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May 18th, 2008 (posted by Rich)

     The band has been very busy over the past few weeks with numerous shows at different locales.  It seems like the gigs come in bunches!  On May 17th, we had two shows in one day but with no need for medical attention.

     We had a great time at Denise and Devitt Harrison's 3rd Annual Earth Day Festival at their home on the St. John's River in Osteen, FL, on April 26th.  Beautiful weather and a great cause of helping to protect the precious St. John's River (www.stjohnsriverkeeper.org).

     After a few interesting downtown shows in early May, we played the Green Earth Expo on May 16th (www.globalgreenalliance.com) which is the world's largest sustainable commerce and lifestyle tradeshow.  We also have been happy to be involved with the new Audubon Park Farmer's Market that features organic foods, plants, and fine merchandise.  A nice relaxed atmosphere!

     We'll be appearing soon on WPRK's live music show with time and date TBA.  The Forefathers continue to receive airplay on NPR's "Echoes" program.  Thank you to John Diliberto for his continued support of the band!

     Finally, thank you very much to Purusha K. Radha, founder and editor of Velocity Magazine, Central Florida's "conscious living" magazine!  She wrote a fantastic review of our CD "Manataka" for the May/June 2008 issue.  For those that cannot obtain the magazine (web.mac.com/themessenger216/iWeb/Site/Welcome.html), here is what she wrote:

The Forefathers - A Global Fusion Treasure!

We've got 'acres of diamonds' right in our Orlando backyard!  The Forefathers are, in a word, awesome!  The Forefathers' "Manataka" cd has become a gift for me.  In the long hours of laying out this magazine, I play Manataka and can't help but remark to myself how superb and richly textured this album is.  Its global essence is obvious and will stir your soul.  Rich Marcil (12 string guitar, EBow and mandolin), Arturo Escamilla (drums, percussion, and electronic pad), Ross Jarrett (percussion and harmonica) and Thuan Nguyen (bass guitar) are the Forefathers.

Marcil, the band's originator, tells this story: "I had been in several bands in the past, mostly rock, in which the lead singers moved away for either a job, school, or other reasons.  I kept having to start over.  I thought it might be simpler to have no singer at all - an instrumental band!...I wanted the sound of the music to be a fusion of several genres like New Age, Celtic, Rock, Folk, African."  He goes on to say that global themes of peace and love were very important to him.  "Over the course of the first few months of 2005, I was fortunate to find three fantastic players - a bassist, drummer, and percussionist - that had an interest in making the same type of sound that I did.  The chemistry was right there from the beginning."  I'll say!  The chemistry shows up in a full-bodied, different kind of sound that's mature, but hip.  I played a couple selections for a large group of people and they were all on their feet in no time.

"Manataka" means Place of Peace and was a sacred mountain site revered by tribal nations for centuries as a mystical healing destination where only peace prevailed.  Even if nations were warring with each other, when they visited Manataka Mountain, they set aside their differences and co-habitated in peace for the duration of their stay.  There they received healing from the hot springs in the Valley of the Vapors and allowed the outrageous vibration of the crystal altars to recharge and rejuvenate them.  Sadly, according to Lee Standing Bear Moore, President Andrew Jackson and the United States government confiscated the "most holy site in the American Indian world...making it the nation's first federal reservation."  Today the site is known as Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas (See www.manataka.org for the whole story.)

What a beautiful tribute this album is to the Place of Peace.  Manataka resurrects the vision and the incredible zeal our hearts all hold for peace all over the world.  It has received a lot of airplay on the nationally syndicated ambient, soundscape program, "Echoes."  Host John Diliberto personally selected the tracks, "Mountain Rose,""Mantaka,""Silhouettes," and "Awake" to be aired consistently on his radio show.  "Mountain Rose" has also been selected for the cd compliation "Tribute to Stuart Adamson" (the late singer/guitarist of Big Country) due for release in 2008.

I can't wait to meet up with these four guys in person to hear the Forefathers live!  Someday we'll be saying, "We know them when!"

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February 24th, 2008 (posted by Rich)

     Gotta brag a little!  Check out the new review of Manataka on the front page.  Connections Magazine reviewer Sara Wilsey said: "Manataka is a vast array of professional musicianship and belongs in any world music fan's collection."  Thank you, Sara!

     Also, fans of National Public Radio's Echoes program should listen for The Forefathers on the weekly playlists.  We've been on the program just about every week over the past two months.  A big thank you to Echoes' host John Diliberto for giving us such frequent national exposure.

    Lastly, see the Dates page for some cool upcoming shows.

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January 30th, 2008 (posted by Rich)

     The picture above is from The Forefathers' recent performance for an event called Timucua (www.timucua.com) founded by Benoit Glazer, bandleader for Cirque du Soleil’s La Nouba.  The event took place at Benoit's house which has a mini-Carnegie Hall built into it!  The acoustics in the large room were incredible and many people who've seen us before said they never heard us sound better.  Over 100 people packed the space for the performance.  Thank you to all that attended.  We were flattered by the great response!  Next time we'll be prepared with a real encore...

     The Forefathers have been appearing on National Public Radio's "Echoes" program, hosted by John Diliberto, on a nearly weekly basis.  So far, the songs "Mountain Rose", "Manataka", "Awake", and "Silhouettes" have appeared on the program.  Our percussionist Ross heard "Mountain Rose" at his house and thought it was coming out of his CD player.  He did a happy jig when he realized it was coming out of his radio!

      We have some performances on the horizon with dates and times TBA.  We are writing some interesting new tunes lately as we'll begin recording our 3rd CD later this year.

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November 18, 2007 (posted by Rich)

     The Forefathers have had a busy Fall between performing various shows and finishing the 5-song Holiday-themed EP entitled "Comfort & Joy."  The EP will be available in early December and includes the tracks "Little Drummer Boy," "Silent Night," "I Saw Three Ships," "Deck The Halls," & and an original track "Bells."

      The band is excited to have the tracks "Mountain Rose" and "Awake" from the new CD Manataka being played this week (week of Nov. 12th) on the nationally syndicated radio show "Echoes" broadcast on NPR and hosted by John Diliberto!  See the playlist at www.echoes.org .

      Here are a few pictures of The Forefathers' performance at the recent Winter Park Autumn Art Festival (courtesy of (www.photoartworks.us):

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September 17, 2007 (posted by Rich)

Odds & Ends...

        The Forefathers have a busy Fall season planned.  We are booked for an art festival, vegetarian festival, and a music festival.  Check out the dates page for more info!

        We are also planning a CD Release Party for early November at a venue TBA.  No need to wait, though, you can order "Manataka" on the Home Page!

       The band's been working on some holiday season tunes.  So far, "Little Drummer Boy" & "Silent Night" are in the can.  We're working on an original holiday song as well.  A holiday EP with 4-5 songs will hopefully be available by the CD Release Party.

       Thanks to everyone for coming out for the Bohemia Society (www.bohemiasociety.org/home.htm) fundraiser on Friday, Sept. 7th.  A great crowd and a lot of fun for a good cause!

       Finally, here's a few photos from The Forefathers performance at the Just Plain Folks Music Conference in July (courtesy of Just Plain Folks www.jpfolks.org)...

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July 27, 2007 (posted by Rich)

        The new CD is here!  We're very happy with Morphius Disc for the great job they did with the graphics and reproducing the sound on the CD.  The CD is available for sale on the home page.

        We're proud to announce that The Forefathers won the 2007 Best of Orlando award for "Best Acoustic Act" in the Orlando Weekly.  A big thank you to all of you who supported us with your vote!  Here are a couple of pictures from the Best of Orlando party:

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      We have a couple of shows coming up soon including the benefit "Taste of the Nation" on Saturday, August 18th, at the Orange County Convention Center.  Check the "Dates" page for more details.

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June 5, 2007 (posted by Rich)

     The CD is finally done!  The music and the artwork are done.  We are sending the materials off for replication this week.  The new CD, entitled "Manataka," should be ready for our upcoming summer shows.  We decided to take some extra time to get the songs recorded and mixed just right rather than rush it out.  We are very pleased with the results and hope you will be, too!

     In between recording, mixing, and mastering, we've played a few shows this year including a couple of weddings, a couple of festivals, and a fundraiser.  In June, we will be playing another festival, a club, and we'll be making our first ever South Florida appearance on Saturday night, June 30th in Ft. Lauderdale!  Check out our upcoming dates here.

      We are getting some dancers together to choreograph the music for the new CD for a "Manataka" show.  If you are an artist, dancer, or work with lighting and would like to audition contact us at ForefathersMusic@aol.com .

     See you soon!

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January 5, 2007 (posted by Rich)

     Happy New Year to everyone!  The Forefathers took a month off during the holidays and we have returned refreshed and full of figgy pudding and egg nog.  The band is looking forward to an exciting 2007.

     We have 9 songs "in the can" for our upcoming 2nd CD.  It will be called Manataka and we are anticipating a release date in late March or early April.  It will have 12 songs, meaning we have 3 more to record.  One of the new songs will be a drum & percussion-only based tune.  We are planning to build a multimedia concept show around the music utilizing dancers, artists, lighting, and projected images to convey the theme of the album:  peace, redemption, and a working together to make the world a better place.

     Manataka, or the Place of Peace, is in the current location of Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas.   For hundreds of years, the setting was a spiritual destination for Native American peoples.  Every few years, even warring tribes set aside their differences to go to Manataka to offer gifts in the spirit of peace.  Unfortunately, settlers of the West displaced these peoples and only as recently as 2000 has the essence of Mantaka been rekindled in that mystical location.  See more about Manataka at www.manataka.org .

     The Forefathers are playing a couple of weddings later this winter that we are looking forward to.  Thankfully, the couples did not request the Macarena or the Chicken Dance.  Our drummer, Arturo, love to dance to the Macarena and will do so upon request.

     Finally, here is a collage from the band's appearance at the Osceola Arts Festival in Downtown Kissimmee in November.  The statue is of Betty Sprinkle, a leading resident of Kissimmee for many years.  The statue was unveiled right before The Forefathers performance.

 

November 12, 2006 (posted by Rich)

     We've been so busy performing and recording recently, I haven't gotten around to bloggin'!  The Forefathers have done some diverse shows lately:  the Winter Park Autumn Arts Festival, the ONE Campaign to fight poverty, a couple of convention events, the Orlando Science Center, and the fundraiser for Orlando's fledgling Bohemia Society for the Arts & Sciences.

     The charities and fundraisers are especially a lot of fun and very rewarding.  We've met some really great, caring people recently at those events.  The ONE event (similar events were being held around the country at the same time) got into the Guinness Book of World Records for "the most people standing up at one time (against poverty)."

     Here are a couple photos from previous events:

 

 

 

 

 

 

     We are 3 songs away from completing our 2nd CD.  We'll be recording the last batch in early December.  The new CD should be ready by late January.  Just in time for Valentine's Day - I'm sure our wives will appreciate our thoughtfulness when they receive the gift of the new Forefathers' CD!

     Maybe not.

    Here's some photos from our last recording session:

 

 

 

 

 

 

    Finally, I wish I had a photo of Ross trying to retrieve his conga drum after it recently, accidentally, got bumped and rolled under his van.  Just saw legs sticking out - I laughed so hard I thought I was going to pull a hamstring.

     Thanks for your ongoing support!

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August 26, 2006 (posted by Rich)

   On Saturday, August 19th, The Forefathers performed  three 45 minute sets at the Taste of the Nation event at the Walt Disney World Dolphin Resort Pacific Ballroom.  About $175,000 was raised by the approximately 2,000 attendees to benefit the Coalition for the Homeless.  The crowd enjoyed the music - it's hard to keep 2,000 folks happy!  One guy yelled out Freebird, of course, which we are now determined to learn.   After the show, we sold a CD to the actor who played the alien in the movie Signs!  The crab cakes were delish.  

    We've recorded the basic tracks for 3 new songs and are going to record the next 3 on 9/15.  The guys are in good form - the drums, percussion, and bass sound great!  We are recording at Difference Studios in Winter Park with the help of producer/ engineer David Mikeal (www.davidmikeal.com).  We hope to have the new CD ready in January.

     Finally, our songs Reverie, Solstice, and Bouncy Song are receiving airplay at these fine sites:  

Upbeat Radio Podcast (www.upbeatcafe.com)

Local MusiCafe (www.mvyradio.com/local_musicafe/)

Songwriter's Network (www.musictogousa.com)

Celtica Radio (www.bandradiolive.com:8000)

Street Blast Podcast (StreetBlast.com)

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July 28, 2006 (posted by Rich)

    Our CD was reviewed in the July edition of Connections Magazine.  We got 4 stars!  That's out of 5 (not 10 as I initially feared!).  Here's the verbatim text (as reviewed by Kayla Anderson):

 "I can't even remember the last time I've listened to a world music CD - probably never.  But if all world music is like The Forefathers, then maybe I've been missing out.  This CD has a pretty diverse sound, and is great background music to put on at a party or to listen to while at work.  They use all of my favorite instruments, including a 12-string guitar and a harmonica matched with full percussion and woodwinds section.  This CD is well-produced, jacketed, and I've heard no other band like them from this area.  I'm crossing my fingers that they play soon."

    Also, we received radio airplay earlier this month on the internet radio program Radio Crystal Blue (www.radiocrystalblue.com).  The song Forefathers was played by RCB host Dan Herman.

    The Forefathers are excited about two upcoming shows at Disney's Dolphin Resort for the Taste of the Nation event and at the Winter Park Autumn Art Festival (see front page for more details).  We've also booked some time in August and September to record our 2nd CD.  And finally, here's a picture, for no particular reason, of me holding the moon in North Carolina earlier this month:

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June 28, 2006 (posted by Rich)

    Thank you very much to all our fans, family, and friends who attended our CD Release Party at Dandelion Communitea Cafe on Saturday, June 17th.  I can't believe how great the weather was!  About 83 degrees, clear, and hardly any humidity.

    The Forefathers especially want to thank Michael Boynton, vocalist/keyboardist of the band March to May (www.marchtomay.com), for performing a fantastic solo set & to Ruth King (www.ruthkingblues.com) for a soulful set of her great acoustic blues.  And thank you, Ruth, for the use of your guitar cable when mine went dead.  You saved the show!

    The jam session after the show was a drum circle with sax, guitars, and a vibraphone.  There were about 12 of us playing all kinds of instruments.  My friend Mitch commented how much he loved the music in the jam session and thought we were a band of our own.  Mitch, did you like the Forefather's set?

    After the show, The Forefathers celebrated the next day, Father's Day, by helping our bassist Thuan Nguyen move into his new house.  Yeah, we know how to party.

    We are rehearsing and writing new material for our new CD, tentatively titled "Manataka."  New songs include Manataka, The Amazon, Red, & Awake.  We have some songs that have yet to be named.  Please email suggestions to ForefathersMusic@aol.com !

    Yesterday, Thuan emailed me this:  "I received word from Alisha that Jenny  -- our former church nursery caregiver -- just delivered her new baby girl yesterday. During the entire labor process, she was listening to... (drum roll please) ...THE FOREFATHERS! Jenny said it really helped! Cool, huh?"

    Yeah, pretty cool!  Congratulations, Jenny!

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May 30, 2006 (posted by Rich)

    We had a great time this past weekend at the 54th Annual Florida Folk Festival in White Springs.  It was the first time anyone in the band had been to the festival.  We met a lot of great musicians and cool people with an interest in keeping folk music, traditional and modern, alive and well.  Importantly, Arturo devoured the BBQ ribs and Ross drank a Lime Fizz.

    We played at the Ampitheatre and had a excellent sound system and professionals to run it.  We were a little nervous about what the reception from the crowd would be like since we are not a traditional folk band.  But the crowd enjoyed it, danced around,  and gave us a great response.  During our 30 minute set we played Solstice (the crowd loved Arturo's hand drum), Reverie, Manataka (new song), The Amazon (new song) , and Ghost Town.

    Our CD Release Party is finally scheduled!  We're playing June 17th at the Dandelion Communitea Cafe (see the home page for more info).  We'll be gearing up for that over the next few weeks.  Hope to see you there!

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April 29, 2006 (posted by Rich)

    Hi all, this is a new feature of the web site!  The band members will be using this space to update you about Forefathers news and events.

    We have been busy so far this year having played about 12 shows.  We played an Earth Day Festival last Saturday (4/22) in a great setting:  A dock on the St. John's River.  The Festival featured Florida environmental author Bill Belleville and other environmental activists.  It was great to see so many people working together to keep our river basins healthy.  Thank you to the Harrison Family for giving us the opportunity to play!

    We have been working on some new songs recently and have a about a half a CD's worth of material.  Recording the new CD may start this summer.

    The Forefathers recently had a song ("Solstice") selected by the radio show, Acoustic Fuel, to be added to their playlist.  Our song "Reverie" was recently added to the Seldom Heard Radio Show  playlist at WSCS 90.9, New London, NH.

    Thanks to everyone for their ongoing support!