Pipp Gillette To Play Carnegie Hall in New York
By Greg Ritchie
Messenger Reporter
HOUSTON COUNTY – There’s an old joke about a man visiting the Big Apple.
“How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” he asks a passerby.
“Practice!” comes the answer.
In the case of local musician, poet and historian Pipp Gillette, that is a true statement, as years of practice – and a lifetime of interest in music and music history – led him to be included in a project with Andy Hedges called, “Roll On, Cowboys.” The upcoming event at the famed Carnegie Hall in New York is part of a series of album release concerts to promote the recent record of the same name.
Alongside Hedges and Gillette, the album and concert include 92-year-old Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Dom Flemons, Brenn Hill, Waddie Mitchell, Brigid Reedy, Tom Russell, Rod Taylor and Andy Wilkinson. Michael Martin Murphy and Randy Rieman were involved in the recording but will be unable to attend the New York show.
Gillette has seen his share of New York, when his mother from Lovelady moved to the big city to wow the locals with her innovative fashion designs and his father studied to be an actor.
At the concert in Lubbock, Hedges called Gillete on the stage to introduce him, saying he remembered being a young man and becoming fascinated with traditional cowboy music. He told Gillette he ordered a cassette from a magazine from the Gillette Brothers.
“Oh, so you were the one!” Gillette joked.
Joking aside, the effort is a way to showcase some of the great and lesser-known songs from the past, with Gillette and his brother reaching back as far as the 1820’s to find forgotten songs, adding their own lyrics to some of them.
“We were trying not to do the songs you’ve heard maybe five people do a version of,” Gillette explained. “We are always trying to find obscure stuff. I really enjoy giving the real history because so much of it is unknown – if people get their history about the West and cowboys from TV or movies – they’re really not getting any.”
As far as Gillette knows, the show will not be available on television or livestream, but is set for Friday, Mar. 22 for anyone who finds themselves in New York City next week. Tickets are onsite at www.carnegiehall.org.
Greg Ritchie can be reached at [email protected]
