Last night Andrew was honored to be part of a very special benefit concert for a cherished and revered songwriter friend Tom Prasada-Rao. TPR was originally scheduled to play this show presented by FOCUS Music concert series and hosted by the Community Lutheran Church in Sterling, but a recent diagnosis of a life-threatening tumor and surgery will keep him on the sidelines recovering for several months. However, the great folks at FOCUS decided to invite a bunch of Tom's talented friends to play the show for him, drawing folks from Boston, Nashville, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia as well as around the "DMV". Each performed songs from either Tom’s recordings or his list of 62 favorite songs.
Headed up by FOCUS's Sterling coordinator Jerry Bresee, and joined by our Beyond Borders bandmate Lisa Taylor, Andrew's frequent collaborator in mischief Tony Denikos, and Tom's sisters Patty and Polly Prasada-Rao, the lineup also included Pat Wictor, Eric Schwartz, Debi Smith of the Four Bitchin' Babes, Nancy Moran and Fett, LEA, Brad Yoder, Carey Creed, Matt Holsen, Cletus Kennelly, Lisabeth Weber, and Doug Alan Wilcox. Each performed a song, but there was much collaborating and harmonizing throughout the show. And best of all, Tom was able to attend with his family! The mostly a cappella finale of Tom's "Out of the Darkness" with two hundred plus singing along in the audience was like surfing on a near-infinite wave of sound
It was an exquisite and uplifting evening doing what music does best - bringing people together and healing. The concert was filmed and recorded, and hopefully there will be some clips to share soon. Thanks to the exquisite photography of Branko Hodzic, here are a couple of visual mementos.
Tony Denikos joined L-R by Brad Yoder, Andrew, and Lisa Taylor.
The amazing finale featured everyone!
A magic moment getting to be with Tom onstage at the end.
And a couple taken by Andrew's daughter Madeleine during his opening performance of TPR's "Incoming"
