Speaker 1: It's night Side with Ray.
Speaker 2: I'm WBZ, Boston's new radio.
Speaker 1: Thank you al our number two of Nightside. And let's
Speaker 1: say you live in Watertown and you come out your
Speaker 1: front door, open the windows, and you hear music and
Speaker 1: you're scratching your head. Where's the music coming from? It
Speaker 1: turns out to be coming from the porch across the street.
Speaker 1: There are musicians over there playing music. And here's a
Speaker 1: gentleman that started this, mister Matt Hannah. Matt, thank you
Speaker 1: for joining me here on night Side. Welcome to WBZ,
Speaker 1: Thank you, thanks for having me.
Speaker 3: Morgan.
Speaker 1: So, Matt, tell me about porch performances.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So, Porch Fest is something that we started in
Speaker 3: Watertown the first year Dismay, and it's something that's not
Speaker 3: new to Watertown. It's been done in the New An
Speaker 3: area at least for since at least ten fifteen years ago.
Speaker 3: It started in Itsaica, New York. And it's just a
Speaker 3: day of free music where neighbors can go out on
Speaker 3: their porches and have bands come or play themselves and
Speaker 3: it's just a great community event. And when we did
Speaker 3: in Watertown this May, we didn't know what to expect.
Speaker 3: It was our first one, and there was just a
Speaker 3: group of us in a room trying to organize it
Speaker 3: in January. I'm like, we'll see we can get one
Speaker 3: done this May. And it came together. Hoping for like
Speaker 3: fifty fifty bands. Maybe we got over one hundred and
Speaker 3: fifty bands playing all throughout the city, just on people's
Speaker 3: porches on a beautiful Saturday.
Speaker 4: It was supposed to.
Speaker 3: Rain and had wound up not It was a great
Speaker 3: day and people could just walk around the city and
Speaker 3: just hear music by you know, singer songwriters, by jazz bands,
Speaker 3: by hip hop bands, by fusion bands. It was all
Speaker 3: different genres, neighbors and people from traveling around and it
Speaker 3: was just a great community event. So yeah, it was
Speaker 3: a great success.
Speaker 1: Now what instrument do you play?
Speaker 4: Me? Personally?
Speaker 3: I play piano and.
Speaker 1: Guitar, Okay, not at the same.
Speaker 3: Time, usually not very well, if I blame at the
Speaker 3: same time.
Speaker 1: Okay. And what made you have a love of music?
Speaker 1: I'm sure it started when you were young, elementary, high
Speaker 1: school somewhere in there.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So when I was when I was younger, I would
Speaker 3: fall asleep listening to music on the radio. I was
Speaker 3: just obsessed with music from an early age. So my
Speaker 3: sister can tell you. She would knock on the on
Speaker 3: the wall, tell me to turn down the radio because
Speaker 3: she's trying to sleep, and I would just stick on.
Speaker 3: So yeah, it was just always there as far as
Speaker 3: back as I can remember.
Speaker 4: I just loved music.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and if I'm not mistaken, I'm going to stick
Speaker 1: with discussions about porch Fest. But a little bird told
Speaker 1: me that you as well teach music. I'm sure teach
Speaker 1: piano and guitar to people who call you and say,
Speaker 1: can you come over and teach little Johnny and little
Speaker 1: Sue how to play the piano.
Speaker 3: I do teach and Astley. It's not usually little little
Speaker 3: Johnny or little Sue, it's grown up Johnny and grown
Speaker 3: up Sue. I teach adults. I find it really rewarding
Speaker 3: to teach people who, maybe, you know, thirty years ago
Speaker 3: they tried it and it didn't go well for them,
Speaker 3: and now they've been wanting to do it but regretting
Speaker 3: it ever since. So I really enjoy bringing bringing those
Speaker 3: type of beginners and intermediate people back into the world
Speaker 3: of music. And it's better as an adult than they
Speaker 3: may realize.
Speaker 1: So that's that's what I have to do you just
Speaker 1: described to me as it was in the second or
Speaker 1: third grade, and we lived in an apartment building, four
Speaker 1: different apartments on four different floors. We lived on the
Speaker 1: third and the woman on the floor below us had
Speaker 1: a piano, so my mother and grandmother coordinated with her
Speaker 1: for me to come by on Wednesday nights for an
Speaker 1: hour and take piano. And oh god, I hated it.
Speaker 1: I did not want to learn the piano. Let me
Speaker 1: see your index finger. You place it on middle C.
Speaker 1: That's where you start blah blah blah blah blah. And
Speaker 1: I could still right now play if I needed to.
Speaker 1: The first four or five songs I had to learn
Speaker 1: Birthday Party and Dolly did stand man's neer and come
Speaker 1: on boys, join the fun. Baseball days have begun. That
Speaker 1: is from when I was in the third grade, and
Speaker 1: I haven't been in the third grade for sixty two years.
Speaker 1: But I I was made a promise that if I
Speaker 1: got through until June, I could stop if I wanted to.
Speaker 1: My mother and grandmother expected that I would just learn
Speaker 1: to love it and get addicted to it. But they
Speaker 1: gave me a finish line to cross. So when I
Speaker 1: get to that finished line, hell, of Loujah. I'm done
Speaker 1: with piano, but years later I regretted it, and I wish,
Speaker 1: I truly wish I had stayed with it, because that
Speaker 1: is such an art to be able to sit down
Speaker 1: and play the sheet music and do a good job
Speaker 1: doing it. I really wish I had stuck with it.
Speaker 3: Well, it's never too late, Morgan. You can always jump
Speaker 3: back in.
Speaker 1: I don't know now, my fingers get a little twinge
Speaker 1: of arthritis every now and then. And tell you what
Speaker 1: I'll think about it. Matt. That's the best I can
Speaker 1: promise you. But before we go any further, tell people
Speaker 1: how they can get in touch with you a website
Speaker 1: or what have you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so my website is Matt h Music dot com
Speaker 3: and yeah, I have some of my music up there
Speaker 3: and ways to get in touch me for teaching if
Speaker 3: if you're local to me and Watertown. And yeah, it's again.
Speaker 3: I love teaching those adults because they're they're just like you.
Speaker 3: And I've taken many of those people from that feeling
Speaker 3: you were just saying to playing some of their favorite songs.
Speaker 3: And if you know, as an adult, you have a
Speaker 3: lot more than you might realize, skills you've learned other
Speaker 3: skills over the years. Those apply over the music, right
Speaker 3: and yeah, and I teach through the songs that people love,
Speaker 3: and I think that's an important thing for people too.
Speaker 3: When you're a kid, you don't know what you like
Speaker 3: and you're those songs you're mentioning. You weren't in love
Speaker 3: with them, right.
Speaker 2: No, I was.
Speaker 3: But when you're an adult, you can pick like, oh,
Speaker 3: these are my favorite songs, and we can simplify those
Speaker 3: and work your way up through those. So that's a
Speaker 3: great way of doing it as an adult, which is
Speaker 3: something you don't have when you're a kid.
Speaker 1: I was on this subject about three or four years
Speaker 1: ago one night and a woman called in because I
Speaker 1: had mentioned those very songs, and she said, do you
Speaker 1: remember the book you learned them from? And I said, well,
Speaker 1: it was a book with a red cover, and those
Speaker 1: are the first three or four songs in the book.
Speaker 1: And she said, we're still using the same book. That
Speaker 1: might have been the third printing and now they're up
Speaker 1: to the twentieth printing, but that book is still being
Speaker 1: used to instruct people. We had to place your fingers
Speaker 1: on the keys, and what the notes represent, and how
Speaker 1: to identify arrest note. And it's amazing to me that
Speaker 1: all these years later they're still doing it. Is that
Speaker 1: a signal? Am I? At the end, it was at
Speaker 1: a beat that means no more time.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 3: Sorry, that was from somewhere else in the room. Sorry.
Speaker 1: Okay, We'll tell you what. Let me take a break,
Speaker 1: and I've got much more to ask you about porch Fest.
Speaker 1: I called it porch performances, but porch Fest in Watertown.
Speaker 1: Let me give the phone numbers again in case people
Speaker 1: in Watertown or other communities want to call in and
Speaker 1: talk about the six one, seven, two, five, four, ten
Speaker 1: thirty eight, eight, eight, nine to nine, ten thirty. This
Speaker 1: is night Side. Please give us a call. I would
Speaker 1: appreciate it, and my guest Matt Hannah he as well,
Speaker 1: will appreciate it to hear from you here on night Side.
Speaker 1: Time and temperature nine p fifteen seventy nine degrees.
Speaker 2: Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Speaker 2: Nightside Studios on w BESY News Radio.
Speaker 1: We're talking music here on night Side. There is a
Speaker 1: good a good Field story. There are a group of
Speaker 1: people that go around the community of Watertown and it's
Speaker 1: porch Fest. They go on the various porches front lines
Speaker 1: of the homes in Watertown and play music, all kinds
Speaker 1: of music. It's almost like an impromptu concert. And the
Speaker 1: coordinator is mister Matt Hannah and Matt, we've got a
Speaker 1: phone call, so I'm want to take the phone call.
Speaker 1: Then I'll go back to talking about the specifics of
Speaker 1: porch Fest. But Suzanne, thanks for taking the time to
Speaker 1: call in. Welcome.
Speaker 5: Well, thanks Morgan for taking by call. I am the
Speaker 5: other poor musician, but I've pleased to be while at
Speaker 5: dead Way calls Americas back with.
Speaker 1: You, okay, and I'm happy you're here.
Speaker 5: I had Tiato lessons as child. I had a little
Speaker 5: chart in it. I pushed out the third figure of
Speaker 5: the second figure that the first, and if I did
Speaker 5: it the other way, this is you could tell from
Speaker 5: my old age that I'm not a natural pianist, right,
Speaker 5: but I have had other you know, I sing and
Speaker 5: not too well, and I've had many good times and
Speaker 5: bad times listening to music both at Carnegie Hall.
Speaker 1: And oh you know, would would this concept work in Newton?
Speaker 1: I live in Newton, so would the porch Fest concept
Speaker 1: work in your neighborhood? I don't know what part of Newton.
Speaker 1: You live in Newton's broken up.
Speaker 5: I'm kind of a Newton Lower Falls. That was it.
Speaker 5: We do have music, but I'm kind of.
Speaker 4: Retired from.
Speaker 1: But if a group, if a group of.
Speaker 5: Musicians as fabulous, because you know, there's so Mandy, there's
Speaker 5: Root sixty, there's Wellesley, there's there's Yeah, I think it
Speaker 5: would be fabulous.
Speaker 1: All right, Matt, do you think you guys might consider
Speaker 1: extending way? A town and Newton almost touch each other.
Speaker 1: So what do you say, Eric?
Speaker 3: It actually is a Newton porch Fest as well? Uh,
Speaker 3: there is someone who are organizes that in your city.
Speaker 5: Okay, Well, I had tried to lift watertowns, so I've
Speaker 5: visited there too.
Speaker 1: So Matt, Matt finished your point, go ahead, So I.
Speaker 3: Guess they do it in June. I just looked it
Speaker 3: up here. It looks like they had it on doomb first,
Speaker 3: and it looks like they have a plant. So there's
Speaker 3: still plenty on doing it, all right, Newton Porch Fest.
Speaker 1: And is Newton Lower Falls within this schedule?
Speaker 3: Newton dot porchbesk dot info and it says here it's
Speaker 3: in Auburndale Lower Falls and Lobbing Center.
Speaker 5: See that Lower Falls well, my goodness, I tell you,
Speaker 5: mister White, your show brings all times of magic.
Speaker 1: By well, I'm thankful for that. Call me Morgan, and.
Speaker 5: It's is standby on vacation.
Speaker 1: Or is it's on vacation. He'll be back on Monday.
Speaker 5: Okay, Well, so thank you very very much, and you
Speaker 5: have a musical happy weekend.
Speaker 1: Suzanne, thank you for the call. Bye bye bye. All right,
Speaker 1: And Matt the songs I mentioned, do you remember your
Speaker 1: introduction into the first time a teacher told you we
Speaker 1: had to place your fingers on the keys and any
Speaker 1: of those songs ring a bell in your early days?
Speaker 3: Not for me, I'm I'm so. I took about a
Speaker 3: year piano when I was a kid, and then I
Speaker 3: kind of had a similar reaction to you that I
Speaker 3: wanted to be done with that, but I wasn't done
Speaker 3: with the instruments, so I self taught myself from that
Speaker 3: point up until college. So I kept on playing. But
Speaker 3: I i those early ones because they didn't stick in
Speaker 3: my head.
Speaker 1: Here we go in a road to a birthday party
Speaker 1: that was going from middle C to the right and
Speaker 1: going from middle C to the left. Dolly Dear sam
Speaker 1: E's neer soon you will be sleeping, and you got it.
Speaker 1: It's stuck in my mind. People who've heard me here
Speaker 1: on BC over the years, you know that the weirdest things,
Speaker 1: especially if there's a musicality to them, are embedded deep
Speaker 1: in me and won't be yanked out no matter what.
Speaker 1: So tell me about other students that you've had. Be
Speaker 1: a teacher with pride, pump you chest out and talk
Speaker 1: about this person of that person who you've taught how
Speaker 1: to play the guitar, how to play the piano and
Speaker 1: they've taken to it like a duck to water.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean, like I said, a lot of my students
Speaker 3: are the same type of Either there's two categories. It's
Speaker 3: the people who have your type of experience and they
Speaker 3: haven't touched the instrument in you know, forty years or
Speaker 3: something like that, and you know, just getting them to
Speaker 3: play something like I had a student not too long
Speaker 3: ago wanting to learn how to play amazing grace and
Speaker 3: you know, just getting them to that first song of
Speaker 3: a song that they wanted to play and it sounded
Speaker 3: like that real song and it wasn't fully fledged out,
Speaker 3: but it was enough and you know, just to light
Speaker 3: up on their face when they could do that and
Speaker 3: realize that, yeah, I can actually do this, even though
Speaker 3: I tried decades ago and it didn't fit because they're
Speaker 3: in a different place now. And then there's the people
Speaker 3: who have been for decades going along on their own,
Speaker 3: but they've never been really happy with their skills. They
Speaker 3: wish they were better, and those people will have what
Speaker 3: they I have one student who I've been teaching for
Speaker 3: many years now, and he calls them his Holy Grail songs,
Speaker 3: and as we check those off, you know, he'd been
Speaker 3: trying on his own for thirty years to play them.
Speaker 3: And then you know, in a couple of years, we've
Speaker 3: worked our way up to these and now he's got
Speaker 3: like three or four what he calls Holy Grail songs
Speaker 3: under his belt, and he's getting ready to do a
Speaker 3: concert for his family at this point of about like
Speaker 3: twenty twenty songs.
Speaker 1: Wonderful.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and his family is he's been practicing really hard
Speaker 3: because his family is not forgiving, he says. So it's
Speaker 3: the ultimate test.
Speaker 1: We've ignored you with the guitar because you mentioned both instruments.
Speaker 1: What was it about the guitar that attracted you when
Speaker 1: you first put your hand on the neck of a Gibson.
Speaker 3: So piano was my first my first one, and then
Speaker 3: I discovered guitar. It wasn't in college for me, so
Speaker 3: I I, you know, I don't know what it was
Speaker 3: about it. I just came across an old guitar that
Speaker 3: someone was getting rid of. And I was a tinkerer.
Speaker 3: I was a I studied competition mainly in school, and
Speaker 3: I just loved now picking up I played the piano,
Speaker 3: but I loved tinking around on the computer and figuring
Speaker 3: out different sounds and just picking up anybody's random instrument.
Speaker 3: But when I got guitar, it's it was something where
Speaker 3: I felt like it I could use my piano skills
Speaker 3: on it. I did a lot of finger picking, so
Speaker 3: I could do a lot of that fast finger work
Speaker 3: that I couldn't do if I, like picked up a
Speaker 3: trumpet because I had to blow into it or something.
Speaker 3: So that transferred over easier for me. But it gave
Speaker 3: me the whole world of different options that I couldn't
Speaker 3: do on the piano, and it just from there it
Speaker 3: stuck around and it's been part of my life ever.
Speaker 3: James College, So yeah.
Speaker 1: My grandmother had a friend who was the landlord, and
Speaker 1: potentially people would check in and check out of his
Speaker 1: apartment building, and invariably people would leave things, and somebody
Speaker 1: left a guitar. Now I'm about eight, nine, ten years old,
Speaker 1: and he gave it to me. But the thing to
Speaker 1: me was huge. Now, you see people on TV and
Speaker 1: you get the concept. You put your fingers around the
Speaker 1: neck and you press down on the different strings and
Speaker 1: you know where your other hand goes to play it.
Speaker 1: But I just never got it, and it wound up
Speaker 1: collecting deaths in my room. And that's another instrument. Gosh
Speaker 1: darn it. I wish I had taken it seriously or
Speaker 1: more serious than I did and learned to play the
Speaker 1: gosh darn thing.
Speaker 3: You can't blame an eight year old bill too young
Speaker 3: to understand.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Now I feel better. Ari was only eight,
Speaker 1: and between that and the piano, the TV was much
Speaker 1: more attractive to me. Tell you what, let me take
Speaker 1: another break throwing a quick hit of news. Anyone out
Speaker 1: there who wants to call in and talk about porch Fest.
Speaker 1: It's in the community of Watertown, we heard as well,
Speaker 1: it's in the community of Newton. Maybe you have it
Speaker 1: in your community, or maybe you would like to have it.
Speaker 1: The person who created this is Matt Hannah, and he's
Speaker 1: my guest between now and ten o'clock. If you want
Speaker 1: to call in six one, seven, two, five, four, ten
Speaker 1: thirty or eight eight, eight, nine to nine, ten thirty.
Speaker 1: You know, Matt, you're being heard in thirty eight states
Speaker 1: and parts of Canada. So maybe somebody from across America
Speaker 1: wants to start one of these in their city, town, hamlet,
Speaker 1: whatever the case may be. If you do call in,
Speaker 1: maybe Matt will give you a heads up on how
Speaker 1: to start it where you live. So on that note,
Speaker 1: let me throw it to Rob Brooks, who's my producer
Speaker 1: and an excellent producer. He is here on night Side
Speaker 1: time and temperature nine twenty nine seventy nine degrees.
Speaker 2: If you're on night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's.
Speaker 1: News radio, Dan's off will be back on Monday, I promise.
Speaker 1: I'm Morgan. I've been part of night Side for five
Speaker 1: of the past six nights Side shows, and my guest
Speaker 1: tonight at this moment is mister Matt Hannah, and he
Speaker 1: has helped coordinate porch Fest and the concept is he
Speaker 1: and musician friends of his go around Watertown and play.
Speaker 1: Play all types of music, whether you like classical music
Speaker 1: or you like something much more contemporary jazz, what have you?
Speaker 1: And Matt I just recalled a song I had to play,
Speaker 1: had to learn to play the first song I learned
Speaker 1: to play with both hands on the keyboard and give
Speaker 1: me a second. Now give you the lyrics. Paype hadn'ts
Speaker 1: dead and gone, but his magic lingers on when his
Speaker 1: tunes were one of best. He wrote jolly tunes like this,
Speaker 1: and I had to play it both with my right
Speaker 1: and left hand simultaneously. And that's it. I've gone through
Speaker 1: the entire litany of what I recall from my days
Speaker 1: on a piano, gone.
Speaker 4: Through the whole catalog.
Speaker 1: That's it. The catalog's done. Did that song ring a
Speaker 1: bell to you?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 3: No, those like I said, those type of teaching ones
Speaker 3: were not very influential in my personal career with music.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Now tell people, if I live in Watertown and I
Speaker 1: want you guys to show up, how many people come
Speaker 1: with you? Do you come by yourself or there's a
Speaker 1: core of four half dozen of you that just go
Speaker 1: in the front lawn and perform.
Speaker 3: So, yeah, I might not have done a good enough
Speaker 3: job explain this before, so it's not just me performing.
Speaker 3: So what this was was one hundred and fifty different bands,
Speaker 3: so not just me, It was all simultaneously throughout the city.
Speaker 3: There are one hundred and fifty different groups of performers
Speaker 3: that signed up to perform, so it's not just me.
Speaker 3: It was lots and lots of other people. So people
Speaker 3: offer up there. What it was is so there was
Speaker 3: a website and people could log in to host if
Speaker 3: they wanted just to offer up their porch, and then
Speaker 3: there was a way to offer up your services as
Speaker 3: a musician or as a band, and then we matched
Speaker 3: people up to put them together and made a whole
Speaker 3: big schedule with all these performers. So it was a
Speaker 3: lot bigger than just me. So if you think about
Speaker 3: the one hundred and fifty bands, and if there's now
Speaker 3: three people in a band, you know that was about
Speaker 3: four hundred and fifty people plus the host. It was
Speaker 3: like five hundred people all involved on this one day.
Speaker 3: So it was much bigger than just a handful of ums.
Speaker 3: And this is true for all the porch befts that
Speaker 3: people organize themselves in different cities as well. So I
Speaker 3: only organize the one in Watertown, Okay, Newton, the one
Speaker 3: in Newton.
Speaker 4: And all the other cities.
Speaker 3: Those are just people within their city organizing it themselves.
Speaker 3: So someone's listening and they look up and they don't
Speaker 3: have one in their city. You can start organizing it yourself.
Speaker 3: There's a there's a great website called porchfest dot info,
Speaker 3: and that guy there is great at helping people start
Speaker 3: off up their own websites or and starting to organize
Speaker 3: it yourself if you're interested.
Speaker 1: Okay, now I heard about you through my friend of
Speaker 1: over forty years, Fred Grandinetti, and he has a show
Speaker 1: on the Watertown cable station, and you've made an appearance.
Speaker 1: I don't know if they've shown it yet, but talk
Speaker 1: about that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So he does. He does a cartoon where he
Speaker 3: shows kids how to draw different cartoons. He has a
Speaker 3: particular fondness for Popeye.
Speaker 1: Yes he does.
Speaker 3: So he asked me if I would play the Popeye
Speaker 3: theme song on guitar, and so I did, I want to.
Speaker 4: I went in.
Speaker 3: He recorded me playing the Pupeye theme song on it
Speaker 3: on guitar. Yet and it's supposed to be one of
Speaker 3: those moments where you know, snap fingers and the magic
Speaker 3: moment and my shirt changes after I play the song
Speaker 3: to have a Popeye song, and then yeah, I haven't.
Speaker 3: I actually haven't seen it yet either, So when it's ready,
Speaker 3: I'll be sure to take a look.
Speaker 1: The magic of television. Yeah, Now, do you have children
Speaker 1: of your own?
Speaker 3: I do. I. I do have a I have a
Speaker 3: son who is going into second grade this year.
Speaker 1: Okay, I remember that's when I was introduced to a piano, kicking,
Speaker 1: screaming away from it. Does your son have an interest
Speaker 1: to pick up the guitar or sit at the piano bench?
Speaker 3: So she went through a phase a couple of years
Speaker 3: ago where he was interested in just fucking away on there.
Speaker 3: But if I tried to make a formal thing, wasn't interested.
Speaker 3: So I never pushed it because I teach so many
Speaker 3: of those people those stories of being pushed away from it.
Speaker 3: So it hasn't caught on. But he hasn't other in stress,
Speaker 3: and if he comes back to it, I'd be happy
Speaker 3: to help him out with it, all right. I don't
Speaker 3: want to put on him, you.
Speaker 1: Know, I understand that. You know why, if you force it,
Speaker 1: they necessarily reabell. But if you just let them go
Speaker 1: and grow towards it, a love may develop. And I
Speaker 1: truly wish I had developed that love, because by now
Speaker 1: I would be able to just sit at a piano
Speaker 1: and play any song from my history or songs that
Speaker 1: I love or songs that mean something.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that love is a very key thing too, I
Speaker 3: mean anything, and not just music. By anything you're trying
Speaker 3: to learn. If you're not super interested in the general topic,
Speaker 3: you won't be able to put in the dedication that
Speaker 3: you need to get there. And when you love it,
Speaker 3: it's a lot more fun and you're willing to suffer,
Speaker 3: quote unquote suffer through some of the downs of practicing.
Speaker 1: Give me your three favorite songs. They can be from anywhere,
Speaker 1: I don't know. If you have a love of classical
Speaker 1: music and you want to do Chopin's Minute Waltz or
Speaker 1: something from the Beatles catalog just top of your head,
Speaker 1: rattle off three songs, or if you can only think
Speaker 1: of one or two, but share with the audience your favorites.
Speaker 3: Oh so that's a that's an impossible task pretty much.
Speaker 3: But so because I mean, I am truly a lover
Speaker 3: of music in general. Like I when I get a
Speaker 3: student who comes in and wants to learn songs that
Speaker 3: aren't what I would generally think of something I listened
Speaker 3: on my own, through the through the process of teaching them,
Speaker 3: I fall in love with it too, because there's the
Speaker 3: relationship with it. So that is I will try and
Speaker 3: absolutely answer that for you. But I want to say
Speaker 3: that that isn't because of that. It's very hard to
Speaker 3: pick three things out. Let me see what well.
Speaker 1: You mentioned A student wanted to learn how to play
Speaker 1: Amazing Grace, and that's a song that has great appeal
Speaker 1: to all types of people. And you think of Amazing
Speaker 1: Grace as something you hear when you walk into a church,
Speaker 1: or the religious aspect of that song. And I don't
Speaker 1: know what that song meant to you other than well,
Speaker 1: student X wants to learn it, so I'll teach it.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So I had never had really any relationship with that song.
Speaker 3: I known about it, of course, but I had no
Speaker 3: personal relationship with that song. But because the student was
Speaker 3: so enamored with it and wanting to learn it, it
Speaker 3: became a song that I gave more importance to and
Speaker 3: have more association with. Because music is more than just that.
Speaker 3: The notes also the memories that can bring up in
Speaker 3: you and all the relationship number. So that's why it's
Speaker 3: so much deeper than just the song itself. It's hard
Speaker 3: to explain the song I like without having the stories
Speaker 3: behind it and why, and it's a deeper conversation.
Speaker 1: Music can be a magic copt right through your memory
Speaker 1: to take you back to the time you first heard
Speaker 1: that song, or back to the details that surround that song,
Speaker 1: because it was playing on the radio when X, Y
Speaker 1: or Z thing happened. And that's the beauty of music.
Speaker 1: It does that. I just a few minutes ago mention
Speaker 1: the Beatles by saying the Beatles. There's so many people
Speaker 1: right now and they cannot help it. They're hearing their
Speaker 1: favorite Beatles song playing in their mind just because I
Speaker 1: mentioned the Beatles. And that's the way music works. When
Speaker 1: you say classical music. I gave the example of the
Speaker 1: minute Waltz by Chopin, and there are people right now
Speaker 1: they hear the piano keys of the minute waltz. That's
Speaker 1: the way music works. And you're part of it, and
Speaker 1: you are. You're like the bus driver on that magic carpet.
Speaker 3: I'll scrive on a magic carpet. I've never been given
Speaker 3: that role before.
Speaker 1: I like, Okay, well you may use that. I have
Speaker 1: no copyright on the words to come out of my mouth.
Speaker 1: But it is a magic corp not not to go
Speaker 1: back to Steppenwolf, but it's a magic carpet ride through
Speaker 1: our memories, the songs, the arrangements. I'll just say one
Speaker 1: name and people listening right now will not be able
Speaker 1: to help. But think of his catalog Sinatra for forty
Speaker 1: years from the thirties into the seventies and eighties. Think
Speaker 1: of the music that man brought forth and working with
Speaker 1: composers like Nelson Riddle, Jobin, etc. He knew how to
Speaker 1: reach us deep in our psyche, deepen our soul, and
Speaker 1: you get to do the same thing.
Speaker 3: Well, it's more I think of it is I'm letting
Speaker 3: people do that for themselves rather than necessarily me doing
Speaker 3: it for them.
Speaker 4: Right, it's everyone.
Speaker 3: Can bring out that magic in themselves, and they just
Speaker 3: need the help of realizing that they can, especially if
Speaker 3: they had bad experiences earlier in their life or something
Speaker 3: like that. But everyone can can bring out a magical
Speaker 3: musical experience in themselves. They just need a little little
Speaker 3: nudge and a little guidance. But everyone can do that
Speaker 3: for themselves. They don't need the Sinatra. You have it
Speaker 3: in you and they.
Speaker 1: And they surprise themselves. Going back to your example about
Speaker 1: the individual who wanted to learn how to play Amazing Grace,
Speaker 1: I'm sure they surprised themselves when they could sit down
Speaker 1: and play that absolutely and the lyrics, you know, amazing great,
Speaker 1: how great, amazing grace? How great thou art that? Save
Speaker 1: the wretch like me? You know, to be able to
Speaker 1: sit down and play that for yourself or play for
Speaker 1: other people is impactful, It really is.
Speaker 3: Really you can see that the change in people sometimes
Speaker 3: when they learn those first few songs. You can just
Speaker 3: see something shipped in their brains about that the way
Speaker 3: they identify themselves. They switch from someone who wants to
Speaker 3: be able to play music to someone who can play music,
Speaker 3: and just that confidence switch. It's incredible to see. It's like,
Speaker 3: it's very fun to see that switch happens, and.
Speaker 1: Those two words going from want to cam and there's
Speaker 1: power there. Let me take my last break of the
Speaker 1: night for this hour. If you want to call in
Speaker 1: and join the conversation Matt, Hannah and I are having
Speaker 1: here on nights Side, please do six one, seven to five, four, ten,
Speaker 1: thirty or eight eight eight, nine to nine, ten thirty.
Speaker 1: This is night Side here in BZ time nine forty
Speaker 1: seven seventy nine degrees.
Speaker 2: Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Speaker 2: night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 1: Amazing grace, how great the sound that saved a wretch
Speaker 1: like me. Rob and I were just talking about some
Speaker 1: people's reaction to being called a wretch. And Matt, I'm
Speaker 1: about to introduce to you, maybe not for the first time,
Speaker 1: a music legend in this part these parts he was on.
Speaker 1: He and his brother armed me earlier in the week.
Speaker 1: So Matt, let me introduce you to Bill Winnaker. Bill,
Speaker 1: let me introduce you to Matt Hannah.
Speaker 4: Well, Matt Hannah, a pleasure to talk to you and
Speaker 4: to hear you. I'm just gonna say one thing you, Morgan,
Speaker 4: and then I'm gonna ask the man a question. Morgan.
Speaker 4: The next time we see you, we're gonna play I
Speaker 4: believe in you.
Speaker 1: Thank you from uh. How to succeed in business that
Speaker 1: really try?
Speaker 4: Yeah, you spoke about it last night on the air.
Speaker 4: I did, and I said to Bow you know, yeah,
Speaker 4: I said the boat we have to revive that tune.
Speaker 4: I've loved that tune. It was written by Frank Lesser.
Speaker 1: Oh, speaking of Sinatrac, a great writer and the key,
Speaker 1: the key of that song. He's singing it to himself
Speaker 1: just just to convince him, yes to just to go
Speaker 1: for greater things. And that's you mean, the greatest love
Speaker 1: song ever in Broadway.
Speaker 4: I love that song so much. We haven't played it
Speaker 4: in many years. We're gonna revive that and play it
Speaker 4: for you. You uh, you know who wrote so Frank
Speaker 4: Lesser wrote that He also wrote baby it's cold outside.
Speaker 1: I really can't say for him. That's right.
Speaker 4: Well, man, it's time to address you now. You know,
Speaker 4: everywhere I go I always ask people what are there
Speaker 4: three or four most favorite songs? After I get to
Speaker 4: know somebody, I asked ask them that because it's really
Speaker 4: helpful because sometimes we don't think of certain songs. So
Speaker 4: I'm picking everybody's brain all the time. So I want
Speaker 4: I want your answer to that. What what would be
Speaker 4: five songs that you love to perform that would help me?
Speaker 3: Well, first of all, A nice to mutube buildings and yeah,
Speaker 3: so I would. So if you're talking about performing songs.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, what would be five favorite songs for you
Speaker 4: to perform.
Speaker 3: So I actually get the most satisfaction athlete from performing
Speaker 3: my own music, not someone I certainly enjoy playing other
Speaker 3: people's music, but there's something I studied composition, and I
Speaker 3: grew up writing. I've written so much music, and for me,
Speaker 3: that's the greatest joy in music for me personally is
Speaker 3: coming up with a song, chiseling it down to what
Speaker 3: it is in over years, fine tuning it, and then
Speaker 3: when I finally get to that point, playing that, knowing
Speaker 3: all the work that I put into it and that
Speaker 3: this is mine. That for me is actually if you
Speaker 3: want the true answer of what's the most satisfying for
Speaker 3: me to perform, it's that it's my own music.
Speaker 4: That's great. Well, what Jondred do you write in? What
Speaker 4: stylish for music?
Speaker 3: So over the years it's shifted, but I say it's
Speaker 3: the classical folk indie blends do instrumental music. So no lyrics, unfortunately,
Speaker 3: Morgan for you to have stuck in your head.
Speaker 1: Okay, Matt, Matt, let me give both Bill and his
Speaker 1: brother Beau a proper introduction to you. They have been
Speaker 1: doing music in the Greater Botson area for over fifty
Speaker 1: sixty years. Their father taught them how to play instruments
Speaker 1: if their father had his own band. They played all
Speaker 1: over New England, all over the country, and Bill and
Speaker 1: Bow Winnaker have played at the White House, They've played
Speaker 1: major venues on the Cape and here in Boston. So
Speaker 1: they are known for treating musical notes properly. And the
Speaker 1: fact that he has called in just because you're here,
Speaker 1: I think that's kind of a tip of the hat
Speaker 1: to you, Matt Hannah for what you do. Would Porchfest wonderful?
Speaker 4: What you did was a wonderful thing. You provided the
Speaker 4: whole you organize so that the whole city of Watercowne.
Speaker 4: Is it a city or a town, it's.
Speaker 3: Officially a thing now yeah.
Speaker 6: Okay, so you provided one hundred and fifty porch is
Speaker 6: filled with music, and music just makes the world go around.
Speaker 4: It makes us all feel good. So you you did it,
Speaker 4: did a wonderful thing. And you got.
Speaker 1: Me remembering songs that I hated to learn way back when.
Speaker 4: I love hearing that story. I didn't know that you
Speaker 4: took piano lessons.
Speaker 1: That was great for one year and I was told
Speaker 1: if I stuck with it every Wednesday night until June,
Speaker 1: the end of school was was June still is, and
Speaker 1: I looked upon that as my finish line. And once
Speaker 1: I made that finish line, my mother and grandmother kept
Speaker 1: their word. Okay, you don't have to do it anymore.
Speaker 1: This Tuesda, this Wednesday would be last week.
Speaker 4: Yippie. It's a shame, though, because nobody loves music of
Speaker 4: any more than you do. You love music.
Speaker 1: I do you know that, I truly do know.
Speaker 6: And I got one more thing, one more thing go okay.
Speaker 6: So the same thing happened to Bo and myself when
Speaker 6: we were three or four years old. My father said,
Speaker 6: you need to learn to play the piano. He wouldn't
Speaker 6: teach us. He got us a private teacher and he
Speaker 6: forced us to take piano lessons. So after one year
Speaker 6: of piano lessons, we both quit and my father was despondent.
Speaker 6: We hated it, and he just thought.
Speaker 4: That we would never ever be musicians. But when the
Speaker 4: school did the demonstrations in the third grade and Bo
Speaker 4: heard the all the he said, I came, he came home.
Speaker 4: He said, I want to play the trumpet, so and
Speaker 4: I said I want to play the drums. And that
Speaker 4: was it. You get forced to do it.
Speaker 1: It doesn't work, but when you see something you love,
Speaker 1: you go towards it. Bill, I only have about forty
Speaker 1: five seconds, so thank you for calling.
Speaker 4: Good night.
Speaker 1: I appreciate and Matt, in the time that I have left,
Speaker 1: tell people how they can find out your schedule for
Speaker 1: porch Fest.
Speaker 3: So Watertown's Porchfest. Dot lerg where you can find out
Speaker 3: about Watertown porch Fest. If you want to find out
Speaker 3: about all the other porch fests again that I don't organize,
Speaker 3: but they're great things going on, check out porchest dot info.
Speaker 3: There's still more coming up this year in the Boston area.
Speaker 3: Check that out and see if there's one near you.
Speaker 1: Matt, thank you very much. I wish you continued success
Speaker 1: and we'll do this again one night.
Speaker 4: Okay, thank you very much.
Speaker 1: You're very welcome. You to enjoy the rest of your weekend.
Speaker 1: And my old buddy Jack Hart, we're gonna get on
Speaker 1: his trolley tour bus in our imaginations and go around
Speaker 1: the city of Boston and find pertinent spots where history
Speaker 1: has happened. Time and temperature nine point fifty eight seventy
Speaker 1: nine degrees