West Park had sits first Sunday service for awhile.A new guest preacher. Friends from the Center and Presbytery have come. The preacher skillfully works in videos of Presbyterian mission workersand peace staff and others singing in a virtual chorus. And later another video with a pianist and a guitarist, “Here I am Lord.” He preached on Matthew 9:38,”… the harvest is plentiful but the workers arefew…”. and weaves it into a prophetic call for the present moment. Among other work, he has been an organizer of our denomination’s homeless network. This group of people, for so long my call, have kept alive and have kept going. Sometimes against all odds. I hope that something can come from this.
My family comes together againfrom Berlin to here. In Berlin, rehearsals are underway for end of the year concerts. Here, we’re still trying to figure it out.There thousands join us in protest. Solidarity and.....? Much of our New York conversation has to do with the impact of Black Lives Matter on workplaces. This is complicated, uncomfortable and just plain hard. But that is where we are. This is where it begins. With people in troublesome conversations witheach other.
with Robert Brashear, Victoire Oberkampf and Liana Gabel
Time to get ready for my showcase. I’ve been fighting a down all weekend. I welcome Victoire from Paris. And then Liana from upstate. I see her son, Marius, her “pumpkin kid’, and husband Henri. We do sound checks and it'stime to begin. They each do their own special music. Many of my friends meeting them for the first time. Even though I have rich performance historytogether, even singing acapella while Liana tap danced, we’ve only been all three together once. For recording the RL tribute album. So I make sure to include the title track, “Stay Awhile with Me,” where you can hear all three of us in the chorus.( We conclude with with my “Listen” with the same ZOOMlag echo harmonies we tried out before, more fun to try than hear, I’m sure. After the show’s over, people who haven’t seen each other in a while hang out and chat with one another. It felt very, very good. I am away happy that, YES, I can do this.All the tech, smooth as silk. Later I’m blown away to see that over 500 people have joined us at one point oranother. Concert: https://www.facebook.com/robert.l.brashear/videos/10158171846353361/
Exhausted but I go to the Riverside Park overlook cafe for a bottle of Pino Grigio and guacamole and chips.We watch children below on the high rings. I’m amazed at the arm strength how they do that without twisting their arm sockets out. People hanging out talking. Late afternoon sun hanging mid-sky over the Hudson, radiating quiet warmth. It almost feels normal.
Late afternoon, cargo ship waiting...
Watched the finale of HBO’s “This much I know to be true..” with Mark Ruffalo in a tour de force performance as twin brothers. Thankfully the finale redeems the previous six episodes almost relentless darkness of spirit, offers at least a glimmer of hope. And all thankfully, muchlike HBO’s version of Philip Roth’s the Plot Against America, they avoid the slam dunk happy ending and leave it open…which I much prefer. This has a lot to do with immigrants and prejudice and families and mental illness and choice…and love.Here is the original book final quote:
“I am not a smart man, particularly, but one day, at long last, I stumbled from the dark woods of my own, and my family's, and my country's past, holding in my hands these truths: that love grows from the rich loam of forgiveness; that mongrels make good dogs; that the evidence of God exists in the roundness of things. This much, at least, I've figured out. I know this much is true.”
From the moment that RL’s leaving his studio at West-Park became inevitable, it was clear that he would not be coming back to Open Mic. The Open Mic which had begun as Rhythms, Repair and Renovation.
The official poster
(With its own '70's styleposter...)Now by mid-March, the open mic had continued under the direction of the 3 D’s: David Lyons, Dion Thompson and David Smythe. They’d kept the doors open, kept the community alive and RL’s values intact. They each have their own reasons: the open mic brought out David Lyons as a performer, first one song, then two, then three.Then at other spots around the city "on tour." Dion found his own unique voice as a stand up comedian. And David Smythe began as part of RL's retinue and is now the church's go to handyman and sound guy. They do this at least in part to say thanks for what they've received and they've done well. But no question: RL was missed.
When Victoire and Henri returned from Brazil, the first place they came was to West-Park anxious to see old friends, West-Park was Victoire's first landing place when she first arrived here from France. She now appears regularly on the city club and cabaret scene. They were wearing their Dusty Withers fan club badg
Dusty badge
es in honor of RL. It was hard on me to tell them he would not be there. They were only two of so many more. So when word came to us (through Dion) that RL would be making an appearance, word spread like wildfire through social media. And when word leaked that he’d asked Dion to go bring down his guitar, we knew he’d not only be appearing, but playing.
Henri and Victoire wearing badges....
Even before he showed up, a record breaking crowd was showing up in the chapel. Many were there simply because this was a new open mic they had discovered. But many came to pay tribute to a mentor and friend to whom thanks was due. A truly eclectic crowd..worthy of what RL had created.
David Lyons opened the night.
David Lyons open
Shirley reads
David Smythe played
David Smythe
with his virtual drummer Kyle. Our new senior citizen contingent was represented by Helen Cohen . Journeyman Gene Cross, who's played with the best, backed Helen and then our young blues man Mike Handelman backed Gene.
Helen Cohen and journeyman guitar player Gene Cross
Shirley Eitan did her acapella classics.
Harold Zoloshevsky
did stand up and Joel Gold was back for what only he can do…his on the spot improv that takes us back to the Village coffee shops and Beat poets. More than once I’ve seen rap artists drop their jaws in amazement at Joel’s spoken word.
The one and only Joel Gold
Ross and Blain
Gene and Mike
Gene and Helen
Soon RL made his first appearance, doing a tribute to his friend and amiable rival, the godfather for a generation of singer -songwriters Jack Hardy,(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Hardy) ) whose last circle included my friend and collaborator Jeremy Mage. I remembered how the door to the open mic had been opened by RL’s 2012 sanctuary concert which was not only a tribute to Jack (Shut up and play the song) but also the farewell concert the P&G’s crowd had missed in its untimely closing. And I recalled how I’d gone to P&G’s with Amanda and saw this amazing cast of characters including RL, Piano Dan and Mandola Joe. The first open mic I’d ever been to.
RL speaks of Jack
RL brings the word
The young duo Beat Sticky, a nod to their use of the Chapman Stick.(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapman_Stick),appeared next with their folk/r&b stylings reminiscent of a youngTracy Chapman.
Beat Sticky
A young woman fresh from Australia (who has since become a regular), Aimee Watson, made her first appearance with dramatic original songs on piano and guitar.
Aimee on piano
Aimee's first appearance
Ross Byron and Blain Nan played, Sharyn Schiller did a reading and Bernice sang Somewhere over the Rainbow. Young Nick Lantigua played the banjo. Now 20, he's been with us since he was 17.
Nick on the banjo
RL took his time to play for us. To tell of the beginnings…how he was approached by someone asking him to sign a petition …something he’d never done before…to save West-Park. And how Amanda got him to play in a balcony music festival in a ruined church with no heat and no restrooms. How he was moved to get involved. Build those restrooms. Then launch his project of Rhythms, Repair and Renovation. His two loves (outside of Harvey, of course)…rebuilding the church (the building, not the churchy part) and keeping live music alive. That is, on his terms. Where everyone always gets three songs, which gives you enough time to screw up and recover. In an atmosphere of acceptance and encouragement. Where one is safe to grow to what they could become. In a feeling of community. And collaboration, not jams. For RL, jams are all about can you top this while collaboration is what can we create together. He told us all that again. So we'd remember. Tales about the gong player,the rappers and the tap dancer who tapped without music.
RL Plays
And he played his most special, rarely performed song, Rustling Winds. He wouldn’t be RL without tearing up, which he did. And so did we. He is in the end a classic romantic.
Many of us performed in special thanks. I did my Queen of the Factory Town and Carolina Goin Home with Victoire.
Bob and Victoire
She sang the song she wrote about this open mic, about the old chapel and old cowboys, (RL).
Victoire sings of cowboys
Young Jeremy and Jessie surprised RL with Full Moon on the Water, an RL song in an Ian and Sylvia style, like he’d shown them.
Jessie and Jeremy
RL closed out the night with Stay Awhile, as he always did. As was fitting . With probably the largest collection of musicians we’d ever had onstage at the same time. Ever. And we all sang together. Collaboration, not a jam.
The night was exactly the right way to say thank you RL. What it was supposed to be.
An all-star line up for "Stay Awhile"
He came back a week later. Thought about performing. Decided not to play. That would be anticlimactic, he said.
…..ain’t no trains at the station, seems about like to rain…..
****
This is not an obituary.
OK.So that’s the story of a great night. It’s not the story of RL. I’ve delayed way too long in writing this, partly because I don’t want to write a book and it’s hard to know what must be said and what to leave out. But more because to write this is in a sense, to admit that he has left the building, which is something I’d prefer not to do. (The why’s and wherefores of his leaving will not be dealt with here. Besides, RL has frequently stated he doesn’t do soap operas..) What can I say about RL?
RL is an American original. He is as much an expression of Americana as a Bob Dylan album. (the Michelangelo and Da Vinci of his craft, says RL... And my favorite bastard.) To truly write about RL, you would need Hemmingway and Garcia Marquez with an occasional dollop of Hunter Thompson. RL is a character of his own creation. He has a unique way of looking at and being in the world, courtly, mannered in a late 19th century way and yet a bit psychedelic. Obviously, his view of the world does not always (often?) coincide with that of others. Thing is, I found myself preferring his view. And there is of course this Zelig-like quality to RL and the pop music culture of oh, quarter century or more. This tour with that band. Lights for another. Watering Lennon's pianos. And a few fistfights. (Won't say who won.) Those Studio 54 photos... More than once he's quoted to me from Elwood P. Dowd, the main character of the play Harvey, (for whom RL nicknamed his wife, who was in the cast). In response to being told by a doctor to Wrestle with reality, Dodd replied: Well, I've wrestled with reality for 35 years, Doctor, and I'm happy to state I finally won out over it. And so has RL.
He was there. From the days we reopened in a building described as somewhere between Berlin and Brooklyn (well, more like Havana, really, someone added.) From the fateful night at the end of Amanda's 2010 Balcony Music Festival when after leaving, he returned to read his Red Ryder and the Fat Lady.When Danielle and I were the only ones on a daily basis keeping the doors open, he was there. If something needed fixing, he got it done. From big sanctuary doors to sidewalk metal grate doors to light bulbs. He’d hire a crew, call on one of the numerous skilled retinue of people he kept on retainers. Spent thousands of dollars. Just to get things done. And never kept receipts, because that’s not what it’s about.
He was there as paternal protection and support for Danielle and for Priska when she had a studio above his. (How I miss Priska and Jeremy!) He was equally protective and proprietary on the building as a whole, sometimes annoyingly so. He was the unofficial night watchman, “policing the building” before heading home.
He was there for all of the intense craziness of the Occupy Wall Street Occupation of West-Park and especially Teddy, who became our sexton.RL maintained, that Teddy was one of his fastest gets, i.e. they got each other within two days. I sometime wonder how the last years would have been different had Teddy lived and we had been able to enjoy this adventure with him. Teddy was the quintessential expression of what we were trying to become. He.like Danielle, intuitively and completely “got” my vision and would have done anything to help bring it about. He had my back in every way.
RL was there through out all kinds of artistic residencies like Bread and Puppet. Warm memories of RL and B&P creator and genius Peter Schumann at the party at the end of their 50th anniversary celebration. Something about the two of them that fit. Two originals.
He was there to encounter and engage the many street folks who were part of the scene from Rachel and her shopping carts (who said why he danced lasciviousy at me!) to legless Sean and his electric and... acoustic? wheel chairs. (Teddy had “saved” Sean. it just didn’t last.)
He was there during Zeljko’s shooting for his as yet unfinished docufairytale about New Yorkers and their dreams…
He was there. Especially for me. As much as he disclaimed the “churchy” part, that’s as much his overall allergy to institutions. ( I don’t do committees. I do projects, he says…) Even though he is an officially licensed shaman, when he shared with me Myles Connally’s 1928 inspirational Catholic classic Mr. Blue, about an eccentric follower of Jesus, I knew RL understood and respected my vision and would do everything he could to help it succeed. Out of care for me and more out of respect for the vision beyond me.
He was there . During the darkest days for me, the days when I didn’t want to go home because there was nothing there but a card table, bed, folding chair and two weeks worth of clothing, his studio was a safe space. A place to stop by to catch my breath, or drink a cold one or catch an episode of Leverage. We'd watch other series, like Nero Wolfe, but Leverage was my favorite. How could I not be attracted to a show that opened with:
The rich and powerful, they take what they want. We steal it back for you. Sometimes bad guys make the best good guys. We provide... “leverage". If the light was on in his stained glass window, (the bat signal), I knew there was welcome.
How many times would a tourist couple encounter RL at the Gate and wind up in his studio with an impromptu concert evolving for one great story to take home about the best vacation ever?
Fact: during one incredibly bad stretch of time, there are nights I would not have eaten if it were not for RL.
The open mic gave rebirth to my music life after 30 some years. RL a great critic for songwriting. But more, he got my guitar rebuilt and got it hooked it up for electric amplification. Got me my first gig bag. Helped me to feel like I had joined the fraternity.
RL has added to his preferred business practices. In addition to no more partners, he has added no more working with churches ...or Christians. It’s not supposed to work out that way. As we become more …professional? uh..? we are like a gentrifying neighborhood that as it improves, runs the risk of losing what drew people there in the first place. We are not as rich without RL. Of the good that remains, RL was part of opening the door for that.
Check out the video made by Zeljko to raise funds to finish The Dream….watch as RL finishes his song Pinto, turns and slowly begins to fade…something prescient in that shot… as he turns and fades, part of my dream fades as well…
****
Epilogue….months later, there is this moment. RL has called for a tribal council meeting at the Gate. The first time I heard him use that expression, six years ago, I took it literally, like there was a secret society of musicians and others with RL at its center making important decisions about important matters. Even though I now know that wasn't quite true, it's still cool to be included in a tribal council…
He has brought the keys to every lock at West Park. I mean EVERY. And he wants to go over one more time with Dion and the Davids the rules for open mic. No 2 song sets, it’s got to be 3…do whatever you want as long as you don’t offend me, which means taking what you ae doing seriously enough to be prepared…and keep your clothes on…
The sun broke thorough the front windows warm and bright as he passed on the keys.
Never say never,but.... says RL. This is not an obituary.
Tribal council
To read more, simply search "RL Haney" on this blog.for more posts than you would never want to read. To learn more about RL and his music, go to http://www.rlhwindtide.com
There’s just enough time to rehearse with Victoire before the
service begins.After we read 1
Corinthians 5: 16-21, Victoire sings her own arrangement of Go Tell It on the Mountain. And after
Luke 15: 1-4, Amazing Grace.(You can hear these songs here: https://soundcloud.com/victoire-oberkampf-1)L-./ )
And
then time for reflection on reconciliation.
Our topic today is reconciliation.Let me repeat these words from
Corinthians:
17So if anyone is in Christ,
there is a new creation: everything
old has passed away; see, everything has become new!18All this is from God, who
reconciled us to
himself through Christ, and has
given us the ministry of reconciliation;19that is, in Christ God
was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against
them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.20So we are ambassadors for
Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of
Christ, be reconciled to God.
Let’s talk in terms of a familiar
story…the prodigal son…we’ve heard it
so often…it’s hard to come up with a new angle..
Try something..they say to fully
understand a parable, you need to see yourself as each of the characters in the
story…
For the father: What your son is
asking for is equal to: I wish you were
dead..this is your youngest…thebaby
of the family…your favorite…(so many times in the Bible, it’s the youngest who
winds up with the birthright, the coat of
many colors…you get the picture..) But you give in anyways….weeks, months ,
years? go by and you’ve heard nothing…the neighbors critical about what you’ve
done…still every day, you’re looking out at the horizon, waiting, waiting….and
when that day comes, you’re happy enough just to see him…so you welcome
him..and of course you celebrate, and bring all your neighbors…so the boy can
be restored…so community can be
restored.. the new ceramic lid to our baptismal font is a gift celebrating a
child, an Occupier restored to his family…
But what we don’t know is this….what if he does it again?
I’ve met too many parents over the
years…in situationsespecially related
to drugs…met parents who have had to draw lines.. and try to live with them…and
had their hearts broken over and over and over again. How many families have that one child…
For the youngest son.. everything
was too good, too right, too constricting. You have to get away, just tosurvive..it’s OK for awhile, then it all goes
bad…and you realize what it is you’ve squandered, what it is you’ve lost. You’ve
got to live with the awareness of not only the material benefits you had, but
the sustaining love you threw away,
didn’t take care of. Lost. Biggest
loss ofall..it is the relationship…(That’s the one that gets
me…loss of relationship..it’s like
losing a limb…) In the end…you can’t expect, you don’t deserve, but…you go
anyways…and how do you respond to such a lavish, embarrassing welcome? Why no
demand to prove yourself? What will the day after the party look like?
And of course, the older brother.
Who has done everything asked for …and more…his whole life this younger one has
gotten the attention. The benefit of the doubt. Never did his share. Just plain
left with me having to run this whole place. And now he comes back and he’s
welcomed? With a party? And by the
way, how come everyone else seemto know
about this party except me?Like
servants are sent to invite the whole town, I’m out in the field and I don’t
know? Dad, am I invisible?
It’s common among clergy to hear
that members feel the pastor spends so much time with those in NEED that they
never see those who are in need. The troubled, the poor, the crazy, the …who
get all the attention. The steady, diligent ones who keep things going, who are
responsible, who wear themselves out helping the church simply survive don’t
feel seen, much less appreciated.Why
keep doing it? And if some of those who have been absent should come back,
should they expect to jump right in and start deciding how things should go
when they haven’t been here when things were do or die? What’s right about that?
And what about the mother? Oh,
right, there’s no mom in the story. What’s up with that? Why did Jesus leave
her out? (There’s a special relationship between mother and child…they’ve
discovered shared cells that have passed back and forth through the umbilical
chord…an awareness…a knowing…intuitive )
OK. Who was story for?The Pharisees.
We always look at them as the bad guys. They were natural allies of Jesus. They
are concerned that he spends his time eating
with, breaking bread with, those of
ill repute, and reputations. How does that make us look? If others see so many of
them around, who’s going to want to stay here? Who’s going to pay the bills for
this guy? Could the Pharisees be saying we’re
backing him, giving him the benefit of the doubt while the temple powers, the
political powers are getting upset and he doesn’t even care?
Note the message from the father to them…it’s
not your day is over, you’ve been
replaced, It's you have been with me always…everything I have is yours…(the oldest son still gets
his 2/3 share after all..).This is important for Christians to hear…What
Jesus is saying on behalf of God…is come
into the party….everyone…
There are lots of emotions in this
story…Now..what if Jesus is all the
characters in the parable? I’ll leave that one with you…
BUT..consider the word prodigal…what does that mean? One
synonym is promiscuous…I read
recently in Queer Christianities a
chapter on the theology of promiscuity…it
was a bit of a bait and switch advertising…not what you expect…it makes the
claim that God’s love is promiscuous ……freely
given, without regard or judgment or demand or….it’s just….. come in to the party….
The symbolic meal we participate in today is like that …..so….let us break bread together…
Victoire and I share in various
variations of Amazing Grace…like the Blind Boys of Alabama..()
I do my own Hank Williams style ( So Lonesome
I could cry..) and we finish together.
Later, I’ll sing My life flows on as
Pete Seeger sang it in the days of the House Un American ActivitiesCommittee and the Red Scare:
My life flows on in endless
song Above earth's lamentation. I hear the real, thought far off hymn That hails the new creation Above the tumult and the strife, I hear the music ringing; It sounds an echo in my soul How can I keep from singing? What through the tempest loudly roars, I hear the truth, it liveth. What through the darkness round me close, Songs in the night it giveth. No storm can shake my inmost calm While to that rock I'm clinging. Since love is lord of Heaven and earth How can I keep from singing? When tyrants tremble, sick with fear, And hear their death-knell ringing, When friends rejoice both far and near, How can I keep from singing? In prison cell and dungeon vile Our thoughts to them are winging. When friends by shame are undefiled, How can I keep from singing?
We share bread and cup together.
Then Victoire blesses us with another song…so good to have her spirit with us…
SECOND READING 2
CORINTHIANS 5:16-21
16From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of
view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him
no longer in that way. 21For
our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become
the righteousness of God.
GOSPEL
LUKE 15:1-3, 11B-32
1Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to
listen to him.2And
the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, "This fellow
welcomes sinners and eats with them."
3So he told them this parable:
11b"There was a man who had two sons.12The younger of them said
to his father, 'Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to
me.' So he divided his property between them.13A
few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant
country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living.14When he had spent
everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to
be in need.15So he
went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him
to his fields to feed the pigs.16He
would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and
no one gave him anything.17But
when he came to himself he said, 'How many of my father's hired hands have
bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger!18I will get up and go to
my father, and I will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven
and before you;19I am
no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired
hands."'20So he
set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw
him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and
kissed him.21Then the
son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no
longer worthy to be called your son.'22But
the father said to his slaves, 'Quickly, bring out a robe-the best one-and put
it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.23And get the fatted calf
and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate;24for
this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!' And
they began to celebrate.
25"Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and
approached the house, he heard music and dancing.26He called one of the
slaves and asked what was going on.27He
replied, 'Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf,
because he has got him back safe and sound.'28Then
he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead
with him.29But he
answered his father, 'Listen! For all these years I have been working like a
slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never
given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends.30But when this son of
yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed
the fatted calf for him!'31Then
the father said to him, 'Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is
yours.32But we had to
celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to
life; he was lost and has been found.'"
