Tag Archives: NPR

Flowers – revisited

06 Friday Nov 2020

Posted by in Acoustic Music, Music, Singer Songwriter, Video

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by Wendy Saydah

My father died in 1966, the year that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. made his first public speech on the Vietnam War ushering in an era of protests. The year that Cleveland, Ohio saw its first race riot. Actor Ronald Reagan was elected Gov. of California. John Lennon claimed the Beatles had become more popular than Jesus. Gemini 9 completed the second U.S. spacewalk, and Bobbi Gibb was the first woman to run the Boston Marathon.  

I was two years old.

The unrest and change that categorized this era has found its way back to the forefront of my mind recently as unsettling world events resurface. My memories are deep and vague, flashes of experience too difficult to grasp in any significant way.

I wrote Flowers in 2006 as a tribute to my father who passed before I had a chance to know him. It speaks to the desire for connection and the difficulty of holding onto memories over time. I often wonder what our relationship would have been like had he lived and how the void has shaped my path.

This version was recorded in 2015 for the NPR Tiny Desk Competition with Andy Bollman (on bass) in the halls of Weston High School (MA) where Peter is a teacher.

Flowers, Weston High School, 2015

Band Website: https://www.wendydarlingandthelostboy.org/

Band Update

01 Wednesday Feb 2017

Posted by in Music, Video

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Hey all.  A quick update on Wendy Darling and the Lost Boy, the New Year and all that lies ahead.

We just finished the video for the Tiny Desk Contest held by NPR.  It’s our third year of entry and we’re looking forward to the final product, which you’ll see soon.  We hired a company started by a former student of mine called Gimmick Studios and held the shoot in his studio which was a very cool structure—a former church renovated into living/working space.  We had an incredible experience in the making of it as we were treated professionally by four very young, but extremely competent artists who, having heard our song and what we wanted out of the shoot, made it come alive.

Here are some shots of us recording the video.

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This Friday we’re playing at a club in Cambridge called The Rising and, having scoped it out last weekend, we are thrilled at how warm and inviting a place it is to play.  We feel both fortunate to have gotten the job, and also very confident that we are perfect for the vibe of the place.  It is our hope that we can earn a few places there in Cambridge to play regularly and are working hard to make sure it happens.

What’s true is that it IS HAPPENING.  We’re playing in Cambridge at a very great club…can you believe it?

The Rising Bar, Inman Square, Cambridge

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We are entirely grateful to all of you who have shown your support by coming out because it makes us work harder and push our goals forward.   It matters a lot and while we know that you enjoy the music and that The Rising is a great venue, that you’ll have a great time, we also know that it’s late and a significant drive.  We know it and cannot thank you enough.

Do come out.  You’ll like the place.  We go on at The Rising in Inman Square  a little after 10 and are playing until 1:30.  Can you believe that?  It’s like the real deal.

Hope to see you there.

The Making of a Tiny Desk Video

05 Thursday Feb 2015

Posted by in Music, Video

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DSC_0176Bob Boilen, Host of NPR’s All Songs Considered and Creator of the Tiny Desk Concert Series has come up with a new idea, The Tiny Desk Contest. For those of you not in the know, the Tiny Desk Concert Series, founded in 2008, is a series of intimate video performances at Bob’s desk. Some more famous musicians who have performed at the NPR headquarters include Cat Steven, Trey Anastasio, Adele, and T-Pain, among others. This year, however, Boilen has decided to open a contest to all musicians across the country in which the winner gets to play a Tiny Desk Concert as well as be flown to Austin, TX to perform at the Lagunitas/ CouchTrippin/ Showcase in March. Sounds like fun, right?!

Since fun is what we’re after, we decided to produce a video and enter the contest. We chose my original song, Flowers, and filmed it in the High School where Peter teaches. Andy joined us on bass and without a lot of time or preparation, this is what we came up with…

There were over 5,000 entrants. Many of them very creative and overflowing with talent (you can check more out at http://tinydeskcontest.npr.org/final). The competition is steep, but even if we don’t win, we had a blast putting it together. As Boilin states in his letter to all entrants, “My favorite part of all this is not any one performance, but the feeling that comes through again and again: that making a video was a creative blast and a memorable time with friends. Everyone seemed to capture the spirit of the contest.”

The winner will be announced on or around February 11th, and I’ll be sure to let you know the result.

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