ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, January 23, 1996 TAG: 9601230039
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: NANCY GLEINER STAFF WRITER
The cellist saws his bow across the strings, imitating the rhythmic movement of a rocking chair. The violinist barely refrains from tapping his foot along with the hoedown he's playing. The pianist's fingers hammer the black and white keys as the tension of the music rises.
Speaking in an authentic Southern accent, a storyteller threads into the musical fabric her tale of a blacksmith named Wicked John who tries to outwit the devil.
This is chamber music?
Yes. It's ``Tales of Appalachia,'' composed for the Roanoke College-based Kandinsky Trio. But you can put to rest any images of musicians as stiff as their tuxedos, playing music written by long-dead composers to an audience of matrons and white-haired gentlemen who are afraid to so much as cough while the music goes on.
``Tales of Appalachia'' leaps over the standard boundaries of chamber music to welcome lovers of country music and folk tales. A fiddle tune drifts by. An old spiritual haunts. Physical objects are suggested by the instruments. Like an old-time radio show, ``Tales of Appalachia'' opens the door for the imagination to fill in details.
It was written by Mike Reid, who differs from most chamber music composers in that he is (1) an award-winning country songwriter, (2) a former professional football player and (3) still alive.
It all started with the trio's agent, Mark Baylin of Baylin Artists Management in Pennsylvania.
``I had had the idea of setting new music to a story a while ago,'' he said. ``I wanted to create something that would be a strong vehicle for the trio and be regionally relevant to them.''
Baylin sent Reid a tape of North Carolina storyteller Connie Regan-Blake telling the tale of ``The Cantankerous Blacksmith.'' Reid sat down at his piano, the only instrument he plays, and doodled.
``I was really flying blind,'' he admitted. ``I had no words to sing and musicalize.''
Reid was forced to ``write his ear,'' as his songwriting teacher calls it, rather than write his hands and voice. For the first time, he was writing for instruments he couldn't play.
`` `Tales of Appalachia' is the hardest thing I've ever written,'' Reid said. ``When I was on my way to Roanoke to show the first draft to the trio, I was terrified. I was going to be sitting in a room with some excellent musicians who were going to play music I hadn't heard.
``Then the old football mentality set in and I figured, if it came to it, I could always beat them up.''
It didn't come to that.
``They were so unpretentious, so open, so willing to say, `Here's something to think about. Maybe we could try it this way,''' Reid said. ``We ate chili and drank beer together.''
``Mike had never written for a chamber groups before. He hadn't really explored what virtuoso players could do,'' said Benedict Goodfriend, the trio's violinist. ``We demonstrated some techniques he hadn't thought of and, in the end, he came up with a very difficult piece to play.''
``Having a multimedia piece of art is important,'' Goodfriend continued. ``We're trying to connect with a larger audience than a chamber music audience. Our interest in other forms is what we want to do musically.''
Witness the bluegrass and gypsy tunes that frequent the trio's encores. And a video they've made of a rock 'n' roll song is being viewed by MTV for possible airing.
``Mike's coming not from the usual composer background fascinated us,'' cellist Alan Weinstein said. ``He writes more from inspiration.''
Reid grew up in Altoona, Pa., where he spent a lot of time practicing - football on the field, piano in the living room. He became good at both - really good - and, while playing football at Penn State, majored in music. By the time he graduated, he was an All-American, a first-round NFL draft pick and an accomplished classical pianist.
Success continued to follow him. He was named defensive Rookie of the Year and made the All-Pro team twice.
He also performed with the Cincinnati, Dallas, San Antonio, Texas and Utah symphonies between kickoffs.
It took him only five years to realize he was ``kind of burned-out on football. Those few years really took a toll on my body.''
Reid traded his playbook for manuscript paper and returned to his first love - music. He wanted to try his hand at writing country songs full time.
It took only three years for his risky move to Nashville to pay off. In 1983, Ronnie Milsap's recording of Reid's song, ``Inside,'' rose to the top of the country charts. Later that year, Reid won a Grammy Award for ``Stranger in My House,'' and Milsap won another for his performance of Reid's ``Lost in the Fifties Tonight.''
A string of hits and chartbusters followed at quick tempo. Reid never looked back at the goal posts.
``Football was something I passed through on the way to growing up,'' he said. ``I watch it now occasionally, but it's really a turnoff.''
He's written more songs than he can count -``hundreds, definitely. I suppose I should keep track'' - and for some of the biggest names in music: Willie Nelson, Alabama, Barbara Mandrell, Glen Campbell, Tammy Wynette, The Judds, Kenny Rogers, Anita Baker and his idol, Bonnie Raitt.
Raitt's recording of ``I Can't Make You Love Me'' earned Reid his second Grammy.
When ``Tales of Appalachia'' came along he was ready for something more - as long as it was in music. ``There are universes to go through in music,'' he said.
With the Kandinsky Trio's proximity to the Appalachian Trail, the strong regional art form of storytelling and an experienced composer living in the South and looking for new horizons, Reid and the group were a natural match. The piece was commissioned for the Kandinsky Trio by nine arts organizations up and down the namesake mountain range.
``Tales of Appalachia'' premiered to a sold-out audience of 1,000 at Penn State in October. Matrons mixed with coeds, music fans with football fans. Laughter was heard, not at the work but in response to it.
The trio, which includes pianist Elizabeth Bachelder in addition to Goodfriend and Weinstein, drew larger-than-normal crowds during its northern tour with ``Tales of Appalachia'' on the program. The composition will have its Virginia premiere Saturday at Roanoke College, with Regan-Blake telling the story and Reid in the audience. (A rehearsal at 11:30 a.m. in Olin Hall is free.) The trio will take the composition south later this year. Next year, the piece will be taken on tours to the upper Midwest and back to New England.
``It would be nice if people leave the hall and say, `I didn't realize chamber music could be this,''' Reid said.
The Virginia premiere of ``Tales of Appalachia'' will be held in Roanoke College's Olin Theater on Saturday at 8 p.m. Tickets available through the box office, 375-2333, and at the door.
LENGTH: Long : 132 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. Former NFL defensive player Mike Reid doesn't haveby CNBthe usual composer background. 2. STEPHANIE KLEIN-DAVIS/Staff. The
Kandinsky Trio, shown in a setting that reflects the themes and
informality of ``Tales of Appalachia,'' will perform the piece
Saturday at Roanoke College. The Trio comprises
violinist Benedict Goodfriend, pianist Elizabeth Bachelder and
cellist Alan
Weinstein. color.