Heaven and Earth a History
By Jo D Andrews
During the summer of 1969, I met Pat Gefell at a music workshop in Pennsylvania where my father was a teacher, arranger, and conductor. I was living in New York City at the time, taking classes and waiting tables, but I was singing on the weekends at a club in the Pocono Mountains not far from the workshop. I, like Pat, had been a scholarship student at the workshop two years before, so in my free time I would sometimes drop by just to say hello to everyone and perhaps get to sing one of the amazing choral arrangements one more time.
One particular evening there was a show at the Workshop, and Pat performed. I vividly remember hearing her rich, beautiful voice and the way she finger-picked her guitar. I was absolutely mesmerized by her. She did a Judy Roderick song called, “Woman Blue.” Some people know what song by its first line, “I know you, Rider.’ Pat killed the song, absolutely made it her own, and as a result of my respect for her talent I introduced myself to her. The rest of that particular part of the story is personal. What I can tell you though, is that by the end of the summer we decided to become roommates in Manhattan and create an artistic dreamscape that consisted of friends, family, and many amazing artists in New York City at that time.
Pat and I had no money. We worked as waitresses and models and background singers, whatever we could do to make ends meet, and then one night, when we were both actually home at the same time, with no food in our bellies and no money in our pockets, we wrote our first song together. Songwriting became a little piece of heaven on earth for us from the moment on, and once we got a taste of it we wanted more.
At parties, while everyone was hanging out, which was what everybody did in those days, Pat and I would sing our songs. People were knocked out by the melodies, harmonies, lyrics, by Pat’s guitar playing, and most of all, I think, by the artistic integrity and connection we had with each other while performing. There is a true beauty to the stories we told about our experiences as two single women in New York City. Our songs were about love, freedom, our feelings, and yes, even a search for higher consciousness. We were so young. We thought, like many others, we could change the world by telling our truth. Interesting,, what happened was that we changed ourselves along the way.
In those days Pat played guitar morning noon, and night. I imagine she still does today because her guitar really is her best friend and once you’re hear her paly you’ll know why. She listened to Joni Mitchell, Ian and Sylvia, Judy Collins, Tom Rush, Leo Kottke and many more fold artists, while I listened to Laura Nyro, Leon Russell, Crosby Stills Nash and Your, Blood Sweat and Tears, The Beach Boys and the Beatles, then we both go into Iron butterfly, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Cream, Traffic The Doors, Donovan, Steve Miller and so many more bands. We lived for music and what a great time we had.
As the story goes, with a few years we had quite a few songs and had spent lots of quality time recording them in the middle of the night at studios where our friends worked as engineers. Then, in 1972 and 1973, we went on the road performing our original material as a featured act with a big band. Dick Shory, who became our producer, heard us in Chicago, called our hotel room to ask us if we were signed to a label yet, and if not, were we interested in making an album? I thought it was a prank call, but Dick insisted I take his number, and so after I hung up, Pat an I talked about it and decided to give the number to my husband, George Andrews, who was an arranger back in New York City.
Dick and George co-produced the album, Refuge, once Pat and I finished the tour. It was recorded in Quadrophonic sound. Go figure, a fold pop due goes Quadrophonic. How wild! We toured for a year as Heaven & Earth promoting the album and had great response at colleges, universities and local television and radio stations across the country. It seemed the camera loved us, the listeners loved us, but our A&R reps and distributors couldn’t figure out how to promote us. “What were we anyway, folk, pop, middle of the road?” it soon became very clear that what we were was, on our own.
To say that the road is especially hard on woman would be sexist, so let me put in this way, without substantial money behind any artist, the road can be a killer, and while we were touring Pat and I became thin and worn, distant and disconnected. We were only in our early twenties at the time and yet the joy of life was dwindling, for the two of us, more every day.
I suppose that is why I wasn’t surprised when Pat called me one night, as we were preparing for the second album, to tell me she didn’t want to it anymore. At first t was a shock, but I soon understood and actually felt relieved. You see Pat and I loved being artists, the business had become a “real drag” and we were at risk of losing far more of ourselves to it. So we let our record deal go. We gave our music to the universe, to our families and our friends and now, after all this time the universe seems to have decided to bring our music back in a reissue, bonus track and all.
It was a gift writing, singing and performing with Patricia, and I am continually grateful to the gods for sending her my way. Pat is, and always will be family to me and I cherish my memories of our time together.
Peace and Love
Some Thirty Years on…
- Jo Andrews