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Within the liner notes to his new album 1952, Steve Mednick writes, “Every morning I look mortality straight within the eye and declare: ‘There’s nonetheless a lot to do! Don’t mess with me! Please?’ ”
Then he provides, “The recovering politician in me is simply ‘in search of an prolonged time period.’ ”
You may need already guessed that Mednick named his CD for the 12 months he was born. “I made a decision to do that one as a result of I turned 70 final February,” he tells me. “It’s a time for reflection.”
“While you’re our age,” he notes, “you’re wanting again.” (He can say “our age” to me as a result of we’ve recognized one another for a few years and he’s conscious we’re contemporaries; I used to be born in 1950.)
Mednick’s CD has “a number of references to locations in my life,” together with Waterbury, the place he grew up; Milford, the place his household had a summer time house; and Hutchinson Island in Florida, the place he spends elements of the winter.
We met for our interview at Mednick’s expansive second-floor legislation workplace in downtown New Haven. The partitions mirror the mix of political creature and musician that has embodied his life. Listed below are images of his idols John F. Kennedy and Bob Dylan; solo pictures of George Harrison and John Lennon; Sen. Robert F. Kennedy on the marketing campaign path in 1968; the gang at Woodstock (Mednick was there, at 17). Political marketing campaign buttons and biographies of public figures fill the bookshelves.
A kind of buttons says “Mednick.” He served on New Haven’s Board of Aldermen from 1982 to 1992. Then, reaching greater, he ran for a seat on the state Senate however misplaced. “I by no means ran for something once more,” he says. “Politics is a really wearying career for individuals who have households.” He and his spouse Marlene have a daughter, a son and two grandchildren.
That political defeat is addressed in a tune on the CD. Its chorus: “Typically I sit right here remembering the elements that didn’t come my approach.”
When requested to specify these misplaced “elements,” Mednick acknowledges, “I by no means obtained to the state Senate; I most likely would’ve wished to go greater after that. And I assumed being named a choose would’ve been a good way to finish a profession. However you may’t grow to be a choose when you’ve turned 70.”
Mednick says of that tune: “It’s not a lament, only a truth of life. The truth that I’m not a choose doesn’t diminish my life. It’s only a reflection that life doesn’t all the time go your approach. That’s true for almost everyone.”
As with lots of Mednick’s earlier albums — 1952 is his twentieth — his lyrics typically mirror his liberal political beliefs, the despair of dwelling by the Donald Trump presidency and worrying about what comes subsequent. His tune “Misplaced and Discovered” has these strains: “The material has been torn. I’m drained, I’m worn. Is there a silver lining within the darkest cloud?” And in “Ready to Derail” Mednick sings: “We’re in a state of shock. The burden of this unhappy time. We’re all islands shouting lies throughout seas of confusion.”
“How might an album not have reference to this world we reside in?” Mednick asks me. “Of the 20 albums I’ve finished, 5 – 6 have the theme ‘Issues in Democracy.’ I attempt to inform tales in a approach that’s not miserable or polarizing. I name it ‘historical past you may dance to.’ I’m now recording the following ‘Issues in Democracy.’ It’s titled On the Brink. I might like to make an album referred to as Pleased Days Are Right here Once more. I hope I reside lengthy sufficient to try this.”
Mednick is now 20 years into his musical revival. “Once I turned 50, certainly one of my outdated mates stated, ‘Why don’t we re-form our band?’ We had a band in highschool in Waterbury referred to as the Avengers. I hadn’t touched an instrument in a few years.”
The Avengers re-assembled. “And I began writing songs. The following factor I knew, I used to be in a studio. I assumed, ‘Gee, possibly I ought to document among the songs I’ve been writing.’ This has been one of the vital enriching intervals of my life.”
Within the 1952 liner notes, Mednick credit his producer Isaac Civitello, “whose acuity and generosity of spirit within the studio made my desires come true.” Mednick hopes the band can get on the highway once more within the spring or summer time. They don’t have ceaselessly — “In our band ‘the infant’ is 60 and certainly one of us is 75 or 76.”
This isn’t about cash. “I’ve obtained 260 printed songs and I haven’t monetized it. I lately noticed someone I hadn’t seen in a few years and he or she informed me, ‘I lastly obtained to hearken to your CD.’ I requested her what she thought and he or she stated, ‘I want you hadn’t requested. You received’t be on the duvet of Rolling Stone.’ I stated, ‘I do know that!’ ”
“Some folks do that since you’re referred to as to do it. I don’t think about this a pastime. It’s a calling. It’s like a painter. You’re moved by a imaginative and prescient and also you paint your image.”
Mednick is aware of he’s fortunate to have a profitable “day job” to pay the payments. This isn’t true for a lot of musicians. “I really feel for the folks I work with. I see folks on the market daily, making music and barely getting by. The state of the music trade is an abomination for the musician. It’s a travesty that working musicians must work one other job. It’s a tragedy for them and for this nation. A brand new WPA [Works Progress Administration] could be an essential factor for working musicians. Everyone ought to have an opportunity, an actual shot at making a dwelling off their work.”
You received’t discover Mednick’s CDs in document shops; you’ll have to go surfing to purchase one. He sends off his music to native radio stations akin to listener-supported WPKN in Bridgeport. “My songs get some play; I don’t assume loads.”
Mednick sees the struggles of musicians first-hand, as his principal consumer for his legislation enterprise is the New Haven Middle For Performing Arts Inc. “We developed the Faculty Avenue Music Corridor,” previously the Palace Theater in New Haven, “and we introduced reside music into the Westville Music Bowl,” a retrofit of the Connecticut Tennis Middle. He calls these new venues “my ardour initiatives.”
However Mednick couldn’t save one other venue, the New Haven Coliseum. “I represented SMG, the final operator of the Coliseum. We tried to chop a deal however [New Haven Mayor John] DeStefano wished to eliminate it. We had this facility — why destroy it? I nonetheless assume that was a loss.”
Towards the tip of our prolonged dialog about life, time and reminiscences, Mednick tells me, “I attempt to take a look at issues very positively. The final tune on 1952 is ‘Dwelling For Tomorrow.’ I nonetheless assume there’s tomorrow. I believe that’s the key to remaining glad and viable as a human — to search for tomorrow.”
Randall Seashore is a former columnist, reporter and music critic for the New Haven Register. His essays are on randallbeach.substack.com and he could be reached at rbeach8@yahoo.com.
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