If you've been following this blog, you already know that the Narrows recently held a benefit for the Olson family. Musician Jeff Olson had a close call with Legionnaire's Disease, which put him into a 10 day coma and stuck him in the hospital for several months. He's home now, but still unable to work. However, he should be back in the swing of things in December.
He asked me to share this note with you (I've actually edited it a bit with his permission):
"I want to express my gratitude to the folks at the Narrows as well as all the members of my 'real' and musical families for making the benefit last Sunday a great success. The Narrows is a first class facility with a premiere sound system. It costs money just to open the doors and someone has to give up their time to run the sound and handle the concessions and do the introductions.
"In addition to raising some badly needed money which will help retire our massive medical debt I was personally gratified that so many people contributed to the auction. We gave away some very valuable merchandise including a Baby Taylor guitar and a custom made drum by Ken Lovelett of American Percussion, an exotic bottle of wine and many other fine offerings. Barbara Kemper deserves most of the credit for getting out there and soliciting these donations as well as organizing the auction at the benefit. She worked long and hard on this and has my undying gratitude. Others who helped were Vincent Pasternak, and RISA (Rhode Island Songwriters Association) co-chair John Fuzek who peppered the RISA crowd with emails and contributed to the auction.
"The musical portion was truly magical. My older son Matt's band 'The Dyke Street Boys' opened the show with a lively set of what can best be described as 'cowboy punk. My other son Eric and Vincent Pasternak sat in with Matt on his solo material including a haunting tune called 'Gypsy. ' Fred Wilkes and Michelle Wilson got the open stage part of the program rolling with a rousing set of Dylan tunes that got the crowd singing along. Frank Gotwals, who made the trek from Central Maine, debuted some exciting new songs including a collaboration with Rick and Vincent. Mary Whelan came down from Northhampton and brought down the house with her tune 'Carol's Lament.' Dan Lilley of 'Lovetrain' and 'Forever Young' turned in a fine solo performance that culminated with a group version of 'I Shall Be Released.' Finally. Folks Together, my friends (and family), took the stage with my son Matt and Fred Wilkes covering for me. Of course I had to get into the act at some point and we ended up closing the evening with a spirited version of 'Lord Knows.'
"Finally, when Donna first told me that our good friend Rick Bellaire was putting this together I was a bit overwhelmed. Apparently Rick and (Rick's wife) Carleen along with Vincent and Elizabeth Pasternak, Barbara Kemper, you and (Narrows prez) Patrick Norton started planning this when I was still in a coma. I am very glad that I was able to cooperate and live long enough to attend. Much of the credit for me being there has to go to (Jeff's wife) Donna who refused to let me die and made sure that everything was being done to keep me breathing."
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