The silver lining of the pandemic has been families gathering via zoom -- this lovely song captures the feeling so beautifully -- I knew I had to make a video
At this past December's Urban Stages Winter Rhythm Concerts produced by Tom Toce, when I heard this song sung by Karen Akers, I knew I could create a video for it, because every Sunday when my brother Jimmy reads one of our Dad's letters my sister Jody turns the camera on. Our Dad wrote 278 letters of courtship to our Mom during World War II, Jimmy rescued them from being tossed out and every week he chooses one -- sometimes two -- to read aloud to us.
At first I asked Bob Levy, author of the lyrics of "My Sister & Brother & I," if he had any of his zooms filmed -- but alas, he did not. He DID have still shots from his zooms, so I used those to "bookend" the video, then went about looking through our family zooms. Because there are 9 kids in my family chances are good someone might be having a birthday, so Jody figured out a way to do the traditional candle-blowing-out via zoom, and we went with that idea. Plus, Jody lives in Virginia, and the first line of the song is, "I've got a sister who lives in Virginia . . ." and that was a perfect fit.
Journalist Stephen Mosher wrote a story about the song that debuted today at BroadwayWorld.com -- Karen Akers has starred in two different Broadway shows during her career -- "Nine" and "Grand Hotel" -- plus numerous films and on concert stages around the world. She's an international diva who travels the globe, so she knows how important it is to keep up with our families.
Think of this song by Bob Levy and Alex Rybeck as a reminder to reach out to your loved ones and stay in touch:
And as a bonus -- my sister Jody moonlights for ESPN+ as game analyst for American University's Women's Basketball team -- here's highlights from Saturday's game against Navy. Jody is the only girl in our family who broke the 5'2" barrier, plus she was All-American in college. She really knows her bball! I won't tell you who won.
Jody Lavin Patrick & Dan Laing call American University vs. Navy (2 hours condensed to 38 minutes)
Ciao!
Christine