again and be like Oh yeah this this style is a little bit better for this particular [Music] thing I don't know what I did so was I supposed to have you do a solo break in there there was a little break in then before you do that we we don't have that we just need to know where it is I think we also do we want to just maybe set this aside for tomorrow we can start with this one maybe and then cuz I think it it's beautiful and it'll it'll work I think um if we could just figure out the ending sure yeah there was something that happened and I don't know what at the end yeah wait okay one more time ready three and four and one so do you have the exact same thing no that's why that's why we're getting conf so we line up beat one beat two no beat three you just have a i this tie I do two because of it [Music] one you know what I would add in slurs there's slurs on mine that might make it much easier do you see what I'm saying yeah yeah yep um there's 's a lot of us actually that uh Bridge multiple different styles and there's and there's a bunch of us that don't and and that's okay and it gives people an opportunity to sort of you know it gives the M the symphony musicians a chance to get their feet wet a little bit in a different style and vice versa for our guest artists to come in and get a little taste of like what is an orchestra because this kind of is a small scale version of what we do on stage how we would shed during uh re and stuff so this is that kind of you know and and ultimately everybody does rehearse and the bands all rehearses just in a little bit of a different way is there times where you yourselves as a musicians have to make certain decisions to work within these yeah actually that was one of them where we decided to go off book with Wendy's blessing she's like just just go to town and what we're doing is adding a little bit more of um sort of the fiddling style um into it so we're what she did is put core changes for us so we're reading the core Chang and we're doing kind of our own improvisations so we just have our strategy of what we're going to do when um to add a little bit so that would be an example of where we're actually ignoring what's on the page again with with with Wendy's okay and of course Bill and Kate um they wanted something a little bit more uh fiddling style so that's what we're doing well let's just take it a little faster three and four and yeah I think I was trying to swing it yeah that's okay that what was throwing me off because of the Boe and the ties that's just okay got it yay everybody it is yep it is the witching hour I think what I would love to do because we did not do it yesterday is Chapel [Music] first time to the 16 chap I stood watch the faithful come and go [Music] in 1993 you had a medical emergency with a sudden Cardiac Arrest yes can you tell us a little bit about that experience yeah it changed me a lot um I was going through a lot of stress in my life at the time and for about 6 months I had this pending sense of Doom like something really bad is going to happen and I laid on the couch and I my heart was just pounding and and I heard this voice that said you don't want to be one of those guys who won't go in do you and I thought no I I have to I have to do something about this and uh that they they took me right away they didn't ask my name or anything they took me right into the heart room and put me down put a heart monitor on me then the doctor came in and he was talking to me about my health and you know I'm not a spoker and I'm a runner and thin and 41 years old and about 10 minutes later I woke up and and I had this mask on my face and there was like five or 10 people all around me nurses and doctors and and my doctor said boy you really surprised us I said what and I said because I knew something weird happened he goes well we were just talking and you went into cardiac arrest oh my heart was stopped for a little over two minutes I had the chart showing it stopping and then I don't have the chart showing it start again so maybe it didn't then you guys are all part of my deal you know I I was a songwriter when I was young um I like writing I like creating things and I still do you um all kinds of things and uh so um that I made that pledge that I would do something creative with my life again if I survived am [Music] ICT like what is it like to hear something like cinee Chapel to be able to have something that has such a huge story be backed up with with these other instruments around it yeah that's uh that's a good that's a good question one of the best I've had and uh it's um it's it's it's like seeing it it's like seeing your kids grow up I guess and uh uh to see them do things that are really great because the song the song was born in 2002 it's the assisting chapel song and so but to do it live like this is I don't don't know what to say except for it's just very rewarding very redeeming [Music] [Music] yes nice perfect I was like yeah that's that's good for okay cool play little more should we do let's do the chorus for last for it all like wood and stone andal returning to the ground oh nothing lasts [Music] forever I hear it I don't think it's on so everyone you all will just be out there okay and then they'll go out on stage well no do you want to go out with do you want to do like a concert Master entrance thing no okay I'm just putting it out there I'm sorry that was very aggressive no no this is the exciting happenings pre-show like right before aren't we fun we're so fun yeah like do they want like cuz I had like have all these strings that I'm saving and I'm like what am I saving start alone no not on this half okay I'm just at the end Wilderness is the first one Wilderness lady okay so we do I promise yeah yes for refreshing my memory yes no no no it's it's complic for me the most stressful part of all of this is like the logistics is making sure everything is smooth and bills I'll use bills so you can get up there from [Music] down we can go whenever you're whenever give me one second yeah I can do it all [Music] right allow me to really just welcome you to this concert and it is really my pleasure to uh welcome to the stage two very good friends of mine Bill and Kate [Applause] [Music] Isles [Music] well I left my home with a heavy heart from troubles dark and weighty but the sweetest scent drifted across the sea from the land of the Wilderness lady [Music] tonight when we started and did Wilderness lady I was like I'm home [Music] free I knew I would be impressed amazed um blown away and I'm super thankful and honored that we we get to be a part of this it's so incredible to have people behind you that know what they're doing and I could just say genius genius genius I mean it just seems like incredible what they do so to have them with us and with our songs is wonderful I loved the way everyone collaborated that was the best part and then now sharing that with duth and with the community and people that are at the show that's the best [Music] part [Applause] it's not going to be easy going back to the hum drum life of folk singers what we going to do now we do little blue little blue little [Music] blue b flow through little blue Nebraska PLS in Grandma's [Music] head little blue the bridge sessions really is Bridging the Gap for music and musical languages how important has it been to work throughout this process I think the whole concept is fabulous I think and it's so fun because we had a little trouble with one of those those songs because I don't have a Tempo I didn't write it in a Tempo I I didn't count it out and they have a Tempo and they have notes and a staff that you have to follow the program so it was really fun for us to actually work with them and make it [Music] work [Music] there are a couple of things that we are just used to like count off cues and stuff that they're not used to so it was just a matter of being like we got to count off oh yep okay and then we're all together so I think it's really easy it's just making sure we all and we all understand what we all need because at the core of it great music making is great music making regardless of what the background where it comes from [Applause] thank [Applause] you from the shores of my [Music] homeown [Music]