Hello Group!

I almost couldn’t find the “add post button”.  It has been a week since I offered up a post on speaktherights.com.  With my new job, I have been very busy.  I have not been so busy that I could not find some great music…like so much great music is discovered…by chance and me paying a modicum of attention.

You all know I love music.  Recently I found a great collection of music on CD  to listen to by this great duo:

They are Curtis Brengle and Julie Ragins:  The Duo.  Look them up.  Find their music.

Don’t they look like they are having a good time?  Believe me, if you have heard what these two have done with the piano keys and a voice that matches the beauty of the art of Curtis Brengle’s playing, you would know that they are not here to have a bad time.

Music has been good to all of us.

Music has been great to me.

I conveyed some time ago the story of the night I was in the studio recording and my friend, the late Tim Krekel, started talking about a phone conversation he had the night before with Billy Swan.  I looked at Tim befuddled.  Then I proceeded to tell him that Billy Swan’s “I Can Help” was the first song that got my attention in 1974 when I was six.  Tim went on to tell me he routinely played the song’s guitar solo.  He toured with Swan as the song was climbing the charts and Swan was opening for Willie Nelson during a European Tour.  Tim Krekel also played lead guitar for Jimmy Buffett for two stints that lasted some six years.  Krekel’s playing slide on “Cheeseburger in Paradise”.  He also played lead for me.  Talk about a humbling experience.

I have met some great folks in the studio.  Some still here.  Some gone.  Some I hope to work with again.  It is a wonder how sounds can bring folks, whom would normally have a hard time connecting, so strongly together.  As I said, music has been good to us.

Before a few weeks ago I did not know the name Curtis Brengle.  After listening to this CD he made with Julie Ragins, I will never forget him.  More importantly, I will never forget the music he has made.  I wish I would have been in the studio to hear him play.

I knew of Julie Ragins.  I have seen her many times playing and singing with…wait for it…The Moody Blues.  Yes…that band.  If you have read speaktherights.com before, you too have heard of them.

I think it was on a twitter post that I saw this CD..THE DUO…was out there for the finding.  I am so glad I found it.

Julie Ragins has been supporting The Moody Blues on stage for a number of years now.  The Moodies are better for it.  She is very talented.  Her voice is smooth.  Her voice is pure.  Her voice is honest.  Her voice is real.

I am delighted that I will have the chance to listen to Julie perform once again when Carrie, my dear wife,  and I go to see a Justin Hayward (Moody Blues lead singer) solo show in September.  I think she will be there…

Many of you know I work in education.  In the fall of 1996, Justin Hayward released a solo album.  I played it for a class I was teaching at the time.  A 13 year-old girl took it upon herself to draft a letter to “Mr. Hayward” to tell him the class had listened to his new stuff. Unbeknownst to me, the whole class, save one, signed it before it was presented to me.  The young lady said she did not know where to send it to Mr. Hayward.  I sent it to Cobham, Surrey on their behalf.  Nearly five months later I got a hand written thank you note from Justin Hayward.  Many years later, I found out his parents were teachers.

Thank you Justin.  And thank you Justin for bringing along Julie Ragins so I have a chance to listen to THE DUO and their fantastic recording.

A voice and a piano.

I was losing hope that I would find something new to move my musical soul.  I found it in Curtis Brengle and Julie Ragins.  They bring us a piano and a voice to enjoy.  Pure and straightforward.  No overdubbing.  Who needs bombastic effect when you have a voice like Julie’s to fill the room with light and shade.

Thought I don’t skip a single track as I am listening, I take the time to listen to “love me still” over and over again.  I take the time to listen to the traditional “danny boy” like it is the first time I have heard it.  Their take on “walkin’ after midnight” is fresh and quite creative.  Their arrangement of “someone like you”, the lead track,  will hook you in a hurry.

I need to stop there.  You need to find out for yourself.

I liken my discovery of “THE DUO” to my discovery to The Moody Blues.  That was the day I was in a large department store in 1983…I was 15…and found a cassette of “Days of Future Passed”.  I looked at it and saw the words “Nights in White Satin”.  So…this is the group that sings that song, I thought.  And then three years later I was a senior in high school listening to “Your Wildest Dreams” and going to the first of many Moodies concerts.

Well…thirty years later I am back at my old school.  This time I am a school counselor.  With no new Moodies album on the horizon, I am thankful I found Curtis Brengle and Julie Ragins.  THE DUO indeed.  Oh, the best thing for them…they are husband and wife and they can make this music for the rest of us.  Find them at: www.theduosong.com.  You won’t be sorry.  You’ll thank me.

Speaking THE DUO rights…

Danny Johnson