This Train

News that I have neglected to share… I have been asked by the great artist Tony Fitzpatrick to become a part of the musical cast of his one man show entitled: “This Train” when he takes it to New York!!! Whoo hoo! Tony is a very successful artist who happens to reside in Chicago. I met him at a huge Art Show back in the early 90’s. He is a published author and artist. He has appeared in several major motion pictures and now has this successful one man show that enjoyed a sold out run at the Steppenwolf Theater here in Chicago.

I contacted him via Facebook after I heard that he was using a vocalist in the show. I told him to contact me if he ever needed another singer for a show. Then, weeks later, he emailed me and said he wanted to talk to me about joining the musical cast ( along with a guitarist) of his show when it goes to New York. You Know I was all over that. The show will go up at The Boiler performance space which is located in the hip, artsy Williamsburg neighborhood in Brooklyn.

We met at a nice restaurant downtown – I was late because I had the times wrong (OY!) but luckily I had gotten up early so I was able to get there at a decent hour. He didn’t care. The cool thing is Tony is one of those Chicago guys: an Earthy, smoking, drinking guy. A Studs Turkel, Williams S. Burroughs, no nonsense, poetic type – whose crazy artistic visions have led to a more than respectable level of success. He’s a big bear of a man with a boyish, rugged face (perfect for the character roles he gets cast for in movies) and a gruff voice perfect for telling his wonderful stories onstage. This man has lived. He’s wearing a big overcoat, funky hat and has a driver waiting to pick him up after our lunch. We bond immediately like old buddies. We were totally of the same mind, on the same page. There was no issue. We are gonna work great together. Plus I own one of his etchings! He along with a bunch of artists did a limited edition of drawings to benefit fire fighters and victims of 9/11 and sold them for accessible prices. I bought one at the Museum Of Contemporary Art for $250.00 – number 50 of 250 back in 2001. It was meant to be. “This Train” is supposed to go up in the mid winter (dab smack in the middle of my slow time) He’s paying well and will give me a piece of his original art!!!! And put me up in New York. Can you imagine the fun I will have? I will keep you posted as things develop, or not… you know, this is show business after all…