The entire flight home was filled entirely with thoughts about how I screwed up letting Lorenza slip away from me. I could not blame her. I made her wait around all these many years, with little hope I would actually return. But on the other side, I was not healed enough to really give her what she needed and deserved from me. So I had to accept the premise that I was not ready for another relationship until now. It was a constant battle in my brain for the entire two hour plane ride home.
I drove myself home from the airport to an empty house. What could all the excitement be about at home when no one was even there to greet me? I started to unpack my things when the phone rang. It was Rose letting me know that the girls where over at her house for dinner and I was welcome to join everyone. When I declined the offer all I heard was “Look you stubborn man, get in your car and come to dinner, not another word.” I was not really in the mood for a big family dinner but if I didn’t go I knew I would only be in bad straits with Rose. I told her I would be along soon.
I cleaned myself up, put on a fresh shirt, and drove over to the in-law’s farm. My girls met me outside when I pulled up with huge hugs and looking like they had just cured cancer for a second time. “Dad we were looking for you for a couple of days where have you gone off to this time? It’s not like you to take off and not tell us” Diana asked me. I told them both that I made a quick trip to Europe to finish up some business but I was home now. Also I was about to sell the New York apartment. “What were you doing in Europe, you have no business there?” I told Diana “I really don’t want to talk about it. I am home for a while now.” Deborah started to laugh at me like she knew something I didn’t then continued. “Let’s have some dinner and you can tell us all about why you would go to Europe for like two days, my dear grumpy father.” She was never at a loss for words.
We walked inside and I greeted Rose. We wandered into the back room where George was watching a baseball game on television. I sat down on the tired sofa with one daughter on each side of me leaning into me with affection when Rose stated “Dinner will be ready shortly.” George gave me this stupid smirk and asked “What the hell were you doing in Europe for two days. No one but a crazy fool goes to Europe for two days.” Finally I had enough of the questions and I let them all know. “I went to Italy to find Lorenza, ok! I failed. I could not find her so I came home, I hope everyone had a good laugh about it so now can we just eat and let me forget about her.” Deborah lets out a large laugh “That’s going to be hard Dad since she is having dinner with us.” “Come again” I remarked. “Dad you told us after the show for mom that you wanted Lorenza to come and visit, so we made the reservations for you. We knew you would be too stubborn to do it, so we did it for you. She’s been here for two days waiting on you. We wanted to surprise you but when we could not find you, we didn’t know what to do. She is in the other room waiting for you.” It had been a long emotional few days and I was not sure how much more I could take of all this. I jumped up from the sofa with a pounding heart and rushed across to the kitchen and into her arms. I will admit it felt very odd kissing her in my in-laws house but they seemed very happy for me. Since they had always been very gracious to me maybe it should have not felt so odd, but it did.
We had a wonderful home cooked meal like only Rose could prepare. Lorenza told me all about her journey. Her parents had sold their house to her cousin but he had not moved in yet. They had waited until the end of her school year so not to interrupt her life too much. Lorenza informed me that she didn’t want to buy her parents house since she was not sure if she would living in her home town in the future. When I dared to ask why she only gave me a long stare and asked if I could really be so stupid. “Is it not time to close the space between oceans?” I knew she was right but in my independent guy mind, my first thought was, will I really going to be losing my quiet home? I know it’s a guy thing. After my brief moment of insanity, I knew it was time to make a life and home with Lorenza.
After a few days of enjoying each other’s company, it was time to get serious about our future. I could sense that she was not ready to make a move to the hills of North Carolina full time and leave her elderly parents. I decided that we would find a small villa near where her parents were moving. They were both moving into a retirement community. After I closed on the sale of my New York apartment, I could take some of the proceeds to buy a comfortable place in Italy. It seemed like a fair compromise. I was not used to having to make that type of compromise, other than with band mates for many years.
Lorenza and I took a trip to New Jersey to see my parents, then up to New York to sign the papers to close on my apartment. It was not something I had to do but I wanted Lorenza to enjoy New York for a few days. The real reason was I took her to New York was to propose to her at the top of the Empire State building. We talked about getting married that week but she wanted to have her parents to be there. We decided to get married in Italy.
We quickly made plans. I flew my girls and parents to Italy for a small ceremony in an ancient Roman church. My mother had never been outside of the United States, so I felt happy to be able to help her visit another country. I had never considered that she had never been to Europe. My dad had been oversees serving in the army but never as a civilian. Lorenza was a very gracious host showing my family around Italy. My mom had a hard time walking long distances, especially in the heat, so we made short day trips. It was the longest time I had spent with them since my first wedding. I was happy we saved the ceremony for Italy. We also found a beautiful small home near Lorenza’s parent’s and packed up many of her belongings. We all flew home after three weeks in Italy. A few weeks later Lorenza and I had a real honeymoon with two weeks in Hawaii. We decided to leave the girls and parents home this time.
When returning home the girls were about ready to return to school. Deborah tried to let her rebellious side come out when she informed me that “school is no longer for me.” I let her know that was not a problem for me but she no longer had access to my credit card or check book. School became a better option within seconds. After both girls returned to classes, it was time for me to get my career back on track. I called Linda to see if she had any ideas. She told me that she was considering recording a disk made up of Broadway show tunes. I thought the idea had some merit and after speaking with Duke he had agreed to produce it. I would play guitar. The issue was how would it be released? Carl had told me the little smarmy man in the Armani suit kept calling his office wanting to know when our next record would be finished. Carl was under orders to inform him that The Overture was no longer making new music. However after being home with Lorenza for a short time, I knew sitting home watching the deer feed in the back yard was not a viable option. After all how many board games can one play with a new wife and mother in law?
Lorenza and I flew to New York to meet with some retired record executives including Carl’s dad. It was decided that I would create my own independent record label. The old tapes from the trio with Linda, Debby and me would be the initial disk to be released. I was talking with Linda to allow me to release her upcoming disk. I sat with Carl and we created EA records. Carl and Duke both became minority share holders in the company. I tried to entice Linda and Debby to join in as well but both passed on the offer. Billy was broke and Sasha was interested but by the time she could make up her mind, we had created the company. I made Billy an offer to start up a blues band and I would add him to our list but he wanted no part of leading another band. I spent the next several months getting the label organized, as well as scouting a few bands to add to the label. I did add my daughter Deborah’s band to our label but only if I approved of the final songs. She agreed, despite her initial grumbles. It also gave me an excuse to get out of the house sometimes. Lorenza and I were getting along great but it had been years since I had to think about anyone expect my girls.
While at home, Lorenza wanted to hear me play and sing. That gave me an excuse to keep up my skills, as well as continue to w
rite new songs. My last solo disk ended up selling pretty well over time mostly because it had received several good reviews. The bottom line was it was a good record. So it was time to record another solo disk, only this time was really going to be a solo disk. It would be me with my Martin guitar. I named it Dylan James “Alone with One”. I recorded the entire disk at my home studio, over the course of the next several months, while getting the new company up and running.
After several months of stop and go we finally released the “Evolution” album that I had recorded several years earlier with Linda and Debby on the new label. I hired a first class web designer since our business plan used the internet extensively. I didn’t know the power of the internet until it all came to light that my girls and Lorenza had become close via the internet before they invited her back to the Unites States and we married. It seems they spoke to her far more via emails than I ever did over the telephone. It is a big reason why they never asked about her. I knew it was time for me to understand the power of the internet and computers. EA records would take advantage of a new way to market products.
Linda was not having much luck selling her show tunes disk which surprised me since I heard a few of the demos and they sounded great. Since Duke was associated with our new label, he agreed to produce it for a smaller fee if she signed with EA records. She reluctantly agreed. She still refused to fly so we had to record the disk in California. Lorenza went back to see her parents for a couple of months while I went to the west coast to record Linda’s disk. We used Billy on drums along with mostly studio musicians. Duke played bass on four of the tracks and I played guitar. In the end, I thought it was a winner. It was released mostly in the big cities. We were working with a limited budget as well as limited distribution channels. We also made it available on our web site as well as online companies who specialized in internet sales. The future seemed to be in internet sales as opposed to old style record stores. It was all a big learning curve for me but one I was willing to accept.
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Chapter 29
Diana graduated from Duke University in May of 2005. She wanted to tour Europe for a month before looking for work, so I paid for her trip as a graduation gift. She had graduated with honors and had worked very hard in school. I felt she deserved the trip. Deborah wanted to join her but after seeing her grades, she was lucky I let her return home to eat and sleep. She was not giving her best at school. She was letting her band consume her school time and I was not pleased. She was constantly asking me to hear her band play live. I finally agreed once I returned from California. I was impressed with some of the musical abilities of the band members but the song writing was very weak. Deborah had improved as a player but they didn’t have good enough material to make a record. I told the band to get better songs then we would talk again. It made for a very cold summer at home with Deborah not happy with my critique of her band’s songwriting abilities. She needed to learn it was not easy to make a record. Just because I was her dad, I was not going to fool her into thinking her band was better than they were. I offered her and the band two of my songs but they seemed intent on writing their own material. I think the real reason for turning it down was they considered my music “old peoples music” but that music had built a comfortable life for all of us.
The next year I focused on the new label and was constantly looking for new bands to sign. I was working much harder than I had anticipated. I wanted to go back to playing in a band but was stuck for now. Linda’s show tunes disk received a fair amount of radio play and turned gold a year after the release. A second one was now in the works. She was previously not sure I was going to be able to promote it enough to get national attention but I was learning quickly the power of internet marketing. It also helped the sales of my personal releases as well as the Evolution release with all the attention first coming from Linda’s disk. Our independent label was now turning a profit. Duke signed up one of the bands he had been producing to our company, as well as a band I had discovered from some demos sent to me by Debby. My own daughter was still grumbling about recording her band but I still felt the songs were too weak. I asked Duke for his opinion in case I was being too biased against her but he thought even less of them than I did. They had talent but had lousy original songs.
Diana was now working for the rehab center, where I had been many years earlier. She was doing very well with them and seemed very content. She was living at home with me and Lorenza to save money for her own place. She had a boyfriend with whom she was serious however she was still focused on getting her career going before getting married. Diana seemed to be on the right track with her life and I was very pleased with how she had matured. One night at dinner, she told me about how her building needed some upgrades but her company was not willing to do what she thought was really necessary. I questioned if maybe it was more about funding and not they didn’t want to upgrade. Since I knew the owner from my time there, I knew it was a small independently owned business. I called the next day to see if I could help in some way. Christina the owner told me that she had considered selling the business since she was growing tired of it all. That’s all I had to hear. I called Carl and within a few days the Elise Andrews Rehabilitation Center was formed. We used the trust money to buy into the business while keeping Christina in charge for another three years. She would train Diana to take over the business in the future. Christina would also keep a minority stake in the business since we didn’t have enough money to buy her out completely. I think it was all a shock to her and she didn’t really want to retire completely, so this was a good transition for everyone. It all seemed to make perfect sense.
My younger daughter was a completely different story. Deborah had so much ability but could never seem to focus. She was so obsessed with her band. Her class work was still suffering. She was doing ok in school with average grades but I knew she was capable of much better. I made her an offer one day while she was home visiting. If she got straight A’s for one full year, I would record her band. If she made the honor roll she could either play guitar with me on my next disk or I would find her studio work with another band. She accepted the offer. I also told her that I really didn’t want to run the label forever. However, I would not turn it over to someone with average grades in school.
Carl called and asked what I knew about Afghanistan. There was a request for The Overture to play for the troops over there. I was willing to do it, as were a few others, but Linda wanted no part of flying that far, even if it was on military planes. It also was not really feasible to take too many instruments so Debby, Duke and I went for several days to a base in Sharana then later to Bagram. Lorenza was not happy that I had agreed to go. Not because she didn’t see a need but she feared for my safety. I will admit to having been scared as well but it was something I felt I had to do. It also fed my desire to stop running the company for a few weeks. It allowed me to play music with some old friends again. I had never played for troops overseas, only within the cozy confines or our nation. For the three of us, it was about putting on a good show. For the troops, it was only about seeing someone from home. I am not sure how much they paid attention to the music versus watching Debby strut across the stage like she had not done in many years. Towards the end of the show in Sharana, we had to end it prematurely since there was a suicide bomber who blew up a truck near the facilities main gate. It was a quick reminder we were playing in a war zone. It also made me question how so many people could use religion as an excuse for devastation. It was something I don’t think I would ever come to understand. We made two other trips over the coming years.
Deborah as expected raised her grades to straight A’s her first semester of her senior year at University of North Carolina. When I asked how she could do that so easily during her last year and not the three previous ones her only remark was, “The classes are easier in your senior year dad.” Somehow I didn’t remember that being true but if she wanted to use that as a reason, I d
idn’t care.
Linda’s second release of show tunes went gold as well. In fact the record label was doing so well that Carl called one day to let me know that my old record label was interested in purchasing our company. Carl of course only saw it as in investment and tried to get me to sell it. I knew I could not let all I had built, end up in the hands of that idiot who wanted The Overture to be a hip hop band. I declined the offer much to Carl’s objections. Duke and I bought out Carl’s share. Lorenza wanted me to focus more on her and spending time in Italy but I was driven to make the record company a success. I would visit our home in Italy with her from time to time but I wanted to prove I could run a successful business.
A Beautiful Song: A Musical Soul Story Page 27