Wrapping Up 2024 with a Monette Gig at Pangea!

Greetings fellow lovers of song,
 
I hope you are well and enjoying the season and its many bright attractions!
 
Every December, I am somehow surprised by the fact that yet another year is coming to an end! 2024 is no exception.
 
To me, savoring these festive moments in our communities and with our loved ones is what the holiday season is all about.

In this post I want to share with you the Christmas video we made a few years ago of the song, Merry Christmas To You. Videographer and musician, Johnny Jake, projects manager, Jennifer Gandin Le and I put it  together a few years ago. Still So Cute!

It basically describes a real-life family Christmas party that Mike and I have hosted every year since some time in the ‘90s!  

We host it at our place in Bucks County, PA. This year, there were 74 of us for buffet lunch, carol singing, and for the kids, a gift exchange!

Please enjoy:
https://bit.ly/MerryChristmasToYouDB

Speaking of savoring, there is a Monette gig coming up at the end of this week!

Saturday, December 28, 2024
7pm show; 6pm doors open
Monette Live!
$20 tickets online; $25 at the door
Pangea, 178 Second Ave, New York, NY 10003
Ticket Link: https://cur8.com/18134/project/128212

Monette is the creation of New York artist Monica Passin, and I am delighted to be part of this trio.
Pangea is a supper club, so come hungry and enjoy good food and beverage along with the tunes.
There is a $20 minimum per person (food or beverage).
Tickets online are $20. Tickets at the door, if available, are $25 (Cash Only).
The house opens at 6:00pm for food and beverage service.


On Friday, December 13th, the Singin’ Seniors had their Winter Holiday concert at the Lenox Hill Senior Center at St. Peter’s Church. We had a good crowd, including Valerie Ghent, our Feel the Music! director and champion.

Per usual, they sang some holiday classics, including, “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve” as written by Frank Loesser. I brought in Kasey Musgraves’ version for the Seniors to learn, where, at the end of the song, they sing the first few lines of “Auld Lang Syne.” When that moment in the song came, we had the audience sing along. The whole room seemed to settle in and become aligned. It was a beautiful, musical moment shared mutually.

The next day, the enthusiastic Middle Church Butterfly Outreach Ministry (BOM) crew bundled up and made a Happening (but I guess now they are called pop-up events)! We gathered for some fun and festive musical caroling in Tompkins Square Park (accompanied by the ​​Ukeleliacs) while also offering 45 freshly-made sandwich lunches, hot apple cider, and 35 warm hats for anyone joining us or walking by who found an interest or a need. Needless to say, there were many beautiful, overlapping, reciprocal moments of friendship, comfort and joy!

The tradition of Caroling is fun for just about everyone (if you’re into that sort of thing) and the bag lunches and winter hats were very well received. Sunday was a cold day in the city! Everything went like hotcakes!

Photo by Patrick Mulcahy

I hope your holiday season is filled with things that bring you joy. For me, that’s family, friends, music, food, and maybe a little champagne!

Be well and I really hope to see you soon!

Stay strong and keep shining!

Love,

xxx,
Deborah

Monette this May

Hello friends! Happy Spring!
I hope you are well!
Here is a very brief update on the goings-on of Deb!

First up, an invitation to hear Monette perform next week, Friday May 3rd at Pangea!
Monette is the brainchild of Monica Passin. We are a vocal trio consisting of Monica, Sherryl Marshall and me, singing Mo’s original songs in various backing vocal styles including that distinctive doo-wop sound.

Monette has one recorded CD available on Bandcamp.com, (then type in Monica Passin). For those in the know, Lesley Miller is from another trio, Dusty, which included Sherryl Marshall and me! Lesley helped create much of Monette’s fine backing vocal parts and is featured on the CD along with Monica and Hank Bones. It’s all in the family!

So, if you haven’t seen Monette already or if you just can’t get enough, come on down, you will be in for a treat! Pangea is an intimate-sized venue with open seating, full bar and delicious dinner menu. As it is a cozy supper club, I suggest you book now and come early!

Monette
Friday, May 3, 2024
7pm
Pangea
178 Second Avenue (between 11th and 12th Streets), New York, NY 10003

https://www.showtix4u.com/event-details/83207

May 3rd holds another musical delight in my world—the Singin’ Seniors have their Spring Concert on Friday, May 3rd at the Lenox Hill Senior Center at St. Peter’s Church.
The Singin’ Seniors classes are made possible by the support of Feel the Music!, a non- profit organization under the direction of Valerie Ghent that was first created after the events of 9/11. Many New Yorkers were processing grief and trauma during that time and needed an artistic outlet. Thank you, Valerie, for holding the reins and offering this service to the people of New York!

Friday, May 3, 2024
1:30 pm
Lenox Hill Senior Center @ Saint Peter’s Church, Downstairs
619 Lexington Ave, x East 54th St, New York, NY 10022
Free admission

The Singin’ Seniors will be singing eight classic gems from the 1930s through the 1980s, including a song by an accomplished NYC songwriter and friend, Julie Gold! The Singin’ Seniors will be accompanied by Clare Cooper on piano, Michael Visceglia on bass, Kenny Soule on drums and on guitar, Paul Pimsler and led by yours truly.

In memoriam, in 2023 our Singin’ Seniors group lost two of our friends. Vincent Gonnaud and Alvin Zwicker were long-time class members who showed up through thick and thin! During the pandemic we offered Singin’ Seniors classes on Zoom once a week. Vincent would call in on the phone. Alvin continued to come and sing with us right up until he lost his brave battle with cancer. Both friends enriched our group immeasurably. We miss their presence in our close-knit music class.

This Sunday I will be singing in the Jerriese Johnson Gospel Choir at the Freedom Rising Conference in NYC.
Beginning today (Friday, April 26), the 14th annual "Freedom Rising: You. Move. The World." Conference is being held at Marble Collegiate Church. Freedom Rising is a 3-day conference that offers tools and tactics, talks, lectures and workshops, music and art events designed to help us become more involved as a community of like-minded peacemakers and activists.
Learn to make good trouble!
www.freedomrisingconference.com

One more piece of personal news, Mike and I are apartment owners in NYC again!
This time a studio apartment on East 15th Street!
Please keep us in your thoughts as we sort and pack and downsize and process change!

Sending love with harmony,
xxx,
Deborah

22 Years Later

This morning, to honor the fallen, I was able to stop by Ladder 3 on East 13th Street with a bouquet of flowers.

For those who might not know or remember, the NYFD Ladder 3 Company's morning shift change was tragically timed with the September 11, 2001 attacks. It meant that their company was one of the first to arrive on site, carrying far more men than usual.

Their team bore some of the heaviest casualties in the NYC fire department that day. They lost 12 men including their Captain Patrick "Paddy" Brown. Gerard Dewan, Jeff Giordano, Tim McSweeney, Steve Olsen, Kevin Donnelly, Jay Ogren, Jimmy Coyle, Joe Maloney, John Williamson, John McAvoy, and Mike Carroll as well.

After news of Ladder 3’s terrible potential loss, I, along with many others spontaneously began leaving fresh flowers and a few candles to light outside the firehouse doors as an offering of prayer for both the missing and also for the recovery team. This went on for weeks as the crew continued to search the rubble for survivors.

I would walk my boys (who were then 9 and 11 years old) to Friends Seminary, their local school and then walk over to visit the firehouse. I spent time weekly, clearing out the wilted arrangements so that there would be room for the new bouquets and single stems that were still being dropped off from neighbors and shop owners. Neighbors would drop off extra vases and even buckets of water.

Today, I spoke with Captain Tom (I didn’t catch his last name) and shared my memories of those days and weeks. He was very interested in my stories about the guys who were left at the station, how they handled the tragedy.

I told him they handled it as well as anyone could in their position, which is to say, they were very affected by the scale of it. They were grief stricken and exhausted on top of wanting to continue to protect and defend. Survivor's guilt seemed to hang heavily on them.

I remember crews covered in ash coming back from working at Ground Zero in a different fire truck, as the truck that was being used on 9/11 was buried in the wreckage and is now part of the 9/11 Memorial Museum near the Freedom Tower. 

More than once, one of the firemen would climb off the truck and just stand there a minute, taking in the color and visual display of all the flowers that were left for them. After searching through cinders and massive destruction all day, their eyes seemed to need something to land on that was vivid, colorful, textural and alive. I guess it was a form of color therapy. I kept a list of all the flowers.

Roses, Iris, Daisies, Carnations, Gladiolas, Bird of Paradise, Clematis, Forget-Me-Nots, Chrysanthemum, Zinnias, Calla Lilies, Cyclamen, Clematis, Gerbera Daisies, Cockscombs, Heather, Camellia.

Sometimes words would come. Once I heard: "I was supposed to work that shift. I switched with my buddy." Or “Timmy’s wife just had a baby four months ago.”

- - -

In their honor, and in honor of everyone lost on this day 22 years ago, I offer this video I created, inspired by Eye to Eye's song “Fly Now.”

Be well,
Never forget,
Love,
xxx
Deborah

Hear Deborah Berg on Wax Chatty Podcast

Dear Ones,

Hello from the depths of summer!

We're sharing my latest interview, this one on the podcast "Wax Chatty with D, Muck, & Tatty" where we talked about my most recent album New Road Home from 2019.

I was familiar with Wax Chatty through my good buddy Mac Brydon (the "Muck" in the podcast title), who you might know as the actor in the "Sliver of a Moon" music video where he appeared along with his marvelous wife Jane Cortney.

It was fun to discuss the subjective mysteries of lyrical messaging, album art (shout-out to artist Esau Andrade and designer Andrea Sparacio!), and stellar musicianship of the players on the album: Ethan Eubanks, Charlie Giordano, Richard Hammond, Rich Hinman, Barry Mitterhoff, Monica Passin, Hugh Pool, Chris Tedesco, plus Sherryl Marshall and Stephanie Seymour on backing vocals.

Episode 15: Deborah Berg - Wax Chatty with D, Muck, & Tatty

It's always delightful to have someone ask such interesting questions about one's musical art form. I appreciate the humor and articulation that Wax Chatty offered. Thanks for having me on the show, you Gang O' Three!

All for now! Stay cool!

Love,

xxx,
Deborah

Happy Easter!

I had the great honor of singing "Long As I Got King Jesus" at Middle Collegiate Church's Easter service. It always brings me to joy to make beautiful music with the Jerriese Johnson Gospel Choir!