Cracking The Sky with host singer/songwriter Cidny Bullens, is a podcast featuring creatives from around the world talking about their experience with their own creative process and what it takes for them to make something out of nothing.
Son of classical musicians and formally trained as a violinist, at age 18 David Mansfield joined Bob Dylan's band for four years, starting with The Rolling Thunder Revue. He recorded three albums with Dylan and appeared in the feature film "Renaldo and Clara".
In 1976, David was signed to Arista Records as a member of the critically acclaimed "The Alpha Band" with T-Bone Burnett and Steven Soles, co-producing two of their three albums with T-Bone.
David is an award-winning film and television composer with many major credits, including the scores for "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood", Michael Cimino's "Year of The Dragon", "The Sicilian", Maggie Greenwald's "Ballad of Little Jo" and "Songcatcher" and many more.
David continues to be a world-class recording and performing musician. He is a founding member of Bruce Hornsby and The Range, and has appeared on and with countless top recording artists around the world.
David also just happens to be one of my closest friends.
https://www.instagram.com/cidbullens
https://www.facebook.com/cidnybullens/
https://cidnybullens.com
Cracking The Sky with host singer/songwriter Cidny Bullens, is a podcast featuring creatives from around the world talking about their experience with their own creative process and what it takes for them to make something out of nothing.
Son of classical musicians and formally trained as a violinist, at age 18 David Mansfield joined Bob Dylan's band for four years, starting with The Rolling Thunder Revue. He recorded three albums with Dylan and appeared in the feature film "Renaldo and Clara".
In 1976, David was signed to Arista Records as a member of the critically acclaimed "The Alpha Band" with T-Bone Burnett and Steven Soles, co-producing two of their three albums with T-Bone.
David is an award-winning film and television composer with many major credits, including the scores for "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood", Michael Cimino's "Year of The Dragon", "The Sicilian", Maggie Greenwald's "Ballad of Little Jo" and "Songcatcher" and many more.
David continues to be a world-class recording and performing musician. He is a founding member of Bruce Hornsby and The Range, and has appeared on and with countless top recording artists around the world.
David also just happens to be one of my closest friends.
https://www.instagram.com/cidbullens
https://www.facebook.com/cidnybullens/
https://cidnybullens.com
CRACKING THE SKY PODCAST -DAVID MANSFIELD Transcription
Cid [00:00:05] Hey, everybody, welcome to my podcast, Cracking the Sky Conversations with Creative's. I'm your host Cidny Bullens. I'm here in East Nashville, Tennessee, where around every corner is a front porch, a songwriter and a barking dog. On my podcast, I'm talking with a whole spectrum of creative people from around the world. I dig deep into what inspires these artists and creators to do what they do and what it takes for them to make the leap into the creative unknown. I'm featuring some incredibly gifted people, musicians, songwriters, artists, authors, record producers, actors, filmmakers and more. I go inside the mainstream and outside the lines, so settle in wherever you are as we explore the process of making something out of nothing through the experience of some of the most creative people of our time.
Cid [00:01:10] Well, it's kind of a cloudy day here in East Nashville, Tennessee, but it's warm outside and that's nice for this time of year. I'm really excited to have my dear friend David Mansfield as my guest today. You might not know his name, but you have definitely heard his music, whether it be on a multitude of recordings like Bob Dylan or Lucinda Williams or John Mellencamp. Maybe you've heard one of his many film scores that he's written over the past 40 years. So I'm not going to go that deep into his bio because we're going to talk about all of that right now.
Cid [00:01:49] Hey, David, and welcome to Cracking the Sky.
David [00:01:55] Thank you.
Cid [00:01:56] I'm so glad you came on with me. First of all, I want to say full disclosure, David and I have been good friends for over 45 years. I'm reading this, so it's going to sound like it's read. We've been part of each other's lives and pivotal moments, good and bad. I was going to talk about the mystery twins, but we won't do that right now. David was an integral part of my own career. He played lead guitar in my very first album, Desire Wire, on my single, Survivor, for my fans out there. He was an integral part of my so-called comeback in the late 80s and early 90s, co-producing my eponymous album. I love that word eponymous, which I never knew until my own album came out,.
David [00:02:41] Because all of a sudden it was eponymous,.
Cid [00:02:43] Eponymous. And it was upon us too, but it was eponymous album, Cindy, Cindy, I have to get used to saying that again. Cindy Bullens, co-writing many of those songs and playing multiple instruments, which he does on that album. He's played on almost every album I've ever recorded, except I think for the last one. And anyway, we played live together a thousand times and everything else. So Dave, here you are. And I call him Dave. I don't know if anybody else does, but I do.
Cid [00:03:20] Your career is so deep and so varied and so illustrious and so accomplished. I had to write all those words down because they're all true, that we could sit here and talk for weeks and not touch on every aspect. So I guess I'm going to go back right now to the first day we met.
David [00:03:41] That's a good one.
Cid [00:03:42] Because, the first day we met. Really is part of the beginning of both of our careers.
David [00:03:48] Yeah, totally.
Cid [00:03:50] And, but for you especially and so it was somewhere around July 24th, 1975. I know...
David [00:03:59] How do you figure that? That's great.
Cid [00:04:01] I know it was around July 24th...
David [00:04:03] I don't always remember. I knew it was in the summer.
Cid [00:04:07] I know that because there's a couple of articles written about it in The New York Times and the Soho Weekly News. I just posted one on Facebook.
David [00:04:17] Yeah, I saw that. Great picture.
Cid [00:04:20] I wish I had the original one of me and Bobby Neuwirth.
David [00:04:23] Me too.
Cid [00:04:24] Yeah. But anyway, so tell tell us about your I know what my experience was in meeting you. I know exactly where I was. I remember you in the back room of the Other End. Yeah. In New York City kind of auditioning quote unquote for Neuwirth and T- Bone Burnett and everybody else. But tell us your memory of that day, the first day we met.
David [00:04:52] Well, I mean, like, I don't have a photographic memory, but it was such a striking thing. My girlfriend at the time, Jenny Yaffee Goetz worked at the newly opened Bottom Line, down the block, down a couple of blocks, and she and her girlfriend, Tricia, who was our roommate, you know, they used to you know, they'd finish up at the bottom line. They'd go have drinks at Phoebe's, they'd go to the Mercer Arts Center, catch New York Dolls that, you know, they'd you know...
Cid [00:05:24] We're talking about Greenwich Village in New York City. Yeah.
David [00:05:28] Or as Woody Allen called it Greenberg Village. Yeah, so I don't know, she, like, happened in the other end when Bobby was doing his set and they were just, it's just I guess to her felt like a free for all where people were just sort of getting up on stage and joining.
Cid [00:05:46] So Bobby Neuwirth, let's go into Bobby for just a second. Bob Neuwirth is the guy and you can add in here, who basically helped Bob Dylan kind of along. Is that right? He kind of, was one of his friends...
David [00:06:03] His, like, closest friend, you know, like and sort of like I... You know, at a certain point, it was just like, I guess the two Bobs in a station wagon or something...
Cid [00:06:17] I mean, Bobby Neuwirth is a legend in the nuances of rock and roll. There's been books written about him, if you read any Dylan biographies. He's in there all over the place.
David [00:06:25] Yeah. Google him.
Cid [00:06:27] Yeah. Google Bob Neuwirth. But anyway, I just wanted to interject, Bobby, because he's integral to all this, this story. Go ahead.
David [00:06:37] Anyway, she just, you know, saw this scene where I don't know what she perceived, I mean, like, I know that Dylan was hanging around. I don't think Bob Dylan ever sat in on Bobby Neuwirth set, did he?
Cid [00:06:48] Not in the beginning.
David [00:06:49] Yeah, they were hanging out after hours.
Cid [00:06:51] Yeah, yeah.
David [00:06:52] But like, you know, I mean, Mick Ronson had joined the band and and... You know, it was there are more people on stage and off the stage practically.
Cid [00:07:02] Right, and the core band was T Bone, Stephen Soles, me and...
David [00:07:09] Rob and Howie.
Cid [00:07:10] Yeah. Rob Stoner and Howie Wyeth.
David [00:07:13] And was Billy Mernit playing keyboards with us or... That was with Jake.
Cid [00:07:19] Yeah that was with Jake. Jake and the family Jewels.
David [00:07:21] Yeah. Right.
Cid [00:07:21] Who were the, who were the the advertized band of that week.
David [00:07:28] Yeah, Right. Jake and the family jewels of Bunkie and Jake fame for all you people that are over 70.
Cid [00:07:33] Yeah. Oh my God. Well, I'm not over 70, but I'm right there. But go ahead.
David [00:07:39] Anyway. Jenny sort of like sort of oh this this is like some really buzzing scene and the one thing they don't have as a fiddle player, so it's like, you know, my boyfriend can play the fiddle and she sort of dragged me down there the next day. You know, in those days, I tended to do what people told me to do and I just showed up.
Cid [00:08:02] We're only 17. Is that or were you 18?
David [00:08:05] I might have been 18 that year because. That would have been '75.
Cid [00:08:11] It was '75, so you were 18?
David [00:08:13] Yeah, I was 18, and she just walked me right back to the dressing room back there, which was just a glorified toilet, you know, and.
Cid [00:08:25] I remember it well.
David [00:08:26] Yeah. And introduced me to Bobby, and it's like... I don't remember what he said, but it was something like, you know, play, play or we'll see what you can do.
Cid [00:08:37] It was "play" because I was standing there and it was like, OK, whip out your fiddle and let's hear what you got, you know?
David [00:08:44] Yeah. So anyway, I mean, I did and I was on stage within an hour joining joining the band for the rest of the week. I don't know if that was midweek or, you know, in those days when you played a gig, it was maybe four nights or five nights. it wasn't one night.
Cid [00:09:01] No. And yeah. And it was incredible. I really do remember that night. I remember where I was standing in the in the dressing room when you walked in and where Bobby was, I was like over here, anyway it doesn't matter but... And you were incredible and you never left.
David [00:09:25] No. You know, I mean, like that, you know, that night changed my life in a million ways.
Cid [00:09:31] Right.
David [00:09:32] Most notably because it basically became the Rolling Thunder Review. I mean, like, you know, I don't think sort of in the Martin Scorsese film that really kind of kind of got a little short shrift that that much of the idea for the Rolling Thunder Review is Newirth.
Cid [00:09:47] Well, it was in my mind from my memory, it was the whole idea.
David [00:09:53] Yeah.
Cid [00:09:53] Because I remember him talking about it. I remember being in the room next door, you know, whatever that bar was next door to the...
David [00:10:01] Right.
Cid [00:10:01] It was The Other End, by the way, for those who know don't know, was for a short period of time... It was the Bitter End in New York City, the famous Bitter End on Bleecker Street beforehand. And then it was the Bitter End after. But for a few years, I don't even know...
David [00:10:18] They didn't have they didn't have rights for the name. I don't know who Paul Colby's partner was, but there was some sort of disagreement about the name. So he had to call it something else for a few years.
Cid [00:10:27] Right. So this whole thing, this Neuwirth, Dylan thing, the seed of the...
David [00:10:34] And McQuinn, and I don't know who else...
Cid [00:10:37] Didn't Sandy Bull come in?
David [00:10:39] I'm sure he did. And and famously one night this guy comes up on stage, it looks a lot like Joe Cocker and starts singing Delta Lady and goes into a frenzy and falls down drunk, spitting up beer. And that was John Belushi. You thought you were there that night, right?
Cid [00:10:54] Yes, I forgot about that. Yes.
David [00:10:57] Yes, he was in Lemmings.
Cid [00:10:59] That's right. He was in Lemmings, which there is a side story about me and Lemmings. But that's that's for another day. Go ahead.
David [00:11:05] Yeah. So on a night off or maybe after the show he came down and did his Joe Cocker impersonation before anybody seen it on Saturday Night Live.
Cid [00:11:14] Oh my God.
David [00:11:14] And people in the audience were like whispering Oh my God, Joe's in really bad shape.
Cid [00:11:19] Oh, I do remember that now. I mean, I...
David [00:11:23] And the audience totally thought it was Cocker because, I mean, like, the way the week was going, it would be totally, you know, believable that Joe Cocker would have joined in to.
Cid [00:11:32] Yeah, yeah. I mean, it was an incredible, incredible week. But I remember being in the next room and with Dylan and by the way, Dylan would know me if he fell over me. But I remember sitting in that room with... And you were probably there but it was late. It was like 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning or something like that.
David [00:11:52] I probably wasn't. Because I don't remember meeting Dylan. I sort of was like unaware of that connection. All that much during that week, I think.
Cid [00:12:00] Well, we were sitting there and I can remember Neuwirth talking about, you know, OK, let's do something, let's do something. I don't know where the name came up. I don't remember that part of it. But I do remember the the kind of...
David [00:12:14] Well, also, you know, the spirit of the thing was total Bobby.
Cid [00:12:19] Totally!
David [00:12:19] Not not Dylan, you know, it was like, you know, I mean...
Cid [00:12:21] Right down to the rugs on the floor.
David [00:12:24] From what I understood, it's like as soon as Paul Colby booked or whoever was booking the Other End, you know, book Bobby for that week, he just took his advance and started sending people like you plane tickets.
Cid [00:12:36] He did. He sent me a plane ticket. He sent T-Bone on a plane ticket. Yeah, T-bone.
David [00:12:41] And Soles.
Cid [00:12:41] We had all met in L.A. I was living in Los Angeles at the time and we already knew...
David [00:12:46] And it's like that was that was this whole thing. It's like, you know, if he had a gig to do for one thing, he wanted cover. Yeah. He wanted he wanted help. I mean, like, you know, he was back in the old days when he was a miserable tequila head, notorious and the Prince of Darkness. And, you know, he never wanted to stand up on stage sort of with it by himself. He would always be able to, like, sing a song and then throw it over to somebody else for a couple. And that was the feeling of of the Rolling Thunder review, totally.
Cid [00:13:19] It was it was fantastic.
David [00:13:20] You know, it was a review. It was it was literally a review, you know, house band, various artists. You know, with with this Dylan thread running through it all.
Cid [00:13:31] That's right. That's right. And you were right there with it. I was supposed to go on that tour.
David [00:13:37] Yeah, I know.
Cid [00:13:38] Because I walked into a party with Elton John and had to choose between Elton and Dylan.
David [00:13:44] And you probably got paid more.
Cid [00:13:49] I did. I probably got paid more. But anyway, that's my story...
David [00:13:50] But we won't go into that.
Cid [00:13:51] No, we won't go into that. But that-- it's it's just so great. But you're, and so the Rolling Thunder review, your career did come out of that because you ended up playing with Dylan after that.
David [00:14:02] Well, actually, after those two Rolling Thunder tours, because we did a second one.
Cid [00:14:07] Oh, yeah. Forgot about that.
David [00:14:10] In I don't know, early 2016 I think, through the south and the west, which was the one they... NBC put out a special called, Hard Rain. And there is a record of it. And you can see the videos and stuff. In Fort Collins, Colorado, I think is where where it was shot. But, you know, that film that Bob shot of the Rolling Thunder review --the Renaldo and Clara sort of home movie kind of thing that he made. Art film, really, you know, the capital A.
Cid [00:14:44] Yeah. Yes, I remember.
David [00:14:47] Yeah. He spent years in the basement editing room with the late Howard Alk trying, you know, cutting that thing. And didn't work, didn't do anything for a few years.
Cid [00:15:01] So that was the gap between the Rolling Thunder and him going back out on the road.
David [00:15:07] It was, you know, Bob's postproduction on Renaldo and Clara was was when we had our practically entire career of the Alpha Band, which you were also involved in.
Cid [00:15:18] Right.
David [00:15:19] That was that was with T bone -- T Bone and Steven.
Cid [00:15:22] So the Alpha Band came out in 76.
David [00:15:28] Yeah.
Cid [00:15:28] And that was T Bone Burnett, Steven Soles, David Mansfield signed to Arista Records and and I got to be part of the B band with David Minor. And was was Howie the drummer? Who is the drummer?
David [00:15:42] No. Well, we had various rhythm sections. I mean, the first iteration we got signed was Matt Benton and David Jackson, who have a long history with T-Bone before. And then it was David Minor. We had various drummers, yeah, we did a tour, we did a tour, I think, where the drummer was David's old friend, Scott Sansby.
Cid [00:16:08] That's that's who I was thinking about.
David [00:16:10] We never recorded with Scott.
Cid [00:16:12] Yeah, but I did one of the albums, too. But I remember going on the road, the Texas and Oklahoma thing.
David [00:16:19] Right. While Bob was editing, there was time for a whole other career, which, you know...Because then actually in '78 when he was finished and, you know...
Cid [00:16:31] You're talking about Bob Dylan again.
David [00:16:32] And yeah, he wanted to do a world tour, he actually called back me and Steven, but not T-Bone. Which was...
Cid [00:16:43] A little dicey?
David [00:16:44] You know, dicey. You know, I see, but Steven and T-Bone were sort of going their separate ways that at that time anyway, so it sort of was the, you know, kind of nail in the coffin. I think we made one record after that, but it was basically over. Also the Alpha Band... We were kind of critics, darlings, but we never sold a single record. And did you see that thing, that documentary about Clive?
Cid [00:17:13] No. Are you in there?
David [00:17:14] Well, he just said, they asked him, what are your biggest regrets about he thought that were great. And he said the Alpha Band. He mentioned, I think us and maybe the Funky Kings, if you remember that. Jack Tempchin... But he went on and on and in this documentary about, you know, how he really thought we were going to be, you know, big and and, you know, just like sometimes, you know, you're wrong.
Cid [00:17:39] Well, he was wrong about you guys not getting big, but he wasn't wrong about the band. The band was fantastic. It was... Yeah, but, you know, you guys were kind of before your time, you know, in my view. I mean...
David [00:17:53] A little bit.
Cid [00:17:54] But to me. To me, I mean, I put the Alpha Band in my little resumé because to me it was one of the coolest things I ever did. I mean, I want wanted to be associated... because I always want to be associated with you anyway. But the Alpha Band was such a cool thing and I was only a B band.. We called it the B band, Alpha, Beta, you know, the whole thing. But we were the B band. I was the B band. I played, you know, percussion and guitar and keyboard or whatever it was you needed.
David [00:18:28] And you also you also sang the third harmony on the cover we did of Dylan's You Angel You on the second record.
Cid [00:18:35] That's right.
David [00:18:36] With our you know, this slaggardly drummer we hired named Ringo Starr,.
Cid [00:18:42] Ooh I forgot! You mean I'm on the same record as Ringo Starr.
David [00:18:45] Yep.
Cid [00:18:45] Holy crap. That goes on my resumé right now.
David [00:18:50] Put that on your resume and smoke it! And yeah. Ringo, Ringo is was one it was one of our drummers for that record. He played on two or three cuts.
Cid [00:18:55] That's amazing. Well I got to play drums literally with Ringo Starr at a famous party one night. There were two sets and I looked I, I, I...
David [00:19:06] Was that up at his place on Sunset Plaza?
[00:19:09] I was there to once or twice but, maybe once. But no, this was at Cherokee Studios, and you know, it was it was the real Joe Cocker and the real Dr. John and Steve Hunter on guitar and whoever else. And there were two drum sets. And I was there and... there are no pictures. I even asked Cherokee if there were pictures of this because, you know, I'm trying to put together some stuff for my own stuff. But anyway, I won't go on. But I just want to say that Ringo Starr... And I've met him since. He's such a sweet guy, but. Yeah, but I snuck back. I wanted to get on stage, but I didn't want to, like, go up and take a mike I mean, for crying out loud. Joe Cocker and all these other people were up there so...
David [00:19:53] And it was the real Joe Cocker.
Cid [00:19:56] It was the real Joe Cocker! So I go around the the back, you know, and the drums are on risers, you know, the whole stage is on a riser in Studio one. And I go back and I sit... One of the drum sets is empty and I don't know who was playing drums over on the other side. So I'm sitting there and, you know, I play bad drums, but it was like a, you know, twelve bar blues or something. So I'm up there and I can play that. So I'm playing and I look over Ringo Starr, the other side, you know, on the other drum set. And he looked at me and nodding and smiling. But holy crap, if the only was a picture of that. But now I know I'm on the same. I'm on the same... I don't... I forgot totally. See my memory is so bad. But anyway, go ahead, Dave.
David [00:20:43] Well, anyway, the thing that's so strange is that, you know, thanks to Neuwirth getting involved with the Rolling Thunder review in particular. It's like, yeah, it was it was an amazing life changing thing to be involved in that tour. I mean, you know, but over the years, somehow it's increased in stature, like, you know, like at that time it was like it was a tour, you know, and a big tour. But, you know, like somehow now people think of it like the way they think about his, you know, 60s tour in Europe and, you know, in England or something like that. It's like, you know, kind of a high point. And so it's like followed me all these years later. I mean, like that Scorsese documentary came out, what, last year?
Cid [00:21:30] Yeah.
David [00:21:31] You know, I and, you know, there it was again.
Cid [00:21:35] No, it is one of those things that keeps growing.
David [00:21:39] And D.A. Pennebaker, that's the last time I saw him alive. He was there at the screening.
Cid [00:21:44] Wow. That's amazing. It is. It is one of those things that keeps on going. And and in that vein, though, a little different. But still in that vein from the Rolling Thunder, you got to score your first movie, Heaven's Gate, right?
David [00:22:02] Well, yeah. What actually led to it was the '78 world tour.
Cid [00:22:09] Well, for our audience, David is an accomplished film composer. He's composed over 35 films in four decades. Something like that. Right, Dave?
David [00:22:20] Yeah.
Cid [00:22:21] And nominated for an Emmy. Nominated for a Golden Globe. Hello. A Golden Globe for Michael Camino's Year of the Dragon. But Heaven's Gate with the then very big star, Kris Kristofferson, who I later met through all you people.
David [00:22:44] I remember meeting Kristoffersson up at Fritz Richman's house on Ridpath, the late Fritz Richman, and he and Bobby just started trading songs across a table with an open bottle of tequila and like, you know, an hour or so of great songs and then, like snoring under the table.
Cid [00:23:04] Fritz Richman's house was where I met Bonnie Raitt.
David [00:23:07] Yeah. By the way, for a vote for those people again, who are under 70, Fritz Richmond was in the Jim Kweskin Jug Band.
Cid [00:23:15] Right.
David [00:23:15] With Geoff Muldaur and Jim Kweskin.
Cid [00:23:18] From Boston.
David [00:23:18] And he was jug player. Yeah. But he segued from that into a brilliant career, engineering and producing. He was a great engineer, worked over ... I think he did a lot of stuff for Elektra. Anyway, and he had a musician's house and you know, and people were always hanging out at Fritz's house. You probably were there that night. Yeah.
Cid [00:23:41] I was probably there that night because I remember meeting...
David [00:23:44] Kristofferson...
Cid [00:23:44] And maybe Bonnie was there that night. I don't know.
David [00:23:47] Oh Bonnie was...
Cid [00:23:48] But but definitely Kris Kristofferson. And then, you know, it all spread out from there. That's and that's my story. How, you know, I kind of got in. Bobby Neuwirth was one of my angels in terms of my career.
David [00:24:01] Yeah. I like he was in mine and and Patti Smith's. And, you know, you can the list goes on forever.
Cid [00:24:08] Yeah, it does. And it's all connected. I have Patti Smith stories.
David [00:24:13] Of course.
Cid [00:24:13] You know, we all have it's all intertwined. But I want to go back to Heaven's Gate because it was your first time scoring a film and it you were what? 23 years old? 24 years old?
David [00:24:30] No. Let's see. I would have been... Because I was working on that film for a long time because I was hired as an actor on a musician on camera. I won't glorify it by calling it an actor. I did have lines. I did have a character.
Cid [00:24:44] I saw that. I went back and looked at some of the films.
David [00:24:49] Yeah, I would have probably been 21. I'm thinking. But I mean, and and what happened is that... I don't know the sequence of events before I was around on that film, but, you know, Kristoffersson was going to be playing the lead. And he was a hot film star at that time. And he is always been loyal to a fault. So he would always insist on any film he was working on that the producers at least consider everybody in his band for a small part in the film, in the film to keep them working. And mostly they did that. So it wasn't just the musicians, is even the crew. Yeah, but they did hire some his band. They hired Jerry McGee. Oh, God. Jerry passed.
Cid [00:25:37] Yeah. A year ago.
David [00:25:38] And the late, brilliant Stephen Bruton, who we all loved dearly. And then they started they didn't want to hire anybody else in the band, so they started casting about for other musicians who would do the musical parts in this band. And Joanne Carelli, producer of the film, Michael, sort of business partner, one time romantic partner, you know, was an associate producer on The Deer Hunter. She saw me on the '78 tour with Dylan. Playing at Madison Square Garden. And took note in her head, this kid playing the violin would be perfect for this violinist that does the thing in the roller rink in the movie.
Cid [00:26:24] Yeah, yeah.
David [00:26:24] And she just filed that away. So that's why I got called in and as did T Bone. Who was playing drums, of all things. He was almost as good as you and...
Cid [00:26:45] I'm sure he was much better.
David [00:26:45] And Norton Buffalo, remember him?
Cid [00:26:49] Yes.
David [00:26:50] From San Francisco, a brilliant harmonica player.
Cid [00:26:52] Yes.
David [00:26:52] And Sean Hopper from Huey Lewis and the news.
Cid [00:26:55] Oh, for crying out loud.
David [00:26:56] Played bass. So, you know. Band of great musicians, I mean, you know, McGee, one of the best unsung heroes of the electric guitar ever, I mean, like, you know, he was like Glen Campbell or something.
Cid [00:27:08] Yeah. Yeah.
David [00:27:09] And, of course, Bruton. So that was that was the band, and so I got in... Dylan wasn't involved, Neuwirth wasn't involved, but I did get called up for that because Joanne had seen me play with Bob on that '78t tour and right ... And like, I think it might have been the spring of '79 when everything was coming together for casting for Heaven's Gate. And I spent half the year in Montana on production on that thing, because even though I was only contracted for a few weeks because I mean... In the whole script, I maybe had two or three pages, you know, that I was on, not much more. But Michael had this thing where it was supposed to be a small town. So he wanted to have everybody that was in the cast sort of like showing up in the background. It's just background characters, so that you would get this sort of claustrophobic feeling of it really being a community. So nobody came for a short stay. Everybody was there for the entire time.
Cid [00:28:11] That's interesting. Very interesting.
David [00:28:13] I mean, long long enough that, like our little Heaven's Gate Band, we all became, you know, very tight. And, you know, it's like we would have we would take over the restaurant after hours and have, you know...
Cid [00:28:26] Jam sessions?
David [00:28:27] Jam every night and all the actors want to hang out with us. I mean, that's how T-Bone and Jeff Bridges got so close, you know, sort of paid off in Crazy Heart. You know, and John Hurt and a bunch of the other actors, they all want to hang out with musicians.
Cid [00:28:42] And why not? We're always the fun bunch.
David [00:28:45] Yeah, exactly.
Cid [00:28:48] Anyway, so that's that's how that all but you you ended up scoring the film though.
David [00:28:54] Yeah.
Cid [00:28:55] Writingl the songs for it.
David [00:28:57] Well but that was totally kind of a fluky way that happened. Michael thought that he wanted like a big spectacular orchestral score and he and he met with all of the biggest names in the business. He met with... Oh, John Williams, I think, was actually in negotiations to do it. And Morriconi came by, I mean, like everybody who anybody who was anybody. I don't know if Elmer Bernstein came along, but they all did. And they all met with them. But there was all this music in the film that was sung on camera and that the Heaven's Gate Band played. And so when we got home, I like made like my little four track demos of some of the tunes with all my instruments playing in this Eastern European folk style. And I submitted it sort of anonymously thinking maybe they could use it for some source music or something.
Cid [00:29:54] Yeah, yeah.
David [00:29:56] But Michael started playing with it against picture. And he would put it on one scene, in another scene and started falling in love with it, and then he asked me for some more and I supplied some more, and he's decided, oh, well, that's what it's going to be. It's got to be this small, intimate score. I don't want an orchestra. And then Joanne said, it's that little 20 year old kid you had as an extra on your film. And he blanched and swallowed hard and hired me anyway.
Cid [00:30:23] That's fantastic. I love that. So one one other question about Heaven's Gate, and then I come back to the original point I wanted to make, too. But is did you have to learn to roller skate for that scene?
David [00:30:40] No, no, I did. I did grow up roller skating, not grow up, but I did roller skate a lot as a kid. I was I was never like a pro. I mean, like Sean Hopper, the bass player was one of those guys that had those, you know, vinyl wheeled like super skates. And he was like, you know, one of those guys would skate around San Francisco backwards and in circles. I wasn't that.
Cid [00:31:08] But there is a scene in Heaven's Gate where David has to roller skate. I want to say roller blade, because that's today's turn. But roller skate,.
David [00:31:19] No, Cid. That's not today's term. That's a term from the 80s!
Cid [00:31:23] All right. That's a term from the... Right. It's like breakdancing, you know.
David [00:31:27] Yeah.
Cid [00:31:29] Hey, I'm old now. I try to keep up. But you know these kids today.
David [00:31:33] Yeah.
Cid [00:31:35] But David had to roller skate.
David [00:31:37] While playing the fiddle...
Cid [00:31:38] While playing the fiddle around this big, huge barn floor. And I was just...
David [00:31:44] And I, I was just and I really I really did it. They didn't...
Cid [00:31:48] I know! That's what I'm asking you.
David [00:31:49] They didn't... They didn't do it. They didn't do it to playback. I mean, normally you would prerecord it and you would pantomime.
Cid [00:31:55] Yeah.
David [00:31:56] But we had a radio mic and they actually recorded it. And and when you see the film, sometimes you can tell they cut between... There's there's a cut here and there and like the music doesn't... It kind of jumps a little bit. So you can tell that it was live because he couldn't make a seamless cut that way.
Cid [00:32:14] That's incredible. Yeah. I just re-watched... I mean, of course I hadn't seen the film in forty years or whatever, but I watched that scene the other day and I'm like, holy crap, I didn't know he could roller skate, you know. I mean I didn't remember that scene in the film, you know, it was so long ago.
David [00:32:33] Do you ever see... I was actually immortalized in an episode of The Simpsons where they parody that scene.
Cid [00:32:43] No, I never saw that.
David [00:32:44] That was definitely one of the highlights of my life. That a young a young Marge and Homer go out on, like, their first date or something to a roller rink.
Cid [00:32:54] I love that.
David [00:32:55] And they and they go into the roller rink and this little kid or, you know, actually not a little kid, he has like a gray beard. But but it's obviously me in Heaven's Gate with the like the high black pants and the bowler hat, you know, and curly hair start skating around them playing the fiddle.
Cid [00:33:13] I love that. Oh my gosh.
David [00:33:15] I mean, that's you know, I think that that writers room was being willfully obscure, but...
Cid [00:33:22] Yeah, but just the fact that they knew about that scene...
David [00:33:27] It's pretty... I couldn't believe it when I saw it.
Cid [00:33:29] And that's what I was going to say. And then we'll move on. But I wanted to say Heaven's Gate is kind of like the Rolling Thunder Review in that it was kind of what...
David [00:33:36] It's also it's also never left me, you know, like for a long time, never left me in a bad way. I mean, like, you know, like I went around looking for an agent to represent me as a composer after that. And one guy who I won't mention his name, but one of the like five or six people in L.A. that rep composers, it's a very small world, said it would be better if you had no credit rather than having that credit. And I won't rep you.
Cid [00:34:03] Which is, you know, stupid.
David [00:34:06] But meanwhile, I mean, like the Rolling Thunder Review. Heaven's Gate is is is still, you know, revered and pored over and like I worked on a Criterion reissue just a few years ago.
Cid [00:34:17] And that's what I was going to say. That's what I was coming to.
David [00:34:20] And then in France, they they did this velvet box set where they included my soundtrack album and like this made this gigantic booklet, you know, I mean, like I mean, it's, you know, and like the vinyl soundtrack albums go for like three hundred bucks on eBay. So it's like it's a thing.
Cid [00:34:42] It's coming back and now it's even getting you know, it's they're reviewing the reviews. In other words, they're saying, wait, wait a minute, it wasn't it wasn't bad. It was actually kind of a masterpiece back then.
David [00:34:57] So so, yeah. I mean, like, you know, and and like running into Neuwirth, who sort of like, you know, started the whole Dylan connection, which really changed my life. You know, like kind of apprenticing with Michael Cimino was also changed my life with the film scoring thing because I didn't know anything about it when I first started, you know, on Heaven's Gate the thing about is that I was doing stuff that was very familiar to me. It was sort of like, you know, custom ordered for me to do that kind of music and all that stuff. The technical stuff like the synchronization and all that kind of thing I just figured out with a video deck and a stopwatch. I didn't have anybody helping me. And then also there were some orchestral scenes, maybe three in three or four where we use a like a string orchestra, and I had never written for a large group like that before, but I'd grown up around orchestras and I sort of had it in my head and it wasn't a big deal to do that. And it went very well. I mean, there was even an overture. Actually an overture and an intermission and intermission music.
Cid [00:36:15] Wow. Well, you grew up in a classically trained household.
David [00:36:21] Yeah. I mean, and then after Heaven's Gate was over and, you know, I couldn't get arrested, and neither could Michael for a few years. I actually just bought some books and went to school with, you know, working on, you know, orchestration and counterpoint, counterpoint and harmony and, you know, and try to give myself the college education I didn't have because of the Rolling Thunder Revue.
Cid [00:36:55] Right, right. But you learned how to do that. And you ended up doing a bunch of films for Michael Cimino, including Year of the Dragon, correct?
David [00:37:04] Yeah. Yeah. And yeah, Year of The Dragon was the next film I worked on was the next film he got off, which was Year of the Dragon. And then that went pretty well. It wasn't a big hit, but it was mildly successful. And after that I got work, you know, consistently. But Michael's films... Actually some of the films I worked on with him did have very grand big orchestral scores. And that's where I sort of like honed my ability to work with an orchestra. I mean... He did a film that was sort of a prequel to that of The Godfather called The Sicilian. And, you know, I was working with maybe an eighty five piece orchestra. Writing music that was vaguely Verdi slash Puccini-esque and really gave me a chance to really hone my skills with an orchestra on that.
Cid [00:38:10] So let me let me ask you, because I'm kind of jumping ahead on my own questions here, but that's a perfect lead in. And we're going to ask it eventually, so I might as well ask it now. I mean, the podcast is called Cracking the Sky. And to me, cracking the sky is that moment or time or situation where you just, you know, you have to push against or forward, you know, against all that you think you can't do. In other words, it's just: OK, I don't know how to do this. I don't know if I can do this, but I have to do it or I'm going to do it or I did do it. So that's not the way I wrote it-- the question. That's just what's coming out now. But was that or was film scoring more than, let's say, recording in pop music, rock and roll, folk, all the stuff. And I'm going to list some of the artists you work with later on as an artist, as a musician. But was scoring the film like the most challenging, like this period of your life where you had to learn all this stuff? I mean, was it kind of like, OK, I've got to go back in. I've gotta, I don't know if I can do this, but I'm going to do it anyway. I mean, what what was one of your or times or moments of cracking the sky? Do you think.
David [00:39:43] The film scoring thing or like specifically working with orchestra... Yeah, you know, it wasn't quite that experience for me. I'd say it was more I mean, it was more that that... There was a brief period after Heaven's Gate, I mean, when Heaven's Gate was done, but hadn't come out yet where everybody thought, you know, I was going to be the next Hans Zimmer or something. You know, just because the film was going to be gigantic. It was going to be the next Deer Hunter.
Cid [00:40:12] Right.
David [00:40:13] You know, I mean, like, BMI and ASCAP were fighting over me. You know, everybody wanted to rep me. And I was panicked because I thought, I don't know how to do this, just like, you know, you know, they call me and they and they want me to do the next Star Wars, you know?
Cid [00:40:30] Yeah, right.
David [00:40:31] What the heck am I going to do? And having come from a classical background and my father, he's a violinist, was a violinist in the Philharmonic for like fifty something years. Never had any aspirations for playing anything other than fiddle, like, you know, didn't compose or want to conduct or anything like that. But my God he was so critical. You know, I mean, like... It's like I remember in the 60s, him saying, you know, we don't need a conductor at the Philharmonic, we could just use a robot and, you know, we know what to do. I mean, he used to complain about Bernstein back then. And then, of course, later on, you know,.
Cid [00:41:09] Leonard Bernstein.
David [00:41:10] Yeah. He could do no wrong, which, of course, he couldn't, you know, I mean, he had faults, but he was he was brilliant. But growing up, hearing that kind of constant negative criticism across the dining room table, you know, it's like I was very intimidated about all that. So I was very scared. And that's what... Luckily I didn't get hired for a couple of years and that's why I sort of went to school on my own.
Cid [00:41:41] Yeah,.
David [00:41:42] But it wasn't so much like I'm going to just... It wasn't the same kind of a crack the sky moment really, it was just a period where I where I just decided I would like to pursue this. I don't have enough knowledge and I'll spend some time on it. And then I do remember the first time I actually had to stand up on a podium in front of an orchestra. It was on Year of the Dragon.
Cid [00:42:09] Oh, my gosh. Yeah.
David [00:42:11] Yeah, I like, you know, asked our old pal, Van Dike Parks, you know, what the hell should I do? And he said, you know just wear dark glasses, get on the podium, scream, scream in pidgin Italian and ask for your interpreter. So but then I got up there and it actually wasn't scary or hard at all, you know? I mean, like, again, like, you know, by osmosis, this stuff is sort of entered my blood. And and the other thing is. This was all kind of a gentle process for me because back in those days, computers weren't involved in all this stuff. So it took a lot of time to cut a film or a mix of film. You know, there was no Pro Tools, you know, there was no Avid there were none of that, none of that stuff. And so I got a chance to go very slow. Which was great for that learning period. So so, you know, I don't know, you know, it's like maybe it sounds a little bit bratty, but but I had a lot of stuff that just fell in my lap, including Heaven's Gate, including, you know, that sort of tenure with Dylan.
Cid [00:43:33] Yeah.
David [00:43:34] You know, I mean, like before that. You know, my...I had a career as a teenager.
Cid [00:43:42] Yeah, yeah, or the Quacky Duck.
David [00:43:44] Yeah. You know, I mean, like, jeez, you know, I mean, like I was finishing my social studies homework, an independent study up in Framingham where we made our first record.
Cid [00:43:53] Framingham, Mass? You mean my neck of the woods?
David [00:43:57] Yeah. Your neck of the woods. Do you ever know that it was an old barn? It was called Angus.
Cid [00:44:01] I heard of Angus. Yes.
David [00:44:03] Andy Pratt was the co-owner.
Cid [00:44:07] Oh my God. Absolutely. Yeah.
David [00:44:07] I think that's probably where he recorded Avenging Annie, I bet.
Cid [00:44:10] And of course, that ties into Mark Doyle, who played guitar with me too. And was Andy Pratt's guitar player at that time.
David [00:44:17] Yeah. So fantastic record. Anyway, so we made our first, our only record at Angus with with John Nagy, who is also from that sort of like Jim Kweskiny, Cambridge folk scene where, you know... We were we were doing television, you know, I mean, we played Max's all the time. I was too young to actually play Max's, so I used to hide upstairs in between sets with Faris Bouhafa and Teddy Wainwright, who were in the office up there.
Cid [00:44:54] Not only were you too young, but you looked about six.
David [00:44:58] Yeah, I did, actually. But but that's... Max's Kansas City, that's... We spent a week opening for Gram Parsons, and that's how I became friends with with Gram and Emmylou, who was, you know, a kid at the time.
Cid [00:45:12] Unbelievable.
David [00:45:13] And, you know, and his steel player guy from Nashville at the time, Neil Flanz, like, gave me lessons. Came over to my house and gave me lessons and helped me get my, the steel that I played on Rolling Thunder. He helped pick it out for me off the Sho-Bud line.
Cid [00:45:29] That's amazing.
David [00:45:29] You know, and then out in L.A., you know, I mean, like we used to hang out with Phil Kaufman's house with Gram and. There was a lot of heady times, for me, even as a teen. And Bonnie, too, we opened for Bonnie.
Cid [00:45:43] I didn't know that.
David [00:45:44] Yeah, and we... At that point, we were living out in New Jersey on this lake. And she she was going out with Gary George at the time. .
Cid [00:45:55] Oh yeah.
David [00:45:55] Yeah, they came out for like a, you know, dinner and a pool party at our at our house. A lot of amazing stuff happened to me, sort of almost falling in my lap from, like out of the gate. I mean, you know, and before I ran to Neuwirth that summer, I mean, like... The year before that, I was living in New York at that point, and so I was doing sessions all the time because there was nobody in New York City that played fiddle or pedal steel guitar or mandolin. All the guys that did that were like the folkies, like up in Woodstock, you know, like Eric Weisberg and Charlie Brown and people like that. So I got called for sessions all the time.
Cid [00:46:41] Yeah. When you were like 17, 18.
David [00:46:44] Seventeen. Yeah, I know. Like I did a lot of work for Cashman and West, including like posthumus, Jim Croce records and right before I met you, I think that spring I was out with Eric Anderson.
Cid [00:46:56] I think you work because I think I remember you telling me that.
David [00:46:58] Yeah. And the band man, it was Arlen Roth on guitar and the late Richard Bell on piano. I mean, like, you know, it was an all star band, except for me. I just have had, you know, kind of a blessed, amazing life. And somehow I was like cracking the sky at 15.
Cid [00:47:21] Exactly.
David [00:47:22] And actually, a lot of my career has been like... Rather than like feeling hungry and trying to break through, it's like, I was so used to being fussed over that a lot of my career has been like dealing with that, the emotional legacy of that. I mean, like whether it was the Village Voice when I was playing Max's with Quacky Duck or on the Rolling Thunder Review, like they kept writing... I mean, saying I was a virtuoso. I wasn't a virtuoso. My dad was. I know what that means in the classical world.
Cid [00:47:53] Yeah.
David [00:47:54] You know, I mean, like, I could play pretty well, but, you know, I mean, like... I got to the point where in '78, Dylan did a version of All Along the Watchtower every night and he would dedicate it to Jimi Hendrix. He was being in this real schticky kind of like, you know, talking with the audience kind of mode. And and he would hype it up before we did it. And it all built up to my doing this electric violin solo in the middle of it. And every night I would get a standing ovation. But meanwhile, I knew if I was playing out of tune or not or something,
Cid [00:48:29] Right, right.
David [00:48:30] And on the nights that I felt I didn't do well, I would have a tantrum in the dressing room. I trashed a couple. And everybody was, like, shocked because it was like little Dave, you know, he's like sweet, like, you know, passive guy, you know, like, you know, everybody thinks he's like a little angel. And like, all of a sudden, like, you know, the couch is shredded. I developed this, like, you know this very hidden, raging ego.
Cid [00:48:57] Yeah, well, it's not hard to do.
David [00:49:00] So cracking the sky is like, you know, like recovering from that and realizing I am not my work.
Cid [00:49:07] No, none of us are. And it takes decades and decades and decades.
David [00:49:13] Still working on that.
Cid [00:49:14] To work on it. And I mean, yeah, we could get into a whole discussion of maybe we will after after we're done...
David [00:49:21] Yeah. I mean, I had many thrilling moments. Just a few years ago I spent a few years in Bobby McFerrin's band because he was doing this project that was kind of rootsy.
Cid [00:49:35] Yeah.
David [00:49:36] And for the record, he used Larry Campbell. But Larry didn't want to do the ongoing touring part of it, so he suggested me. And all of a sudden, you know, there I was with all these like heavyweight jazz players. And once again, like, you know, I was defecating in the tall cotton. And because... It was like at first I was saying, maybe you don't have the right guy. I mean, I'm like, you know, the rootsy guy and all that kind of stuff. And they're saying, no, no, this is what we want to do. And and then we go out on the road. And of course, he would throw out a Monk tune or something like that occasionally. And and I just learned so much. I was like practicing all the time, you know, I mean, like and also Bobby would start a show where he said, OK, what we're going to do is that you guys just go out and start making something up. First, like Gil Goldstein will start maybe on the accordion. And, you know, you guys join in. And when it sounds interesting, I'll come out on stage and join. And that's how we start the show every night.
Cid [00:50:44] That's amazing.
David [00:50:45] Or that he would introduce the band. And the way he would introduce the band is that everybody would improvise solo for like two minutes.
Cid [00:50:54] I love that.
David [00:50:55] So, I mean, like, you know, scary, thrilling.
Cid [00:51:02] Right, right.
David [00:51:02] Also, everybody in the band was so sweet. It was Gil Goldstein on keys and sort of arranging. I think he got a Grammy for one of the things he arranged on a on Spirit You All. You all the record.
Cid [00:51:15] We're talking about Bobby McFerrin.
David [00:51:17] Bobby McFerrin, and Jeff Carney on bass, Louis Cato on drums, his daughter, Madison McFerrin. Armand Hirsch, young guitar player who's very close friends with Julian Lage and sort of on that level. You know, just just like I was I was the least talented guy in the room. And it was like, this is a great kick in the pants.
Cid [00:51:44] Dave, if you were the least talented guy in the room, that I can't even... That that doesn't comprehend to me.
David [00:51:52] It was a great situation to be in. I mean, that's the thing. It's kind of crack in the sky is like getting in a situation that that for one reason or other by inspiration or terror, like makes you willing to learn something.
Cid [00:52:04] Well, that's what I was just going to say, is that. Those moments of you saying, oh, my God, I got to practice because I'm playing with all these jazz guys, you know, even just practicing so that you could go out and improvise maybe something a little more different than you would have five years before or something like that. You know, it's just those are all the things that people don't always understand. And that inspiration comes from practice, you know, and it comes from, you know, paying attention and being aware of your surroundings. And that's another thing that that I love about you and your example, because you're one of those guys, unlike me, who, you know, I'm just... OK, I pick up the guitar. I don't even know what chords I'm playing half the time, you know. And you know, yeah, I can write a song and yes, I can play and yes, I have a career and all that stuff. And I could play a little bit of this and a little bit of that and whatever. But, you know, you're one of those guys who picks up anything and suddenly it's there. Now, what we know and what we find out by talking about things like this, is that you go and learn, you go, yes, you have a great talent, but you go and learn and practice and practice and practice to be to do what you do.
David [00:53:23] I always played things that were related to one another. I mean, like I took lessons on the violin. But, you know, it's like I don't know what made me decide that I have learned guitar, whether it was If I Had A Hammer by Peter, Paul and Mary, or if was I Want to Hold Your Hand or both.
Cid [00:53:42] The same things we all learned.
David [00:53:43] Yeah, I started picking up guitar from like really early age, I don't know, nine or eight or nine or something. And I was obsessed with it. And then everything else I sort of like broke out from there. But I mean, like I say...from Bobby McFerrin's band... Like Louis Cato. Right now he's he plays with John Batiste in the Colbert house Band, who, of course, due to the pandemic is not working. But of course, Louis always working and he plays everything. He plays bass, drums, guitar, trombone, tuba. I mean, you know... Things that aren't even related and he sings. He's an amazing singer.
Cid [00:54:30] So this ladies and gentlemen. Yeah, but this this, ladies and gentlemen, is what somebody who plays nineteen hundred instruments is talking about, somebody who plays two thousand instruments. So, you know, let's let's put that where that is. But let me go let me just say this, Dave, because we're going to wrap up in a few minutes. But it's just... I mean, we could talk for hours and hours and hours with David Mansfield because because he is David Mansfield and he's got all this history that is just so deep. But anyway... I want to just list just a few, a few of the artists that you've played with, the thousands of people, I'm exaggerating, but maybe not. And when you put the bands together and everything... Johnny Cash, Rosanne Cash, Roger McGuinn, Lucinda Williams, Loudon Wainwright III, Ry Cooder, Dwight Yoakam, John Mellencamp. And you worked with him as Johnny Cougar.
David [00:55:30] Johnny Cougar. And what a good name that was.
Cid [00:55:33] I have the story on how he got that name, but we won't go into that.
David [00:55:37] Yeah, because you guys shared management company.
Cid [00:55:40] And he didn't know it. But that's a whole nother thing, OK. John Mellencamp, Dar Williams, Victoria Williams, The Roaches, Vince Bell, Lone Justice, Darden Smith, Bob Neuwirth who we've talked about. Willie Nile, Beck, Linda Thompson, Amos Lee, Jacob Dylan, T Bone Burnett who we've talked about. Yo La Tengo. Norah Jones?
David [00:56:03] Oh yeah we did. We did. We did a thing live. Yeah.
Cid [00:56:07] And Iggy Pop. Wait! Iggy Pop. Norah Jones slash Iggy Pop, the last two. I mean just that alone, you know, the spectrum of people and those that's not that's not all. That's not all of the people. And it's just it's just...
David [00:56:27] I've had an amazing, you know, blessed career as a musician.
Cid [00:56:33] A career as a musician, career as a film scorer. And we didn't mention that you're married to Maggie Greenwald, who is...
David [00:56:40] A filmmaker.
Cid [00:56:41] An incredible filmmaker who made one of my favorite films of all time, The Ballad of Little Joe, which you scored. And you know why I'm, I love that film.
David [00:56:51] Yes. And The Ballad of Little Cid.
Cid [00:56:56] Little Cid, and yeah, OK. You can score that one, too. But... And she did she wrote and directed The Songcatcher, which you all which is a beautiful film about curating all these songs from Appalachia.
David [00:57:13] Yeah. The old folk music.
Cid [00:57:15] Right. And and others. Many others. And Maggie is also a dear friend. And I just want to... I guess I'll wrap it up here, because, you know, even though there's so much more to talk about. David Mansfield, my dear friend, and I do want to reiterate to the audience how dear of a friend David Mansfield is to me and how he has been there for me and some of my... Some really bad, hard moments in my life and he's been there. I also want to say one thing. David Mansfield asked me to be best man at his wedding with Maggie...
David [00:58:00] I knew.
Cid [00:58:01] In 1990, what was it, nineteen ninety... What was it?
David [00:58:04] Four.
Cid [00:58:06] Ninety four. He asked me to be best man at his wedding with Maggie before... Was like 15 years before.
David [00:58:15] That's the thing, like when I read something, a quote about Elton, about you, that when he found out about your transition, how shocked he was... I said, anybody that really knows Cid would not ever be shocked.
Cid [00:58:26] No. And my daughter even said, Mom, it's not like anybody's going to know the difference, you know? Anyway, Dave, you're you're just one of my...
David [00:58:38] A lot of water under the bridge...
Cid [00:58:40] A lot of water. And I hope there's more, you know, can we have more?.
David [00:58:44] There certainly will be.
Cid [00:58:44] Because, you know, I miss you. Well, we are going to have more. Hey,.
David [00:58:49] Yeah, we are going to play together.
Cid [00:58:50] That's right! And before we go, I mean, we've got to promote and not just promote, but talk about your series. Go ahead. The Fallout Shelter series.
David [00:58:59] Yeah, well, I have a house in West Orange, New Jersey, and I discovered that there was a 1961 steel fallout shelter under my front lawn that nobody knew about.
Cid [00:59:11] Because you were taking out a tree, right?
David [00:59:13] It was under some bushes, dead bushes and stuff. And anyway, it sort of became an excuse like, you know, have a gimmick to start a house concert streaming series out of my home studio--during the pandemic, not quite during lockdown, but early on, like in the summer, when none of us could play and we were all dying to play, you know. So we just take like three musicians or something and socially distance and wear masks. And and then for the gimmick, you know, we would do a tune at the end of it, like in the fallout shelter. But the bulk of the show is, you know, in my living room. Yeah, I my home studio is in the floor below and we've done maybe half a dozen of them so far. I mean, no, I mean a dozen of them so far. And it's just been a wonderful antidote to this. We can't have, you know, an audience actually in front of us, but musicians sitting together in a room, playing together, live, socializing and playing music is so healing during this time. So it's been a really wonderful thing for me this summer. And I'm just sort of continue on and. I mean, live music in a room is not coming back anytime soon.
Cid [01:00:42] No.
David [01:00:44] I may keep this going even past that point because it's been so much fun. But but certainly for the next year, while there's no touring and all that kind of stuff.
Cid [01:00:55] No. And I mean, it's and it's now isn't WBAi in New York City carrying it? Is that happening?
David [01:01:03] There's a show called Folk Radio that's on weekly. And so like every month, month and a half, they'll air a compilation.
Cid [01:01:12] Oh, good. And it's and it's online and I can hear it online.
David [01:01:15] You can listen WBAI.org. The Fallout Shelter series. You can stream it and you can see the shows are usually on Sunday afternoons. I have a Facebook page called the Fallout Shelter. You can see in there. And if you miss them, they're all archived in like a Web series, which is also mirrored on YouTube. Again, you know, the Fallout Shelter concerts, very, very easy to Google and find.
Cid [01:01:46] OK, and you've had who on there so far, Richard Thompson.
David [01:01:50] We had a couple of Thompson's. My first guest was Teddy, Richard's son, who is an old pal. And also these are all friends of mine, you know. Like it's not like nobody's been on, you know, I don't know. It's not ... You know. But yeah, Teddy did it. Richard did it with his girlfriend, Zara Phillips, Laura Cantrell...
Cid [01:02:14] Diana Jones...
David [01:02:15] Diana Jones, Marshall Crenshaw, Byron Isaacs and Peter Cole have a project called Lost Leaders. Byron's now in The Lumineers. Rochelle Garnier, brilliant artist from here in New York City.
Cid [01:02:29] Well, that's that's a good it's a good start.
David [01:02:32] Yeah. I was looking for other ways to connect...
Cid [01:02:34] And, you know, I'm starting this podcast because of the pandemic and we start out with our friends. That's what we do. And and luckily, we have good friends who are talented people. Yeah, but Dave, you know I love you, madly.
David [01:02:49] Yeah, same here.
Cid [01:02:49] I'll be up there to do your Fallout Shelter series. And I'm looking forward to it because I have not played in the same room with musicians yet.
David [01:02:59] Yeah, it's a big deal.
Cid [01:03:00] So, Dave, David Mansfield, the multi instrumentalist film scorer, old friend. I mean, God. Forty five years, DAVE.
David [01:03:11] Yep. And counting.
Cid [01:03:13] I will see you soon. Love you and see you after the holidays. Let's keep cracking the sky.