Evening at Lizard Lounge
To Honor Alexis Gewertz Shepard
By Susie Davidson
CORRESPONDENT
On March 31, 1998, singer/songwriter Alexis Gewertz Shepard was
hit and killed while biking to work, four days before she was to begin
recording her debut CD. This Saturday evening at the Lizard Lounge, 1667 Mass.
Ave., at 9 p.m., a bevy of local performers, accompanied by her bandmates Mike
Aiello, Jerry O'Hare and John Rapoza, will pay tribute to the memory of their
popular musical cohort as they release the posthumous CD they have completed.
Also appearing will be Ken Batts, Jim Bouchard, Dave Dersham,
Pacey Foster, Esther Friedman, The Gone Boys, Franc Graham, Sandi Hammond,
Karen Harris, Paul Kearnan, Deb Pasternak, Jenny Reynolds, Faith Soloway and
Nathan Thompson.
“There are plenty of catch phrases that could try and
explain how this record came about,” said lead guitarist and CD
co-producer O’Hare. "’In a perfect world you'd be holding the
debut CD by Alexis Shepard’" comes to mind, amongst other cliches
that truly don't do justice to the talent Alexis had to offer.”
.
At Shepard’s memorial service, her mother asked the
assembled if there was any way to get her songs recorded. A Dec. 27, 1997
acoustic radio show at Brandeis’ WBRS was quickly considered as a base
for this effort.
“We went into Zippah with studio producer Pete Weiss,”
said O’Hare, “as soon as we had the tapes in hand, and critically
listened to what we could do.” The performance quality varied, and no
drum tracks or other embellishments had been laid down. However, said
O’Hare, that was a good thing. “Even if the time was off on certain
tracks, we weren't stuck with a hastily recorded drum sound. Having only
acoustic guitars and minimal bass and backing vocals left a lot of room to
enhance the strongest songs.”
The BRS show was engineered by the station’s Sara Ravid,
with digital transferrance assistance from colleague Ofer Inbar. The CD
features Alexis Gewertz Shepard on lead vocal and rhythm guitar, John Rapoza on
bass guitar and backing vocals, Jerry O'Hare on lead guitar and mandolin and
Mike Aiello on drums and percussion. Contributors also include Kris Delmhorst
on backing vocals and cello, Faith Soloway on backing vocals and Jim Bouchard
on bass and slide guitar.
“The rehearsal of March 30 holds fond memories,” said
O’Hare, “as we knew we were onto something special. Alexis was
definitely in the zone. There was a run through of a song, 'Fixer-Upper,' where
her voice hung in the air, and time seemed to stop. There was all this range,
power, and underlying tenderness to her voice and songs that was so right,
perfect and inspiring.” Shepard’s writing, he said, was honest,
sincere, warm and funny all at the same time. “She was someone who could
poke fun at herself without being self-deprecating and make you think about
what she was saying long after the song ended.
“Sadly, the next day, the world for all of us close to her
got turned upside-down.”
“I first met Alexis back in 1987,” recalled
singer/songwriter Sandi Hammond, who will be peforming Shepard’s
“Not That Time” at the show. “I was a sophomore at Earlham
College out in Indiana and she was a freshman.” In fact, Hammond was
Shepard’s Hall Counselor. Since both were from Massachusetts, they
connected right at Moving Day. “I remember how proud her family was,
telling me she had been playing out in coffeehouses around Western
Mass.,” Hammond said, “and that she already had a following.”
At the first week of college, Shepard took off in a big way at an
open mike. “I'll never forget seeing her sitting there,” said
Hammond, “singing, rocking back and forth to the song. The next day the
buzz was about her and her beautiful voice.” The two remained friendly
and occasionally performed together. Following college, they reconnected
through the womens' issues-centered Respond compilation, which is dedicated to
her memory. “She, local musician Colleen Sexton and I had talked about
booking some three-way shows together that year. She was just about to start
recording her first CD.” Hammond went to her last performance, two days
before she died. “I was out with friends and dragged as many of them as I
could to hear her at the Kendall. That was a Saturday night. The accident was
Monday.”
“My biggest regret about Alexis,” said
singer/songwriter Esther Friedman, who will be singing the song Sagebrush, a
love song that Shepard wrote for her mother and stepfather, “is that I
didn't get to know her better when she was still with us. But what I knew of
her was a passionate, honest, compassionate, kind, creative, funny, tender, and
hugely talented writer and singer who left this world long before it was her
time to go.”
“They say only the good die young,” observed Hammond.
“When Alexis was killed, I surely wondered if that is true. She was just
so sweet, and so talented, and had a lot of writing and singing and living
ahead of her.”
A celebration of the life and music of Alexis Gewertz Shepard will
take place this Saturday, Dec. 14 at 9 p.m. at the Lizard Lounge, 1667 Mass.
Ave., Cambridge. For information, please call 617-547-0759.