Rob Mathes Music

Hey All——Thanks to anyone who came out the weekend of December 16th, 17th and 18th to the Christmas Concerts. We had near close to sell out shows on Saturday and Sunday. Friday night’s show was not a sell out but the audience made up for it by being a bunch of music maniacs that would not let us get offstage until we played a 10 minute version of “Maggie’s Farm.” That’s after we had already done a number of encores—it was 11:20!!!! I will post a blog with all the choir members listed and band members and all the other people involved just to put the shout out. It is quite an undertaking. Have a great holiday everybody. Hope to see you all in the New Year.

I am finally making “Light In The Window” available for download here on the site. I promised it for years and just never got around to it. Ian Cron lives in Nashville so I sang the background vocal myself but I got to record it with Joe Bonadio and it’s a great recording I think. I hope you enjoy it.

FREE DOWNLOAD::::
- Light In The Window mp3 This is the high quality mp3 version.
- Light In The Window.wav This is a full resolution wav files for all you audiophiles out there.
Download instructions: clicking either of the above links should open a new window. From there choose file—>save page as or similar (Safari users may need to try this download in Firefox or Chrome instead).

PAST, CURRENT AND UPCOMING PROJECTS:
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STING’s 60th BIRTHDAY
An astonishing event where an array of great artists each performed a Sting song of their choice with Sting’s band and Sting himself on Bass. Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Mary J. Blige, Herbie Hancock, Branford Marsalis, Chris Botti, Rufus Wainwright, Robert Downey Jr, The Royal Dragoon Guards Of Scotland (a bagpipe and drum corps) and Lady Gaga. Insane and Sting himself insane form. When you think of the songs the man has written it gets a little scary. Message In A Bottle, Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic, The Bed’s Too Big Without You, When The World Is Running Down, Don’t Stand So Close To Me, Driven To Tears, Roxanne, Can’t Stand Losing You, Spirits In The Material World, One World, Invisible Sun, Wrapped Around Your Finger, King Of Pain, Every Breath You Take, Synchronicity, Tea In The Sahara, Moon Over Bourbon Street, Englishman In New York, Fragile, Hounds Of Winter, Why Should I Cry For You, All This Time, etc etc etc etc etc etc etc ad infinitum…...........................

STING’s 25 YEARS
I produced a compilation of all of the best Sting solo recordings which meant going through all the mixes and masters that the producers in the past had created with Sting, Hugh Padgham, Neil Dorfsman, Kipper and the rest, and making sure we were at least creating a unified sounding collection but that the new mastering was at least as good as Bob Ludwig’s magnificent original mastering jobs. We also remixed 5 tracks from Dream of The Blue Turtles and some other tracks from Bring On The Night and We’ll Be Together from Nothing Like The Sun. Truly great re-mixes. Included in the disc is a new version I arranged of “Never Coming Home” featuring John Patitucci on Bass, Joe Bonadio on Drums and Percussion, Aaron Heick on Bass Clarinet and an orchestra. It’s a great track and has gotten really strong reviews. Sting loves the track which thrills me. it is one of the songs from Sacred Love that was over looked.

SPRINGSTEEN
A very secretive project and one Bruce has been working on for a bit with Co-producer Ron Aniello, it has now been announced as being at least on the way. I wrote the String arrangements on it and worked closely with Ron and Bruce on it. I don’t want to say too much about the project until it is released out of respect for Bruce and Jon Landau, Bruce’s extraordinary manager, but that I can at least mention that it was remarkably moving to be a part of it for all of us, my String players and I. The writing is just on an extraordinary level.

GIN WIGMORE
New album Gravel and Wine—A raw and gifted New Zealand artist. I worked on one of her new singles.

KENNEDY CENTER HONORS
This will air on CBS December 27th at 9pm. This year the honorees are Yo Yo Ma, Meryl Streep, Barbara Cook, Sonny Rollins and Neil Diamond. An incredible night.

GREENWICH CHORAL SOCIETY
My local chorus and orchestra asked me to write a piece a year ago and my schedule was ridiculous then as it is now but my parents played with the Greenwich Choral Society when I was a kid. I grew up with the beloved and pretty darned great GCS, a chorus of 150 Choristers with an Orchestra of 50 pros from the New York and New Haven area that play their tails off. Against my better judgement I said yes and didn’t sleep for a few weeks to get it done. I was in DC at the Kennedy Center when they performed the piece but they dug it and it was a love fest which is always fun.

MAYA ANGELOU
In May I arranged a set of music drawn from Maya’s favorite spirituals. This was part of Ian Cron’s ongoing series Conversations on Courage and Faith (www.courageandfaith.org). She gave a lecture before and after our set. Featuring James D Train Williams, Vaneese Thomas, Mike Harvey, and Angela Clemmons, we brought down the house with classic Spirituals suggested by Dr. Angelou, songs like Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child, Go Down, Moses, Stay With Me, and Swing Low, Sweet Chariot. Maya was amazing and it was one of those nights where the crowd jumped to their feet the second it was over and we had them dancing in the aisles as if it was a Pentecostal church. Music, Music, Music.

LIGHT IN THE WINDOW
In 2007, I wrote a Hanukkah song for Rabbi Mark Golub from Stamford, CT. He comes to my Christmas Concert every year. I sing it every year for him with Ian Cron. Ian now lives in Nashville but I always wanted to record a solo version of it on Acoustic Guitar. Ian wasn’t around so I sang the background vocal myself but I used Joe Bonadio on Percussion and did a really strong studio recording of it. I promised the Concert audience I would make it available for download. HERE IT IS finally. I want to make it available in full CD band width which is a larger 54mbyte download but full CD quality. It is also available here as a high res mp3 file. For free. Happy Hanukkah. Merry Christmas. Happy Holidays!! Thanks for visiting the site.

FREE DOWNLOAD::::
- Light In The Window mp3 This is the high quality mp3 version.
- Light In The Window.wav This is a full resolution wav files for all you audiophiles out there.
Download instructions: clicking either of the above links should open a new window. From there choose file—>save page as or similar (Safari users may need to try this download in Firefox or Chrome instead).

Rob