Although I am so so so sorry about the passing of our friend, Jack. I am so honoured by this incredible letter I received today from his beautiful wife, Louise, with regards to the comfort she is receiving from HOPE IS. God be praised. May it continue to bring comfort and peace.
Saturday brought many gifts with it : family, sunshine, and a gathering of new friends at Two Bodies of Water Studios ! Jason Homyshin had no trouble manoeuvring the doorways with his electric wheelchair and he brought along his …shall we say..” co-writer “, Champ ( a red, stuffed dog :) for good luck.
We were all in a giggly mood and that was the start of a ton of fun in the studio that afternoon. James Seabrook layed down the bass after his friend , Jeff, nailed the perfect classic rock drum tracks.
Jason cannot hide his excitement as well as we can so it seemed that he was liking what he heard. Yay!
Then Terry Bachynski, myself, and James recorded some harmony vocal tracks before we had to take our leave. James will finish up with the lead, electric guitar and a mix of the song at a later time. It was fun writing the music to Jason’s lyrics and I look forward to hearing the final version. Thanks for the apples, James . Terry got a home made pie out of them . ( And thank you to James’ care-giver , Félipé, for helping James communicate so easily with us and getting him to the studio.)
Meeting Jason for the first time was a pleasure.
Jason started out his life being starved of oxygen for his first hour and has spent the rest of his 40 something years as a quadriplegic person. It might even seem sad …until you meet him.
Jason is a joyful songwriter who loves Elvis and the Edmonton Eskimos with equal passion. This is witnessed when you enter his Artspace Apartment in which every available wall space is taken up with photos, posters, concert stubs, pennants…and every flat service holds some sort of tribute to football from his Eskimos’ helmets to his mini, ‘nerf’ footballs.
Although Jason has care-givers he is remarkably able with the use of his electric wheelchair, writing board, electric word board and a computer he uses which activates everything in the apartment from opening the door to turning off a fan.
It was really fascinating to witness Jason working all of these things and he had many questions all ready pre-programmed for me! Jason doesn’t use his voice as we do but he can point to any letter or word very quickly and speak that way.
I was honoured to hear a couple of his previous songs on his computer.
He has a wicked sense of humour ( like me) so I think we will get along fine. ( For example he told me he was born and came out IN that chair..ha ha)
Looking forward to our Saturday at Two Bodies of Water Studios where we will record Jason’s and my co-write called Freedom !
A while back a wonderful man named Jason ( who just happens to be quadriplegic) found me here at this website and asked me if I would be willing to take a look at the lyrics of his song called Freedom !
He needed someone to write the music. Since I had just returned home from TOUR and had found new ‘freedom’ myself I agreed to check them out.
Since that time I have done a few rewrites and I have his final approval. The music came surprisingly quickly and I am excited to move forward with this project.
In fact, all of our correspondence has so far happened via email ( as Jason does not ‘speak ‘ in the usual way I am told ) .
This week I will finally meet the man and his care giver. I can’t wait!
Then , very shortly , we head to the studio where Jason will have first hand experience in witnessing the very first professional recording of his new song. I have requested the assistance of James Seabrook at Two Bodies of Water Studios in Edmonton , a drummer whom I have yet to meet and from Terry Bachynski to help me produce the song.
This is a song with a ‘Queen ‘ – like vibe. I hope he likes it!
