Gary Powell brings 33 years of experience coaching singers in the recording studio presenting his skills to universities and vocal studios around the country. As an alumnus of Sam Houston State University, the university music department invited Gary to work with their student singers. Singers were auditioned on the first day followed by three nights of workshop rehearsals and vocal exercises; 12 hours of solo vocal exploration and ensemble singing. These singers, most music and musical theater majors, were wonderful to work with and eager to have fun while in the process. Cheers to all involved.
FEATURING SINGERS: Nic Alaggio, Rebecca Marie Castillo, Daniel Cloud, Bree Derbecker, Linky Dickson, Justin Michael Finch, Emily Heller, Hubert Jones Jr, Hannah Miscisin, Kiersten Ortiz, Cliff Randle, Maria Roos, and David Smith
Let’s tell the story of a woman courting a deep East Texas drawl, Donna Dorrell, who finds and shares a defining perspective from her life through songwriting. Is her disarmingly insightful lyric born from the song-farms of major recording centers, or from somewhere else? That rhetorical question is only meant to wake us up to the idea that people like Donna Dorrell who have lived a conscious and mindful life make excellent artists – regardless of age.
I am so pleased to share Donna’s first video which we shot in the studio in one take. This is real singing with a real songwriter and great players. I hope you will watch it, comment, shout encouragement and go to iTunes and support it. Otherwise, this talent pool and writers like Donna Dorrell with her gift of perceptiveness, will continue to shrink even further as our most high-functioning writers move their talents to more fertile professions. Congratulations Donna for stepping up and sharing your life. I’m so proud to be a part of it.
“If You Knew Your Heart”
(Music and Lyrics by Donna Dorrell) Donna Dorrell – Vocal Larry Seyer – Guitars and Ukulele Luis Coutinho – Percussion
Gene Elders – Fiddle
Gary Powell – Musical Arranger/Producer
The media loves to tell the story of the naturally talented performer “discovered†by chance. This one myth, however, has done more harm than good in promoting business infrastructures that favor chance over discipline, luck over persistence, and style over substance. Even a more insidious result this myth can cause is to push the truly gifted performers, composers, or artists many times, and understandably, to simply exit the premises to avoid the inbred structure of nepotism and pretense.
Enter eleven-year-old Kenna Chris into my life and on to the music scene in the spring of 2009. What I’ve learned is different about Kenna, after having been her vocal-coach and music teacher since then, is that she loves to sing so much that she looks forward to the work required of her. Someday, with her permission, I’ll post the video of how she started as a singer. Kenna is also a dancer and actress, and is happy to do whatever is required in developing all her talents.
I couldn’t be more proud of this wonderful person. Kenna brings light and happiness in my life and I always look forward to her sessions in the recording studio. I’ve written a song for Kenna that will be available on iTunes later this spring.
I hope you will become involved in supporting wonderful people like Kenna–these singers who come through my studio and life hoping for something more than just mythology. This is real – and in this studio we investigate the idea that music is deeper than fame and that it enriches beyond bedazzlement. Bravo, Kenna.
by Gary Powell
The media loves to tell the story of the naturally talented performer “discovered†by chance. This one myth, however, has done more harm than good in promoting business infrastructures that favor chance over discipline, luck over persistence, and style over substance. Even a more insidious result this myth can cause is to push the truly gifted performers, composers, or artists many times, and understandably, to simply exit the premises to avoid the inbred structure of nepotism and pretense.
Enter eleven-year-old Kenna Chris into my life and on to the music scene in the spring of 2009. What I’ve learned is different about Kenna, after having been her vocal-coach and music teacher since then, is that she loves to sing so much that she looks forward to the work required of her. Someday, with her permission, I’ll post the video of how she started as a singer. Kenna is also a dancer and actress, and is happy to do whatever is required in developing all her talents.
I couldn’t be more proud of this wonderful person. Kenna brings light and happiness in my life and I always look forward to her sessions in the recording studio. I’ve written a song for Kenna that will be available on iTunes later this spring.
I hope you will become involved in supporting wonderful people like Kenna–these singers who come through my studio and life hoping for something more than just mythology. This is real – and in this studio we investigate the idea that music is deeper than fame and that it enriches beyond bedazzlement. Bravo, Kenna.
The Headliners Club of Austin celebrated its 50th Anniversary at an Austin gala event January 12th, 2006. I was proud to be a part of such an enormously successful Austin organization.
The photo at right is club chairman Tom Granger presenting me with a beautiful and unique piece of Waterford Crystal commemorating the club’s 50 year history.
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This music video is a part of a twelve minute historical video production which was played live at the 50th Anniversary Gala on two twelve foot screens. The song’s lyric was inspired by the club motto, “It’s Not Who You Are, but What You Are”. I took a little liberty with the exact wording to accommodate the rhythm of the language musically.
Some 700 still images used in the video were scanned from many photo albums and newsletters of club history. The video elements were shot during the gala event itself on January 12th, 2006. You will certainly recognize many of our state and national leaders from politics, business, education, science and the media who have been a part of this Austin press club since its inception in 1956.
My special thanks to Larry Seyer as usual for his talent and loyalty and also to Leslie Whiteley, a music teacher in Killeen, Texas, who is relatively new to my bank of session singers. Thank you, Leslie, for delivering the perfect vocal performance for this lyric.
MUSIC & LYRIC BY: Gary Powell
SONG PRODUCED BY: Gary Powell
SUNG BY: Leslie Whiteley
PIANO: Gary Powell
GUITARS: Larry Seyer
VIDEO PRODUCED BY: Gary Powell & Larry Seyer
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: John Harms
OFF-LINE EDITOR: Glenn Wolfe
ON-LINE EDITOR: Bill Lewis
COMPOSER: Gary Powell
ORCHESTRATOR: Gary Powell
RECORDING & MIXING ENGINEER: Larry Seyer
(Musical Score Copyright 1989 Jesmax Music, BMI
Copyright IBM Corporation 1989 All Rights Reserved)
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The call came in from John Harms of River City Productions in Austin, Texas for an original film-score for an IBM project. I had composed and produced dozens of these in the past usually around some new computer chip rollout. This time, John says, “This one is different. No talking heads. Only beautiful shots of Texas landscapes and people.” The date is October, 1989!
This piece of work, without my planning it, was to soon set me up with Ted Kryczko of Walt Disney Records as more than just another song producer. This creative happenstance unknowingly presented a life-changing opportunity for this much younger Austin film composer. All I knew at that time was that these filmed scenes of Texas were beautiful, exciting to score and had a very real budget.
IBM installed a major video and slide projection system in a conference room solely designed to showcase “TEXAS” to foreign dignitaries. Wanting to eliminate any possible language barriers, they wisely let the music and cinematography do the talking.
The process was for me to compose the music first, then Glenn Wolfe would cut the video to my score. Glenn showed me all the footage he had amassed and how he planned to collate, staple and creatively glue this thing together. I decided to write the music within his organizational framework of different visual sections of landscapes, coastal and inland water, building-scapes, people, etc. It was obvious this film-score needed to be composed as an orchestral piece which would also give it a long shelf life. I delivered a midi-only score to Glenn for him to pre-cut his collected images. With a few timing changes, I then hired my regular orchestra players, mostly from the Austin Symphony Orchestra, and recorded and conducted the score from a click track to maintain sync with the now edited version.
As you watch, remember this was 1989 which preceded any non-linear video editors! I re-mastered the audio for this posting, which is now much improved from the 1989 technology. The dreaded tape hiss of the last millenium is now removed.
I would like to give special mention to the banjo and guitar parts performed by Danny Barnes. Although mostly improvised, Danny was musician enough to integrate some of my individual orchestral lines into his playing, which made his banjo and guitar parts sit within the score rather than just on top of it. Danny is a truly great player and musician.
Thank you, John Harms and Gary Schmidt, owner of River City Productions, for this pivotal musical scoring and career building opportunity!
