Heaven and Earth a History
By Patricia “Pat Gefell” Dennison
I met Jo D Andrews and her family at the Fred Waring Music Workshop in Pennsylvania. Jo D’s father, Clyde, was the choral director of the workshop. Clyde was asked by big band leader Hugo Winterhaler to bring a group of singers on the road as the “Hugo Winterhaler Chorus” for Hugo’s road act with Helen Hunt. Jo D and I were chosen to be members of that chorus.
Together as “roadies” and roommates, we had plenty of opportunity to discuss our beliefs and ideas. Both of us were deeply touched by the major events that were taking place in the world at that time: the Vietnam War, the woman’s liberation movement, racism, and more. We were highly influenced by the political artists of the time – Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell and many more.
We started writing our own music with question in mind – what about love? Why can’t we all get along? We innocently believed there could be peace on earth and made this our message. This had a lot to do with why we eventually decided to call ourselves Heaven and Earth.
Clyde was so impressed with our music he got us a spot on Hugo’s show singing two of our own songs. The starts in our eyes twinkled even brighter when record producer Dick Shory was in the audience one night and offered us a recording contract with Ovation Records.
This strengthened our belief in our message of love and happiness, which guided our music in the right direction. With open hearts we plunged into recording and then promoting our first album, “Refuge.”
The glamor of “being on the road” quickly faded as we traveled through town after town looking for radio towers and dropping off copies of our album wherever we could. We often did on-the-spot radio interviews and performances. These turned into morning talk shows and local gigs.
When we got back to New York there was a great appreciation for ”home sweet home”. It was so good to be in our own “neighborhood” singing and performing. A highlight of that time was playing as the opening act for Harry Chapin at the Bitter End in Greenwich Village. Harry was one of the kindest and most open hearted people we had ever met. He treated us with such care that we felt like we were his daughters.
From there we went to the famous Boston folk music night club, Passim, for our first radio and television performance. After that we found it difficult t travel back to Chicago to start writing and recording our second album. It was during this time that Clyde passed away. Jo D was devastated and made the decision to leave Heaven and Earth and start her own family. Soon afterwards I followed the same path and so Heaven and Earth’s second album was left to sit “in the can” in Dick Shory’s studio in Chicago.
It was all a very wonderful and a very difficult time in our lives. We often talk about the 10,000 albums we sold as an unknown group and what if ..? What if.., what if..
Peace, Love and Happiness
Patricia Dennison