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Suppose some one would ask me how it was that we came to record the album, DOUGLAS COLE,
this is how I would respond:
" By the spring of 2001, Angie and I had, we believed, enough material
to at least begin to record an album so we were kinda on the lookout,
albeit passively, for some means of doing so. Now, I've always looked
at the concept of a 'day job' as an expedient more than anything else.
At this particular time, my 'expedient' was managing a local Dominoes
Pizza Parlor. I was chit-chatting with one of the employees when he
observed that I must like working with pizza, working at Dominoes and
having earlier done a stint at Little Caesar. I told him that I didn't
like working very much at all, pizza or otherwise but that this job,
like all my others, is merely a stepping stone until I could get my
musical feet on the ground.
" His response to me was,'My Dad runs a recording studio.'
"With-in the week Angie and I were in the studio and the sessions for DOUGLAS COLE had begun.
Now suppose some one were to ask me how the name came about.
" Douglas Cole Harvey was the name of Angie's sister's fiancee. During
this time, as alluded to on the liner notes to the Album, he was
recovering from a bout with a very rare form of cancer called Ewing's
Sarcoma. As the spring time gave way to summer and Doug's condition
continued to improve, spirits were very high. Then tragedy struck: Doug
had recovered to the extant that, although not completely through
remission, he was OK'd to be more active. Angie's sister Kris, whom I'd
mentioned as Doug's fiancee, and Doug had gone to a wedding reception
and been struck by a drunk driver on the way back. The remaining cancer
treatments had to be suspending because of his broken bones and during
this untimely suspension, this cancer came back. When he tragically
succumbed it was decided to hurriedly finish the album and to name it
in his honor. We further decided that we would have a music festival in
his honor as well and that we could release the album in conjunction
with that.
"Now the music on DOUGLAS COLE had to be put together quickly
and some songs, SWEET RIVER and COME ON HOME, come to mind right off
hand; had to be sacrificed in lieu of those that were more or less
finished. We finished the album in a more or less folk format and ran
off as many copies as time and expense would allow.
"The festival was a success, generating a fairly modest sized
donation to the local hospice in Doug's name. The two day festival
featured artists from all around the midwest; as far west as Chicago
and as far East as West Virginia. The format featured Folk, Rock, Funk,
Blues and Blue-Grass musics doing mostly electric on Saturday and
mostly acoustic on Sunday. We even had story-time for the kids.
" Our friend Margaret and a mountain-man friend of hers were just
finishing up their Blue-Grass when the tornado came, putting rather an
abrupt end to the festival.
" Our plans were then to continue to market DOUGLAS COLE and look
for performances to attend and participate in. However, the festival
was held Sept. 8-9,2001 so only a couple of days later this 9-11
business occurred and we lost focus of our musical ambitions. They
seems rather insignificant in the face of terrorism. Nevertheless, we
did two concerts that fall, both in Lansing's Old-Town district. The
Creole Gallery gig was in conjunction with a local celebration of
female music called Ladyfest. We qualified since Angie was a chick. We
had another concert down the street at this quaint little place called
The Otherwise Gallery. This gig was unique in that WAKE was augmented
that evening by the awesome keyboard talents of Greg's brother, Eric,
on loan, even then, from Songdogs."
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