It seemed fitting that the departing president of Berklee College of Music would release a song as his send-off.
Roger H. Brown, who is concluding his 17-year tenure at the helm of Berklee on June 30, released the music video for the bluegrass tune “Self-Unemployed” on June 24. The song, which Brown co-wrote, features the musical stylings of four Berklee alums with singer-songwriter Trey Hensley on acoustic guitar and vocals, and a one-time vice presidential candidate, Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, on harmonica.
“Part of what I decided to do during the pandemic year is spend a little time writing songs just for my mental health,” Brown said in an interview. “We’ve been working on it most of the year, and my departure [was] a way to create a deadline.”
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Brown and Kaine, who have been friends for nearly four decades, came up with the idea for the song while on a bike trip up the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia in August 2020.
“When we were on the ride, having a lot of fun one night with a couple of beers, I said, ‘I thought of a great title for a song,’” Kaine said in a behind-the-scenes video for the song. “Lo and behold, six months later, February, I get a note from Roger saying ‘Hey, you know that ‘Self-Unemployed’ song?’”
Brown and Kaine worked with Berklee songwriting professor Mark Simos to pen the song. Berklee alumni Sierra Hull, Matt Rollings, Jordan Perlson, and Garry West joined the others to lay down the full track with Hensley.
The song is available for download through Apple Music and Spotify, under the band name “Wahoo Springs Band,” an homage to Brown’s Georgian roots.
Brown said that he — much like the song’s protagonist — is looking forward to giving up some of the pressures that come with his full-time job, but was glad he got a chance to “be in the mix” one last time.
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“It just feels like the right thing to do, to be part of the creative process that our students are all involved in,” he said. “If we expect our students to be out there figuring this out and hustling, it’s good for us to be doing the same thing.”
Dana Gerber can be reached at dana.gerber@globe.com
June 27, 2021 at 10:28PM
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/06/27/lifestyle/departing-berklee-president-releases-musical-send-off-featuring-senator-tim-kaine/
Departing Berklee president releases musical send-off — featuring Senator Tim Kaine - The Boston Globe
https://news.google.com/search?q=Send&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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