ERNEST THOMPSON TO INTRODUCE SONGS SUNG BY RAY PORCELL THIS SATURDAY
(courtesy photo)
BRISTOL—Academy Award-winning writer of “On Golden Pond” Ernest Thompson will introduce 17 new songs in the intimate Back Room at The Mill Fudge Factory in Bristol on Saturday, June 2 at 7:30 pm. Composed and performed by his close friend Ray Porcell, a local legend in his own right, the songs will be introduced by Thompson, who will talk about their genesis and about the same creative process that has recently resulted in two Whitebridge Farm Productions films Thompson has shot in the Lakes Region, “Time and Charges” and “Heavenly Angle.” The first features the haunting “Wishes,” one of the new songs Thompson and Porcell have written and that Porcell will perform at The Back Room.
Thompson is internationally heralded for his plays and films, but his song-writing career is more of a secret passion. A prolific lyricist, he has worked with more than twenty composers in three countries, created end-credit songs for movies, a musical version of “On Golden Pond” called “Another Summer,” and scores of songs, including, most famously, “The Father Daughter Dance.“ Composed by his longtime collaborator Joe Deleault and the incomparable Carly Simon, whose heartbreaking recording Thompson uses in the Whitebridge Farm Productions presentation of “On Golden Pond” (the only production of this American classic play ever directed by Thompson), “The Father Daughter Dance” will be heard again this summer July 3 – August 12 at Pitman’s Freight Room in Laconia, along with the timeless song “On Golden Pond,” which brought Thompson and Deleault together with world-renowned fiddler Natalie MacMaster and singer Emily Flack.
For the film “Heavenly Angle,” Thompson has written new material with Deleault, including “The Little Town Tango,” also with MacMaster, and “Look Around,” soon to be recorded by Grammy winner Joan Osborne. Thompson’s newest plays, collectively titled “Political Suicide,” a Whitebridge Farm Productions presentation last winter at Pitman’s Freight Room, also showcase songs by Thompson and Deleault, “This Isn’t Your Party” and “Someone To Care,” sung respectively by up-and-coming recording artist Samantha Farrell and resident singer with the Saturday Night Live Band Christine Ohlman. “Political Suicide” will open in New York in the fall.
For tickets to Words and Music call (603) 744-0405 or go to www.themillfudgefactory.com and click on The Back Room.
To read this article in The Laconia Daily Sun, click here.
