Last night my brother and I hashed out some cello parts in time for today’s cello session; it’s an intriguing multi-level balancing act, this “producing together” thing, especially when it comes to the cello parts we write out. I LOVE the cello! –the canyon-wide range, soaring heights, smooth deeps as well as the jagged edges. In our context for Zehnder, it’s that third vocal, that third stringed instrument, the magic three -somebody stop me before I start calling it the holy spirit of this band’s trinity :0/ All that to say, my challenge is to write less; I’m easily swayed into letting the cello burst all over the song; and yet, it needs to breathe and be more than just the long sustained notes that Adrienne has affectionately referred to as “laying eggs.” It needs to add and not detract; and, the real challenge, be a part that both Tom and I agree does all that. Now THAT’s walking the wire over Niagara, ain’t it? But I must admit, it’s a real pleasure to strip away all the really good ideas and wind up with the essence of what needs to be there; it’s an adventure I would not want to take with anyone else, not that anyone else could stand to go with me; thank God for twin brothers!

It’s been about a month since Chet, my brother-in-law died at 45 of cancer and over a year since my dad died of another cancer… life has taken on a certain immediacy; just the other day, mom had me and my brother going through dad’s closet looking at shirts/shoes I might need- always thought it convenient we (that’s dad and his two sons) were roughly the same size. I had completely put out of my mind that my mom still had all these clothes that my brother and I had jokingly referred to as “must-steals” when dad would hold it up out of the gift box on some Christmas morning. We told stories; many were the familiar and a surprising number were newly delicious. The night ended with me muscling hangers and bags heavy with memories, “stealing away with the must-steals,” a pun I can just hear my dad saying. And I realize as I write this, I have managed to wear something of dad’s every day since. I guess I always will.