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<\/p>\nIn an unprecedented burst of creativity, New York City musician Brian MacWilliams wrote some 300 songs in the space of just a few years. Midway through that streak, he was diagnosed with ALS (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, often known as Lou Gehrig’s disease). But a community of friends and supporters \u2013 in New York, Asheville and beyond \u2013 has come together for MacWilliams. Two concurrent projects are underway: one is an album of MacWilliams’ songs, provisionally titled Being Here<\/i>; the other is Brian’s Songs<\/i>, a documentary that tells his story.<\/p>\n
Before his illness, Brian MacWilliams was an enthusiastic outdoorsy type. Surfing and snow skiing were among his favorite pursuits. He often shared those activities with two of his best friends, Asheville videographer\/musician Scott Reese, and next door neighbor and documentary filmmaker Michael Rossatto-Bennett. \u201cBrian skied as though he was running out of time,\u201d says Rossatto-Bennett. \u201cIt was like he wanted to achieve a certain level of mastery before his body was old.\u201d<\/p>\n
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MacWilliams was also putting his heart and soul into music; he and Rossatto-Bennett would play guitar together every night. \u201cWe\u2019d start around 10 o\u2019clock at night, and we\u2019d stop around midnight,\u201d Rossatto-Bennett recalls. Though no one knew it at the time, after those jam sessions, MacWilliams would return home and write songs, often until 4 a.m.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe songs started coming,\u201d Rossatto-Bennett says. MacWilliams felt that his songwriting spurt was the beginning of a new journey. \u201cHe didn\u2019t know where [the songs] were coming from, and he had this feeling like it wasn\u2019t gonna last.\u201d And it didn’t; as MacWilliams fell ill, his ability to play deteriorated, eventually leaving him completely. Today he’s unable to sing as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce Brian got diagnosed, there wasn\u2019t a lot of energy to write these songs,\u201d Rossatto-Bennett says. \u201cSo he kind of just forgot about them.\u201d But his friends didn’t forget. Working with MacWilliams, they put together a plan to build upon spare guitar-and-vocal demo recordings he had made of his songs. Enlisting the help of top production and musician talent, the songs would be completed professionally. A Kickstarter campaign quickly raised more than $65,000 to defray the costs of making the album and documentary.<\/p>\n
The whole thing would be done quickly so that MacWilliams would have time to hear and appreciate the final product. His raw home recordings were cleaned up and put into multi-track digital format at Echo Mountain Recording. And in a process not unlike what the then-surviving Beatles did in 1994 with John Lennon’s home demos for \u201cFree as a Bird’ and \u201cReal Love,\u201d some of Asheville’s best musicians overdubbed instruments and vocals to create finished recordings. Sessions are now complete, and the tracks are being mixed. Being Here<\/i> will be released \u2013 first to the crowdfunding campaign supporters \u2013 as a 2LP vinyl album.<\/p>\n
MacWilliams’ songwriting is informed by the music of the Grateful Dead and the lyrical style of Townes Van Zandt, among others. The principals are keeping a tight lid on the work-in-progress; their goal is to first unveil the songs to MacWilliams and Kickstarter supporters. An early Echo Mountain session \u2013 with MacWilliams in attendance \u2013 was live-streamed in February of 2017, but nothing else from the sessions has yet been made public.<\/p>\n
The team of producers for the album includes Reese and Josh Blake of IamAVL.com, Echo Mountain’s Julian Dryer and two New York producers. Asheville musicians for the sessions include Phill Bronson (Evil Note Lab), bassist Danny Ianucci, drummers Nik Hope (Empire Strikes Brass) and Mike Rhodes, Casey and Elijah Cramer (Ashley Heath and Her Heathens), Sparrow Pants and several others.<\/p>\n
Reese explains that the cache of songs \u2013 fifteen or so of which are being finished for the album \u2013 is filled with sad songs about love. But in hindsight \u2013 and though they weren’t written with MacWilliams’ impending illness in mind \u2013 the lyrics seem poignantly relevant in light of the songwriter’s struggle with ALS.<\/p>\n
The album-in-progress has had at least two provisional titles since inception. At first MacWilliams called the album Bring Out Your Dead<\/i>, a line from the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail<\/i>. And more recently the working title has been Brian’s Vanity Project<\/i>. Reese makes it clear that both working titles are MacWilliams’ dark, inside jokes. They’re funny,\u201d he says, \u201cif you get the joke.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rossatto-Bennett’s film is yet to be completed, but he’s doing what he can to finish it in time for MacWilliams to screen it. \u201cI’ve been living with this story,\u201d says the Sundance Award-winning documentarian. \u201cBut I haven’t been able to pick up a camera, because…\u201d His voice trails off.<\/p>\n
Plans are also underway for concerts to be staged in Asheville and New York City, but at this point, details are few. \u201cWe haven\u2019t quite figured that,\u201d Rossatto-Bennett admits. \u201cHow do you do a concert when the main vocalist can\u2019t sing? We\u2019re not sure.<\/p>\n
\u201cLife is hard,\u201d he says. \u201cEvery one of us dies; every one of us suffers. That\u2019s what it means to be human. And if you work together to make life beautiful, even the worst things that life can throw at you, become bearable and even joyous. What we’re really trying to say with this project is this: we\u2019re not alone.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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