‘Cheap vesseAl for some good wine' - New Chester-based band to play

original music at Warwick Winery By Vicki Botta Chester — Tom Walker is the head and David Frye the heart of a new band to make its debut at the Warwick Valley Winery on Friday night, March 21. No strangers to the local music scene, both members of David Frye & New Morning formerly played in a band known as Free Range, whose debut album, “Chester,” enjoyed critical acclaim. They have now joined forces with Rave Tesar, who in Frye’s words is “one of the most talented keyboard players ever.” Tesar, a new recruit, is someone Frye trusts completelyh with the production end of the band’s recording efforts. With Bart Crum on sax and Joe Cristiani on bass and vocals, the band is extremely polished, energized and expressive of the music that flows from the heart of David Frye. He grew up with the heavy folk music of Pete Seeger and Jefferson Airplane and, at age 10, was motivated by their powerful lyrics and harmonies. What good music needs today is “juice,” he said. He also believes that “words are seeds that get into people’s heads” and that while they are an expression of the moment, “of either honorable or dark opinions,” there is a need to be responsible for our words because of the way they are perceived and absorbed by others. Someone may hear a song, thinks it applies to him or her, and then end up shooting someone because of what a song seems to say. “A blue-collar worker, forever,” he describes himself. Also as “a cheap vessel for some very, very good wine.” Tom Walker says the band plays only original music because “we really believe he [Frye] is a classic artist, very artistic, and in the moment.” About to turn 50, Walker looks back on his musical experiences, from doing weddings long ago, to performing five times in three years on the B.B. King Stage, and playing with Jimi Hendrix’s younger brother Leon Hendrix, and with Johnny Winter as well as others. He believes being a songwriter is “all I’ve every done with any consistency.” And while he cautions about sounding pretentious, “If you do it long enough, you get good at it.” His song titled “Strength” is uplifting in its combination of angst and hope, and the feeling of the band’s belief in the song. It evokes feelings most often felt only during a live performance. Although written “a while back,” it is a timeless song that can apply to someone today or years from now. Walker describes the music as “a diverse rock expression with three- and four-part harmonies.” Frye said, “The music I do has to glorify love, even if it is a damaged love.” He’s inspired by people like Leonard Cohen and Richard Thompson, and forms like Irish traditional music, Middle Eastern music, and Klezmer music, which he describes as harmonically complex — like Dixieland in a way, but with minor tones. Of his creative flow, Frye says it really does come from the heart and can’t be forced. Once he had written three verses in a notebook and then laid it on the floor. He walked around the book, looking at it, “kind of like Jackson Pollack,” until the verse wrote itself. “If I feel a sudden ache, like I can’t read it out loud without starting to cry, I’ll know I’ve nailed it,” he said. He is also influenced by David Gilmore and Pink Floyd. As Pink Floyd grew more famous, he said, they couldn’t do the quiet, beautiful things they could when their crowds were small. Inevitably, someone would yell out “Money” or some other Pink Floyd staple, and the magic would be lost, he said. “If you go out looking for garbage, you are going to find garbage,” he said. “If you go out looking for grace, you will find grace. Art should glorify God, and this scares people who don’t believe.” Frye said he has recently come through a traumatic time and that his real friends are showing up for him. He teaches guitar and says that the more he opens up to the material, the more refined his songwriting becomes. He is a man of few possessions, just a guitar or two. He said he has the faith of a small mustard seed and is inspired by God. He remembers his father, who fought in the Korean War, and how his dad suffered post-traumatic stress syndrome, raving “with so many ghosts in his soul.” He talks about his daughter, a journalist in Montana who won a Hearst Award for her writing. “Accepting mediocrity is a diabolical force that weaves its way through our lives,” he said. “Not all sin is evil, but all evil is sin.” The band has played at the Lycian Theatre’s “Concert on The Lawn” series, The Captain’s Table in Monroe, and at GW’s Tavern in Chester. A new album in the works, “Love In Darkness,” will be featured in venues ranging from the Warwick Valley Winery to Block Island in New England. The band is currently recording the album, with an EP due out in the spring.The band will play at the Warwick Valley Winery, 114 Little York Rd., Warwick, at 8 p.m. on Friday, March 21. Tickets are $10 in advance or $15 at the door. For more information call 258-6020 or visit www.wvwinery.com. Reservations are requested.