https://markpearsonmusic.com/podcast/video en-us ©2011 Mark Pearson Music Songs by the Campfire Mark Pearson Music Welcome to the Weekly Song Videos of One of Those Times in a Life where Mark Pearson offers music written and performed over an ongoing career of more than forty years, songs to be enjoyed individually, seen as part of a larger yearlong concert, or appreciated as the soundtrack to of a life. Join the journey at the MarkPearsonMusic.com website and become part of the conversation at the Mark Pearson Music Facebook Page. Welcome to the Weekly Song Videos of One of Those Times in a Life where Mark Pearson offers music written and performed over an ongoing career of more than forty years, songs to be enjoyed individually, seen as part of a larger yearlong concert, or appreciated as the soundtrack to of a life. Join the journey at the MarkPearsonMusic.com website and become part of the conversation at the Mark Pearson Music Facebook Page. clean Mark Pearson Music contact@markpearsonmusic.com Mark Pearson There You Were By the time you read this, we will have celebrated lighting the 49th and final campfire of this particular journey, this Pilgrimage, with a concert and the release of an album of fifteen new songs. I am filled with gratitude, thankful to discover I had the grit, and thankful for the grace given and received. I look forward to the next adventure(s), but not before taking some time to truly appreciate this one.Thank you to all those who have shared the journey and have helped make it possible. http://d21h0hzv529weo.cloudfront.net/video/49-Campfire49-ThereYouWere.mp4 Sat, 13 May 2017 19:30:00 -0700 03:07 Mark Pearson There Up on That Mountain As I reach this moment in the journey I am reminded again how long life takes and the fact that it is over in an instant. I am surprised that the last three stages of life turned out to each be ten year long. It was certainly not planned that way. While I’m too close to it to judge the quality of it, telling my story around forty-nine campfires has certainly been the most important and satisfying work that I have ever done. http://d21h0hzv529weo.cloudfront.net/video/48-Campfire48-ThereUponThatMountain.mp4 Thu, 11 May 2017 19:30:00 -0700 04:16 Mark Pearson Arrive Where We Started There were a lot of significant benchmarks in the summer and fall of 2015. There was my 50th high school reunion and 50 years of friendship and musical partnership with Mike McCoy. My older brother celebrated his 70th birthday and my younger brother retired. Those moments combined with others involving lifelong connections or friendships made me realize that, in my own way, I was arriving where I started and able to see things with new eyes and as if for the first time.  http://d21h0hzv529weo.cloudfront.net/video/47-Campfire47-ArriveWhereWeStarted.mp4 Tue, 09 May 2017 19:30:00 -0700 04:28 Mark Pearson Love Abides As the pace of lighting these campfires increases—and the goal of lighting the “last campfire” on May 13th approaches--I realize what a luxury it has been to meander slowly through the memories and discoveries of a lifetime.At this campfire I talk about becoming part of a Civil Rights Pilgrimage in the fall of 2014. Preparing for those nine days on the bus awakened countless memories and connected me in new ways to who I had been and what I had thought and believed in 1968 and 1969. Looking back I realized how much faith I had in March of 1968. When I turned twenty-one that first day of spring I believed that Robert Kennedy would become the President, that Martin Luther King, Jr. would live long and eloquently. The recently released Kerner Report, looking at the Detroit riots of a year earlier, offered a road map to racial reconciliation. I also believed that the Viet Nam War would soon be over. I mean, even Presidential candidate, Richard Nixon, tapped his coat pocket and talked of a secret plan for peace. Twelve months later so much had changed. I also learned during that time that my father had been in a mental institution when I was born and much of what I believed was suddenly in doubt.To be able to see that time from this place is enlightening for me both from a perspective of where I was and we were then as well as shining a different light on where we are now.Understanding what it means to be part of a larger Pilgrimage has also helped transformed my personal journey into a Pilgrimage. That realization fills me with gratitude.  http://d21h0hzv529weo.cloudfront.net/video/46-Campfire46-LoveAbides.mp4 Sun, 07 May 2017 19:30:00 -0700 04:31 Mark Pearson Journey of Gratitude and Grace When I started this journey of Gratitude, Grit, and Grace I thought it would be mostly one of awakening and recording memories. I continue to be surprised—pleasantly for the most part--at how much of it is about discovering and discoveries. By shining light into dark corners I am seeing things differently or for the first time. By opening long doors long shut I am able to make connections and see pathways. All of it has proven harder and more satisfying that I could have ever imagined. http://d21h0hzv529weo.cloudfront.net/video/45-Campfire45-JourneyofGratitudeandGrace.mp4 Sat, 06 May 2017 08:46:04 -0700 02:57 Mark Pearson The Stories and Songs of Our Lives A few things became clear as I got ready to share my songs and stories in a series of virtual campfires. I would need a team of people to help me. It was going to take a lot longer than I first imagined. What I thought was going to be simply a journey of memory quickly became one of discovery as well. I also quickly realized that the exploration allowed for and demanded that I open “doors” long shut and often locked. To do that was more difficult and more satisfying than I could have ever imagined. http://d21h0hzv529weo.cloudfront.net/video/44-Campfire44-StoriesandSongsofOurLives.mp4 Wed, 03 May 2017 22:26:12 -0700 03:35 Mark Pearson How Can Someone Love Me? In the summer of 2007 I began what became the 7th and final stage of my personal and professional journey, “One of Those Times in a Life.” I realized I had finally faced long hidden fears in a way that I was able to live with them instead of in them. One of the ways the change appeared to show itself was in my songwriting. A process that was often anxiety producing more and more became something that brought feelings of joy and a sense of fulfillment.Due to a combination of choice and chance and circumstance in the fall of 2010 I had new albums that represented all of my professional careers: songwriter, solo artist, member of The Brothers Four, and with Mike McCoy. Looking and listening to those recordings I realized I had arrived at a new appreciation for each of them. I had also spent a season writing about my family’s history. The time had arrived to take a lifetime of stories and try to tell the story of a lifetime. http://d21h0hzv529weo.cloudfront.net/video/43-Campfire43-Howcansomeoneloveme.mp4 Mon, 01 May 2017 19:59:45 -0700 02:49 Mark Pearson My Dad’s Last Gift It has been a while since we lit the 41st campfire. In the interim I have written a number of new songs and recorded a 15 song CD. I am also getting ready for a concert to celebrate the release of the new album and the lighting of the 49th and final Campfire on this amazing journey, One of Those Times in a Life.I had promised myself when I began this journey more than six years ago I would only work to living lines and no longer work to deadlines. Setting the concert date of May 13th months in advance has changed things a bit. The remaining eight Campfires will not have an oral Chronicle but a written one. My plan is to return in time to these Campfires and add a spoken Chronicle to what we are sharing now. http://d21h0hzv529weo.cloudfront.net/video/42-Campfire42-MyFathersLastGift.mp4 Tue, 25 Apr 2017 09:03:43 -0700 03:49 Mark Pearson The Road To Going Home In the summer of 2004 I released a solo CD called “The Missing Peace.” At the same time my lifelong friend, Mike McCoy, joined me in The Brothers Four and during the 2004-2005 concert season The Brothers Four did a series of performances in the US with The Kingston Trio and Glenn Yarbrough and his group. In 2006 McCoy and I released a 25th anniversary edition of “Between Friends.” The 41st Campfire talks about how those events put me on The Road To Going Home.  http://d21h0hzv529weo.cloudfront.net/video/41-Campfire41-TheRoadtoGoingHome.mp4 Mon, 31 Oct 2016 20:11:05 -0700 02:45 Mark Pearson The Road That Leads Us Home The 40th campfire talks about the spring of 2004. That season I successfully completed the vocals for my most ambitious solo album, there were significant personnel changes within The Brothers Four, and I had a life altering moment with my older brother. Together those experiences propelled me on “The Road That Leads Us Home.” http://d21h0hzv529weo.cloudfront.net/video/40-Campfire40-TheRoadThatLeadsUsHome.mp4 Thu, 15 Sep 2016 09:55:49 -0700 09:39 Mark Pearson Finding My Way Home In the 38th Campfire the long held and deep-seated fears that resided so long in my unconscious were found and freed and soon running wild. In this, the 39th Campfire, those fears begin to be given names and faces and in the naming and facing them I am able to begin claiming them.  http://d21h0hzv529weo.cloudfront.net/video/39-Campfire39-FindingMyWayHome.mp4 Sun, 07 Aug 2016 19:38:13 -0700 03:03 Mark Pearson What I Was Most Afraid Of It has been a while since we have lit a campfire…this 38th campfire talks about events in 2001. In the spring of that year I shared a book I created with a few family and friends. The manuscript contained my journey for “authenticity, belonging, and confidence” or, put another way, “a search for truth, home, and to find myself.” Somehow putting that quest into words freed a number of fears that were unconsciously lodged inside of me. This campfire ends with The Brothers Four in Japan the week after 9/11 with both the country and me wondering what all may await. http://d21h0hzv529weo.cloudfront.net/video/38-Campfire38-WhatIwasMostafraidof.mp4 Sat, 25 Jun 2016 09:45:06 -0700 03:40 Mark Pearson Leap of Faith Between September of 1998 and October of 2000 The Brothers Four performed more than 150 times in the US and in Japan. It was the only time the group ever traveled around America by tour bus. It still amazes me the group is going strong after 55 years. Some years the phone rings more often than others. Those years were one of those times.A correction: The performance at NHK Hall was attended by 3000 people not 300.   http://d21h0hzv529weo.cloudfront.net/video/37-Campfire37-LeapofFaith.mp4 Wed, 03 Jun 2015 17:11:15 -0700 02:52 Mark Pearson Season of the Heart My father died on May 28, 1997, the day before my mother’s 75th birthday. It was heartbreakingly unexpected. A month or so after he died I made a decision to make him the focus of my work for one year. At the end of the year I had created a musical memoir entitled Season of the Heart that explored the spring of 1997. A year to the day after he died I performed the 40 new songs for the first time in my mother’s living room in front of a lifetime of friends. The next week I performed the memoir four different days in Seattle at the Richard Hugo House. When it was over I knew it was time to move on. It was what my father would have wanted. http://d21h0hzv529weo.cloudfront.net/video/36-Campfire36-SeasonoftheHeart.mp4 Sun, 08 Mar 2015 12:39:43 -0700 04:11 Mark Pearson One Love and Two Lives At a concert in Seattle on March 22, 1997 every singing group I had ever been a part of beginning with one in high school appeared on stage together. A week later in a concert in Spokane I was the opening act as well as one of The Brothers Four. Looking back those two events felt like one concert with a week long intermission. It has been something to remember them and write about them and to realize again how important they were. http://d21h0hzv529weo.cloudfront.net/video/35-Campfire35-OneLoveTwoLives.mp4 Wed, 28 Jan 2015 17:22:52 -0700 02:28 Mark Pearson Mike McCoy - In His Own Words In September of 1995 McCoy and I celebrated 30 years of friendship. For his birthday that month I gave him a songbook containing 52 original songs that we had sung through the years. At the time I saw that book and those songs as a culmination. Little did I know that our journey together was only beginning. http://d21h0hzv529weo.cloudfront.net/video/34-Campfire34-mikemccoy_hisownwords.mp4 Fri, 21 Nov 2014 18:15:44 -0700 16:40 Mark Pearson Let Love Go Forward 1995 was a year of writing songs for friends and family as well as for sale. I wrote songs for Pat’s and my wedding, Lindsey’s graduation, and for a concert celebrating 30 years of music and friendship with Mike McCoy. Of all the songs I wrote that year Let Love Go Forward, a song written for my wedding, is likely the most significant. It ends most campfire concerts. http://d21h0hzv529weo.cloudfront.net/video/33-Campfire33_Let_Love_Go _Forward.mp4 Mon, 13 Oct 2014 21:16:32 -0700 04:07 Mark Pearson On A New Day Beginning in March of 1994 there were a dozen moments or events that continued to remind me how close life is to death and how near love is to loss. While those experiences gave me pause and stopped me in my tracks they did not stop me from embracing life and celebrating love. http://d21h0hzv529weo.cloudfront.net/video/32-Campfire32-OnANewDay.mp4 Tue, 26 Aug 2014 09:11:49 -0700 03:58 Mark Pearson With Me Wherever I Go My cousin Jane died twenty years ago a few months before her 41st birthday. This Campfire describes the time from her diagnosis-November of 1992-until her death in March of 1994. As I re-remembered that time there was much I had forgotten while some of it remained as clear and close as yesterday. Making that time a part of One of Those Times in a Life gives it added perspective. http://d21h0hzv529weo.cloudfront.net/video/31-Campfire31-WithMeWhereverIGo.mp4 Wed, 16 Jul 2014 08:31:24 -0700 02:42 Mark Pearson You Are the One The early 90’s brought significant changes in my life and career. I became an instant family man. The Brothers Four committed to performing more including frequent tours of Japan and regular tours around the US. It also was a time when I worked as a freelance verse writer for American Greetings as well as continuing my quest to “make it” as a songwriter. http://d21h0hzv529weo.cloudfront.net/video/30-Campfire30-YouAretheOne.mp4 Fri, 11 Apr 2014 17:51:03 -0700 02:54 Mark Pearson I Follow the Light As I began to write about The Brothers Four’s connection to Japan and the Japanese people it all became more amazing. I realize that I have gone to Japan to perform for 45 years and the group has been going for more than 52 years. It is a connection that defies explanation and continues to fill me with gratitude. We will be returning again in May and June doing 20 shows and releasing a new album. http://d21h0hzv529weo.cloudfront.net/video/29-Campfire29-IFollowTheLight.mp4 Tue, 18 Feb 2014 17:12:36 -0700 03:19 Mark Pearson Singing Our Way One of Those Times in a Life is a continuing journey of Gratitude and Grace as well as Memory and Discovery. It had been years since I thought about and remembered a solo concert I did in the fall of 1987. It was only in remembering it all those years later that it became clear how important it was to everything that followed. http://d21h0hzv529weo.cloudfront.net/video/28-Campfire28-OneLessBeliever.mp4 Mon, 06 Jan 2014 12:41:00 -0700 04:07 Mark Pearson Part of the River Not long ago I was talking with a friend and told her that One of Those Times in a Life was sort of a Thank you and I’m sorry Tour. That is a humorous way of saying that it is a Journey of Gratitude and Grace. It has been a chance to get in touch with people some of whom I haven’t talked with in years and to thank them for being in or having been in my life. Where it was appropriate the reconnecting also gave or gives me a chance to apologize for something I did or that happened.Yes, I am grateful for a chance to express both regret and gratitude to those who have joined me in this journey.  http://d21h0hzv529weo.cloudfront.net/video/27-Campfire27-PartOfTheRiver.mp4 Mon, 04 Nov 2013 15:04:32 -0700 04:11 Mark Pearson Since First We Said Goodbye There have been a few times in a lifetime where I have suffered a crisis of faith. The summer of 1983 was one such time. In the year that followed I found out that it was still worth loving even when it meant losing…an important lesson. I continue to be grateful to those who were there when I needed them most. http://d21h0hzv529weo.cloudfront.net/video/26-Campfire26-SinceWeFirstSaidGoodbye.mp4 Tue, 08 Oct 2013 08:44:44 -0700 03:53 Mark Pearson Dear Partner Part 2 When I was in grade school I remember someone coming up and asking, “Did you hear about the guy who swam across the ocean got half way across and realized he couldn’t make it so he turned around and went back.” Well, it’s too late to turn around now. With this Chronicle the rest of One of Those Times in a Life becomes a journey home. Quite an adventure.   http://d21h0hzv529weo.cloudfront.net/video/25-Campfire25b-DearPartner-Part2.mp4 Thu, 12 Sep 2013 13:11:23 -0700 04:07 Mark Pearson Dear Partner Of all the Chronicles this may have been the most challenging. That is part of why it took so long to finish. I have also spent time in these last few months doing Campfire Concerts. It’s been great to do more live performances. The Mission Statement for all aspects of One of Those Times in a Life remains unchanged: To inspire others to share their stories around the campfires of their own lives.One of the goals of these Campfires is to discover what is universal in my personal experiences.This Campfire is the halfway point in the journey. The Chronicle will be published in two parts. Part One is the end of a journey outward. Part Two is the beginning of the journey home. http://d21h0hzv529weo.cloudfront.net/video/25-Campfire25-DearPartner.mp4 Mon, 19 Aug 2013 09:48:00 -0700 04:07 Mark Pearson Greyhound One of the bigger challenges of sharing a life and the stories that make up that life is finding ways to tell my story and stories while trying not to tell the stories or intrude on the privacy of people I love. For a hundred years my family had a “secret” connection with illnesses of the mind. Through the years people I love found many different ways of dealing and living with that often unspoken relationship. For me there is cleansing and healing that comes in spinning the threads of my relationship with mind illnesses into yarns and weaving those yarns into a larger tapestry. I do that forever mindful that is not true for everyone. http://d21h0hzv529weo.cloudfront.net/video/24-Campfire24-Greyhound.mp4 Fri, 31 May 2013 15:53:13 -0700 04:59 Mark Pearson Magic Carpet It is a gift to relive a significant moment that took place long ago and to see it and feel it again with the perspective of time and space. It is challenging to build a bridge of words across the years and try to connect who I was then with who I am now.It would certainly have been “easier” if my dad’s visit had not been the day I was going into the studio. And yet…and yet…each experience is important and even precious (defining that word differently in each case.) That together they became part of some larger experience continues to resonate and shimmer and shine brighter through the years.  http://d21h0hzv529weo.cloudfront.net/video/23-Campfire23-BetweenFriends.mp4 Fri, 17 May 2013 12:21:16 -0700 03:28 Mark Pearson Mad Man on a High Wire Mike McCoy and I have been friends and have sung together for nearly 50 years now. Nine years ago he joined me in The Brothers Four. Between the fall of 1979 and 1987 my musical career (except for The Brothers Four) was tied to McCoy. It is what I am calling the Fourth Stage in this amazing seven-stage journey.One of the things that makes our relationship so vital is our best shared experience might be the one we are about to have and the best performance the next one. Our personal relationship is a special one…our professional partnership the same. Together they are a most amazing adventure. http://d21h0hzv529weo.cloudfront.net/video/22-Campfire22-MadManonaHighWire.mp4 Thu, 25 Apr 2013 14:26:00 -0700 03:49 Mark Pearson The Winners and The Losers One of Those Times in a Life has been a chance for me to learn or become aware of so many things. As I built the last campfire I learned (on a deeper more profound level) that so much of my journey is finding my way home. Building this campfire I realized how deep my gratitude is for the people and experiences who have shared the journey and helped me along the way. http://d21h0hzv529weo.cloudfront.net/video/21-Campfire21-TheWinnersandTheLosers.mp4 Fri, 22 Mar 2013 10:00:00 -0700 04:33 Mark Pearson I Tried Not Falling In Love Creating this campfire I realized on some significant level that One of Those Times in a Life is about finding my way home. It has been the journey of a lifetime. I am filled with gratitude for a chance to be able to make such a journey. http://d21h0hzv529weo.cloudfront.net/video/20-Campfire20-Itriednotfallinginlove.mp4 Wed, 06 Mar 2013 10:55:09 -0700 02:44 Mark Pearson When I Grow Up I'll Be An Old Man This Chronicle is dedicated to my teammates. It is something to think of them and those times and to weave our shared experiences into a larger life’s tapestry all these years later.This Chronicle mentions games the University of Washington played against the University of Oregon and Washington State. As a point of clarification I want to make sure everyone knows these were games played between freshmen teams.  http://d21h0hzv529weo.cloudfront.net/video/19-Campfire19-OldMan.mp4 Thu, 13 Dec 2012 14:55:14 -0700 02:43 Mark Pearson Some Dreams As usual this chronicle took longer than I thought it would. It is also more satisfying than I could have imagined. A few days ago I realized that each of these Chronicles is like having a conversation with myself from an earlier time. During the first year I went to Nashville I was 28 years old. Also it has been an amazing way to remember things long forgotten or rediscover things I did not even remember losing. http://d21h0hzv529weo.cloudfront.net/video/18-Campfire18-SomeDreams.mp4 Sun, 18 Nov 2012 18:50:12 -0700 03:47 Mark Pearson Songman It is an amazing adventure to journey around a life and a career, to find the contour of collected memories. It makes a difference that I am still writing songs, recording, performing and growing as a person in the midst of all this looking back. http://d21h0hzv529weo.cloudfront.net/video/17-Campfire 17-Songman.mp4 Tue, 23 Oct 2012 12:55:51 -0700 03:31 Mark Pearson Bridge Over Troubled Water This has been a hard Chronicle to create. I realize more than ever how important songwriting is and has been to this journey of a lifetime, how much it has added and continues to add to my life and to each strand of my career. I am filled with gratitude for a chance to spend a lifetime learning the craft of songwriting.  http://d21h0hzv529weo.cloudfront.net/video/16-Campfire16-BridgeOverTroubledWater.mp4 Fri, 14 Sep 2012 08:23:29 -0700 04:31 Mark Pearson Can't Help But Wonder Where I'm Bound Each of the seven stages is essential to the journey all are important chapters in the story. It took longer than I thought to find the heartbeat of this, the third stage to rediscover the wonder, the tears, the laughter, the joy of that time now long ago. http://d21h0hzv529weo.cloudfront.net/video/15-Campfire15-CantHelpButWonder.mp4 Fri, 10 Aug 2012 10:32:39 -0700 03:38 Mark Pearson Try to Remember Sometime in the preparation of each Chronicle I am reminded of The Old Man in the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. In that story the old man went out further and fished deeper waters than he had ever done before. Even after he had hooked his mighty fish there was doubt about who would give out or up first. In the old man’s case sharks destroyed the incredible fish before he could get back with it to his village. The first 14 Chronicles have made it made it safely home. In another day or two I will set out to sea, or more accurately, to see again. Discovering each Chronicle an adventure connected to a greater one. Thank you for sharing the journey. http://d21h0hzv529weo.cloudfront.net/video/14-Campfire14-TryToRemember.mp4 Thu, 19 Jul 2012 08:53:16 -0700 05:42 Mark Pearson Scarlet Ribbons There are artists who played roles in the Folk Revival who had significant careers beyond folk music. John Phillips founded The Mamas and Papas after The Journeymen disbanded. Roger McGuinn left The Chad Mitchell Trio to help form The Byrds. Kenny Rogers had a stint with The New Christy Minstrels before becoming, well, Kenny Rogers. John Stewart, who replaced Dave Guard in The Kingston Trio, is remembered both as a solo artist and a songwriter, his most successful song being Daydream Believer. John Denver replaced Chad Mitchell in The Chad Mitchell Trio before going on to historic success as a singer and as a songwriter.As I continue to share my journey and to spin the strands of my career into yarns it is somehow comforting to know that it is part of a larger tapestry. http://d21h0hzv529weo.cloudfront.net/video/13-Campfire13-ScarletRibbons.mp4 Mon, 02 Jul 2012 11:36:04 -0700 03:13 Mark Pearson Heart of the Heartland It breaks my heart to think of the amount of weapons our country continues to export to the rest of the world. It is also heartbreaking to think of how much the song When Johnny Comes Marchin’ Home continues to resonate.To watch and download the HD version of this Campfire please go to my YouTube Channel. http://d21h0hzv529weo.cloudfront.net/video/12-campfire12-BrothersFourHeartoftheHeartland.mp4 Tue, 19 Jun 2012 08:18:42 -0700 06:37 Mark Pearson Turn Around It is something to be remembering those first trips to Japan while creating new memories on my 30th trip to Japan. It is one of the great gifts of my life to grow up and now grow old with Japan remaining a big and important part of my life and career. http://d21h0hzv529weo.cloudfront.net/video/11-Campfire11-TurnAround.mp4 Mon, 04 Jun 2012 00:00:00 -0700 03:12 Mark Pearson Green Leaves of Summer It is something to be able to finally tell my whole story. I was quite emotional when I was working on this Chronicle. There are so many things involved in changing the course of a lifetime. I talked to my mom and my brothers about what I am doing. They are each supportive. It means a lot. It also means that I want to be respectful of who and where they are with their lives and stories and journeys as I do this.It is important that people know how much I love my dad, how proud I am of who he was and what he did. That means being honest with myself as I tell this story and know as fully as I can why it is so important to share it. What a journey!  http://d21h0hzv529weo.cloudfront.net/video/10-campfire10-GreenLeavesofSummer.mp4 Mon, 21 May 2012 10:27:10 -0700 03:59 Mark Pearson This Land Is Your Land One of Those Times in a Life is truly underway. I shared the journey with a live audience last week. The Trail Map will soon be ready to share. While there is still so much to do it feels like things are beginning to slow down a little. At the same time The Brothers Four are getting ready to leave for Japan in three weeks for a month of performing. I remain grateful for the great team of people who help make all this possible. http://d21h0hzv529weo.cloudfront.net/video/9-chapter9-ThisLandIsYourLand.mp4 Mon, 30 Apr 2012 13:25:41 -0700 04:03 Mark Pearson Green Fields It is fun to begin the next stage of this journey. The Brothers Four videos were recorded recently in the Wheeler Theater at Fort Worden near Port Townsend. I don’t think we have ever sat around and simply sung while the cameras rolled. The videos should be a nice combination with the Campfire Chronicles talking of my first years as one of The Brothers Four.The team of people who are working on this project were all at the house for dinner. It is the first time we have been in one place. It was truly a night of gratitude. http://d21h0hzv529weo.cloudfront.net/video/8-chaptereight_greenfields.mp4 Thu, 29 Mar 2012 10:20:38 -0700 05:07 Mark Pearson Mountain Prayer It continues to surprise me how long it takes to create a context while breathing life into the content of this project and journey. I never assumed it would be easy, but I didn’t appreciate how complicated and difficult it would be at times. Part of that is continuing to imagine and see the bigger picture while simultaneously organizing and giving life to the smallest of details. Another thing is having a clear vision of where all this is going while at the same time being open and prepared for surprises and detours along the way.It has been important to put together a team of people who have talents and expertise that help make this possible. They are good people doing good work.There is a part of me that has always been a little anxious and eager to please. While I need to remember and respect those parts of myself it has been important to find ways and reasons to relax in all of this and to be satisfied with both the process and the product no matter what anyone else might say. http://d21h0hzv529weo.cloudfront.net/video/7-chapter7-mountainprayer.mp4 Mon, 27 Feb 2012 12:44:59 -0700 03:43 Mark Pearson All the Stages of My Life Much of the recent cultural conversation appears to reinforce the notion that we are all in this alone. The social contract we began writing in the 1930’s that includes things like Social Security, the GI Bill, the Interstate Highway System, the Voting Rights Act, and Medicare, is now often described as too expensive, unnecessary, or an intrusion on our individual liberty. While this is not the place to talk about how we might choose to reweave fabric of a society, I will say that I am one of those who believes whether we like it or not that we are all in this together, there must be a greater good we continue to define and refine, and there is something incredibly satisfying when we, when I, am part of something bigger than myself.With that as an introduction in Episode Six I would like to tell you a little bit more about Mike McCoy and the role he played in my life and career. http://d21h0hzv529weo.cloudfront.net/video/6-chaptersix-AllTheStagesofMyLife-sd.mp4 Thu, 26 Jan 2012 10:07:07 -0700 02:47 Mark Pearson When I Was Young and This Old Guitar Was New A Moment to ReflectLately it seems that while life may take a long time that it is over much too soon. It is hard to believe that I’ve been singing with Mike McCoy for more than forty-six years and it’s been forty-three years since I started singing with The Brothers Four. One of the things that make this One of Those Times in a Life is that making music and sharing the journey with McCoy and The Brothers Four is more satisfying than ever and while it still feels like the best days might still be in front of us I am also aware of how precious each day and performance is.The video in Episode Five is called When I Was Young and This Old Guitar Was New. It talks about the many things I didn’t know when this all began as well as a sense of wonder and love I feel at this point in the journey. The audio essay is called The Mourning Ryde. That’s the name of the group McCoy and I were part of in college. The story in the essay talks mostly about the group’s brief brush with fame and fortune. http://d21h0hzv529weo.cloudfront.net/video/5-chapterfive-whenIwasyoungsd.m4v Wed, 04 Jan 2012 17:18:59 -0700 03:45 Mark Pearson 1968 From the British Invasion to the 1967 Monterey Pops FestivalIn 1963 it was cool to call yourself a folk singer. By the time I turned seventeen in March of 1964 The Beatles had appeared and folk music quickly lost its cool and commercial appeal. Roger McGuinn known as Jim McGuinn during his folk days as the accompanist for The Chad Mitchell Trio formed The Byrds that same year. By the summer of 1965 Dylan plugged in at the Newport Folk Festival and one-time folkies were soon experimenting with other sounds and genres. Producer Tom Wilson added electric guitar, bass, and drums to the folk version of The Sounds of Silence and Simon and Garfunkel soared. One time New Christie Minstrel Barry McGuire had a smash pop hit called Eve of Destruction.By 1967 another New Christie Minstrel alum Kenny Rogers was finding success as the bearded face of The First Edition before going on to super stardom in country music. That same year long time folkie and Journeyman John Phillips found his greatest fame as Papa John in the Mamas and Papas. That summer Phillips helped organize the Monterey Pops Festival, the first heavily attended rock festival. Besides the Mamas and Papas other performers included The Jefferson Airplane, The Who, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Otis Redding, Laura Nyro, Steve Miller, and Ravi Shankar.Before the year was out The Kingston Trio had made their farewell tour. As rock music began building toward Woodstock in the summer of 1969 folk music had for all practical purposes left the building. http://d21h0hzv529weo.cloudfront.net/video/4-chapterfour-1968-sd-nointro.m4v Wed, 28 Dec 2011 11:03:49 -0700 03:54 Mark Pearson The Missing Peace A Page Filled with Gratitude… One of the best parts of the last year has been having a chance to work with an amazing group of talented people while getting ready to share this journey of songs and stories. Here are some of the people who are invaluable to the process and the journey: Al Bergstein - Mountainstone Productions Al creates the videos for One of Those Times in a Life. He brings a wonderful artistic and technical sensibility, understanding in life and work that craft is important and art is essential. Jonathan Henson - Oxbow Rising Jonathan’s official title is Web & Systems Developer. Along with his partners, Michael Hayes and Alexa Voyer, they are the ones who create a welcoming and comfortable place for everyone to join in the journey. Renne Emiko Brock-Richmond – uniqueasyou.com Renne describes her work this way: “…Encouraging connections and creating community through supportive hands-on instruction with inspired results.” I couldn’t have said it better myself. Patti Miles Van Beuzekom - The Paradise Theatre School Patti is the artistic director for and co-producer of the audio essays. She brings a guiding hand and a loving heart to whatever she does and makes everything and everyone around her more and better. George Rezendes - Tool Shed Sound Lab George records the audio for all the videos as well as the audio essays. As someone who is important to both the concert and story aspects of the journey I have to trust him completely. I do. Anna Quinn - The Writers' Workshoppe Anna is a keeper of the faith. She has a love of language and an understanding of all it can both conceal and reveal. Kathleen Purdy - Kathleen.purdy@wsbdc.org Small Business Development Center at WSU Kathleen freely shares time and information regarding setting up and sustaining a small business. Her insistence that I “cross my t’s and dot my i’s” continues to help and challenge me.This is an extremely talented group of people. With the exception of Jonathan’s partners we all live or work on the Olympic Peninsula. Sharing this journey with them helps make this One of Those Times in a Life. Blessings to everyone at this special time of the year. http://d21h0hzv529weo.cloudfront.net/video/3-chapterthree-missing-peace-sd.m4v Wed, 21 Dec 2011 14:21:00 -0700 05:03 Mark Pearson Let Love Go Forward The Seven Stages of a JourneyThis forty-nine week journey is divided into seven stages of seven weeks each. The first seven weeks we will be spending time at the “base camp” telling stories and singing songs. It is also a chance to see how everything is working before we “set out.”The second stage begins the journey. This stage chronicles the years from 1969 to 1971 when I was first with The Brothers Four with lots of music and stories from that time.The third stage includes the year from 1971 to 1979. These were years of developing a personal style as a songwriter and solo performer. At the end of this time I simply ran out of ideas and energy and imagination of what a musical career might look. This stage ends and the next one begins with The Brothers Four asking me to be part of an extended Japanese tour in the summer of 1979.Stage four is made up of the years between 1979 to1987. It was a time when performing mostly meant with Mike McCoy and beginning in 1985 as one of The Brothers Four. These were productive times for McCoy and me. Still by 1987 it was hard to figure out where we were going with our career and important for me to get back on stage as a solo performer.The fifth stage begins in 1987. These were productive years for The Brothers Four including many tours of Japan and the Orient. McCoy was going through a hard time in November of 1995, and when he opened himself up to me our friendship changed in so many good ways. We talked every day for 500 days. A concert in Spokane in 1997 was the only time I ever opened for The Brothers Four. McCoy was a guest artist. It was Easter weekend. It was the last time I saw my dad healthy. This stage ends at my dad’s memorial service with McCoy sitting next to me in the family section.Stage six were the ten years after my dad died. I spent a year writing a musical memoir honoring my dad that I performed at the Richard Hugo House in Seattle as well as my mother’s home in Spokane. The Brother Four continued to travel lots including a number of trips to Japan. McCoy joined the group in 2004. That fall The Brothers Four spent a season of touring with The Kingston Trio and Glenn Yarbrough and his group that included original Brothers Four member, Dick Foley. This stage ended with a career retrospective at Benaroya Hall in Seattle.The final stage includes lots of small changes as a songwriter and performer. The changes resulted in a new solo album as well as one with McCoy where nearly 30 years after recording Between Friends we brought in the same musicians in the same space with the same engineer and producer and recorded a follow-up titled appropriately Between Old Friends. This last stage will end a year from now when the songs are sung and the stories are told. I am curious to find out what that’s going to look like. Thank you for being part of the journey. http://d21h0hzv529weo.cloudfront.net/video/chaptertwo-letlovegoforward.mp4 Tue, 13 Dec 2011 12:16:57 -0700 04:39 Mark Pearson One of Those Times in a Life Welcome to the first of 49 weekly episodes to be posted on my website, MarkPearsonMusic.com, as a way of sharing my life and career in songs and stories. Each episode will offer a different song video that can be looked at individually or seen as part of a larger yearlong concert while every new weekly audio essay can be enjoyed independently or heard together as part of a chronological journey through a lifetime of music.It is my hope that these songs and stories will give light and life to yours and other’s imaginations and memories and become part of a larger conversation on the Mark Pearson Music Facebook Page and YouTube Channel.You can sign up to receive the videos and audios as free Podcasts as well as a regular muse letter I am calling Musings, Music, and More that will keep you informed about upcoming events, special deals, news, and other things I hope may enhance our journey together.As a way of providing a musical overview (and to help pay for all this) I am offering The Virtual Essentials, a 23-song collection including a digital booklet of lyrics and anecdotes available only on the Website for $12. Chosen from decades of recordings and performances, this Soundtrack of a Life consists of songs that remain most significant.Thank you for taking the time to read and watch and listen. I look forward to sharing One of Those Times in a Life with you. http://d21h0hzv529weo.cloudfront.net/video/chapterone-oneofthosetimesinalife.m4v Fri, 02 Dec 2011 12:34:15 -0700 05:12