Frank Slaughter

http://ipraudio.interlochen.org/Frank_Slaughter_0.mp3

Frank Slaughter, published author and host of Repose, the Saturday night music show on Classical IPR.

Transcript of Island Cabin Discs on Interlochen Public Radio, hosted by Jeff Kimpton, September 7, 2012, in Interlochen, Michigan. 

JEFF KIMPTON, HOST: (Waves crashing, soft music) Welcome to Island Cabin Discs on Interlochen Public Radio. This is the program that features the people you know about sharing the music they would take with them to a deserted island getaway in the middle of Lake Michigan. I'm Jeff Kimpton, your host and my guest today is Frank Slaughter, published author and host of Repose - the widely listened to Saturday night music show here on Interlochen Public Radio, Classical IPR.

FRANK SLAUGHTER: (Laughs) Absolutely! 

KIMPTON: Welcome, Frank, to the Island.

SLAUGHTER: Thank you, Jeff; it's really a pleasure to be here. 

KIMPTON: We always ask our guests the same question - we ask you to be on the program and go to the Island and you've got to pick five or six pieces of music. What went through your mind? 

SLAUGHTER: I really do have a wide range of interests even though my Repose show is pretty focused. I like classical and jazz and oldies and whatnot but I thought I would kind of put this in chronological order of my life - the main points of my life. So, I've chosen pieces of music that were important.

KIMPTON: And you've had a very interesting career so we've got a lot to talk about here. So, let's move to the first piece, and you were very emphatic: Beethoven's Symphony Number 7. Any particular reason why you chose that?

SLAUGHTER: That was actually the first LP record that I ever owned, Beethoven's Seventh Symphony. I lost track of it for quite a few years and about thirty years ago I was in the process of giving up cigarettes and so for two days I sat in the bathtub and listened to Beethoven's Seventh Symphony. (Laughter) 

KIMPTON: Well, that'll do it!

SLAUGHTER: Yeah you probably never expected that, right? 

KIMPTON: (Laughs) Well, whether listening to this cures a nicotine habit or not I don't know, but we're going to find out! This is Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 in A, Opus 92. Here is the fourth movement, Allegro con brio. The Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century conducted by Franz Br"uggen. 

(Plays Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 in A, Opus 92: IV. Allegro Con Brio)

KIMPTON: Well, that was the first selection of our guest today, Frank Slaughter, the evening host of Saturday night's Repose show here on Classical IPR and Beethoven's Symphony No. 7, the last movement there. (Laughs) So, do you ever have any need to pick up a cigarette again after that? 

SLAUGHTER: (Laughs) No, no. It's been so many years now!

KIMPTON: I've had a lot of intros on this show, but that's the most original first memory!

SLAUGHTER: It gets better, Jeff.

KIMPTON: So, let's talk a little bit about music in your life. Where did you grow up?

SLAUGHTER: I grew up in Bloomfield Hills, just about 25 or 30 miles north of Detroit and my mother bought a piano when I was about six or seven years old and insisted that I take piano lessons. So, I took piano lessons for probably about eight or nine years and the Moonlight Sonata was the last piece I ever learned how to play. 

KIMPTON: Oh, wow!

SLAUGHTER: I was much more inclined towards baseball and being outside and whatnot so the piano was kind of a drudgery for me. 

KIMPTON: Yeah, that's still a long time that you played, though. 

SLAUGHTER: Yeah, I stuck with it for quite a while. My mother was pretty insistent...

KIMPTON: (Laughs) Those mothers have a way of doing that! So, did you go into band or anything?

SLAUGHTER: Yeah, actually when I was at military school I played in the marching band. I played the glockenspiel.

KIMPTON: That's because you had piano experience!

SLAUGHTER: Right, exactly. Yep!

KIMPTON: That's right, that's right. 

SLAUGHTER: We traveled around to a lot of the private schools out on the East Coast: New York Military and a few of the others that we played. It was kind of a little Annapolis; it was a naval academy type of thing. So, as a band member we got to travel with the football team and that was cool, that was very interesting. 

KIMPTON: Oh, sure. So, let's listen. This is pianist Russell Sherman and the Moonlight Sonata, which is Sonata No. 14 in C sharp. The beginning - the one that everybody knows? 

SLAUGHTER: Yeah, the beginning; the one that's well worn. 

KIMPTON: Yes, but it is an absolute classic. Let's hear it. 

(Plays Moonlight Sonata)

SLAUGHTER: Every time I listen to that, every time I hear it, it makes me think of my mother and all those years spent practicing and all the money spent on my piano lessons that I thought were wasted. But actually it turns out they weren't and it always takes me back. 

KIMPTON: Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata there, played by Russell Sherman. Well sometimes we don't know when we have early experiences that they're going to accumulate in a way that has a different kind of effect.

SLAUGHTER: Absolutely!

KIMPTON: And sometimes we need parents to be able to say, "No, you're going to do that," or "This is important for you," even though we may not feel that. 

SLAUGHTER: Well, you know ever since that point of my life I've had an appreciation for classical music and listen to it, which is kind of unusual for at least my generation of kids growing up. It was when I started working at the radio station about 26 years ago. Working at this radio station - that was almost like coming home.

KIMPTON: Sure, sure. Interesting. So, you went into the military school and it had a naval impact and then you spent some time in the Merchant Marines. 

SLAUGHTER: Yes, I did.

KIMPTON: Tell us a little bit about that. 

SLAUGHTER: The reason I went to the military school was they were a naval honor school and they were allowed four appointments to Annapolis each year. That's what I was after. But it was the height of the Vietnam war and a couple of times when I was traveling home I had to go through New York City and people were, you know. They didn't actually spit on me but I had somebody throw some pop at me and stuff like that. So, that kind of turned me away from the military. But I still liked ships; I still wanted a career in ships. So, about that time they were starting a school up here in Traverse City called Great Lakes Maritime and I packed my bag and hitchhiked to Traverse City. The first time I came to Traverse City I was hitchhiking! (Laughs) 

KIMPTON: And was that your first time? 

SLAUGHTER: Yes, yeah! I got to the Bay and I looked out and saw a ship tied up over by the coal dock and I hitchhiked over there and there was a guy sitting there eating a can of pork and beans and leaning back in a chair. He was guarding the ship and I told him who I was and what I was there for and he said, "Oh, no problem. I'll put you up." So, he gave me a bunk and the next day he took me to the school and got me signed up. Things were a lot more informal back then than they are now.

KIMPTON: Yeah, I was going to say! Interesting...

SLAUGHTER: But I was in the Merchant Marines about five years and sailed for Cleveland Cliffs. I did a little stint on a tugboat...

KIMPTON: Oh, in the Great Lakes?

SLAUGHTER: Yes, all in the Great Lakes. 

KIMPTON: Have you seen the simulator at MMC?

SLAUGHTER: No, no, we didn't have simulators then. They bought a pilot-house off of a ship that was being scrapped. It didn't have a wheel, it didn't have anything! It had windows and so you could look out (Laughs) and that was about it!

SLAUGHTER: Yes, yes!

KIMPTON: Quite remarkable, isn't it? 

SLAUGHTER: Oh, it's amazing

KIMPTON: And you shared with me that you had a friend who went down on the Edmund Fitzgerald.

SLAUGHTER: Yes, Tom Benson. He was in the class before me at the academy. About the time that, it was the same year that the Fitzgerald went down, a friend of mine who was also in the Merchant Marines, we were home on leave. We went to a Gordon Lightfoot concert at Pine Knob and after the concert was over, we were sitting near the front so we decided to just sit there for a while and wait for everybody to clear out. While we were sitting there Gordon Lightfoot's steel guitar player came back on stage and was talking to people and when he found out we were from the Merchant Marines he said, "Oh, hey, come on back." So, we went back and talked to Gordon Lightfoot.

KIMPTON: Oh, interesting. And actually it's a song that's become a Michigan legend. Well, let's listen. This is Glen Campbell, not Gordon Lightfoot, but singing the Gordon Lightfoot song, "The Last Time I Saw Her." 

(Plays "The Last Time I Saw Her" by Glen Campbell)

KIMPTON: So, that's the Gordon Lightfoot song "The Last Time I Saw Her," sung there by Glen Campbell, another selection of our guest today, Frank Slaughter, host of Repose on Classical IPR. So, when you got tired of eating pork and beans (Laughter) on the Merchant Marine - I guess there's a poem there - you did a little retail for a while. 

SLAUGHTER: Yes, I did. I worked for K-Mart for a while as an assistant manager for, I don't know, about six or seven years. They transferred me every year. I spent two years in inner city Detroit at a Kresge store. When they opened the K-Mart store here in Traverse City, I knew that I always wanted to come back here and that's what I did. I transferred up here with that store and opened the store here.

KIMPTON: Oh, interesting. And you met your wife, Maureen, here?

SLAUGHTER: Yes, I did. 

KIMPTON: I'm just kind of curious because you have this long and abiding interest in the Civil War, and I'm just curious how that developed. Was it from an interest in just history in general or this particular period of American History? 

SLAUGHTER: I'm not sure exactly how it started because it goes way back to when I was a little boy. I had the little rubber soldiers and that type of thing, you know. 

KIMPTON: Oh, sure, yeah. 

SLAUGHTER: Probably about, thirty-five, forty years ago I started really getting interested in it and was just a veracious reader on anything about the Civil War. And of course, as you know, there are a million books on every possible aspect of it out there. So, that began the journey. And then about ten or eleven years ago I got interested in reenacting. There's a group in Scofield that has six full size Civil War canons and every year we haul those around to schools in demonstration for kids and then we take part in some of the reenactments.

KIMPTON: So, do you go the battlefields - Antietam or Shiloh? Or have you visited them all? 

SLAUGHTER: I've visited quite a few of them, especially out east. But every year there's three or four national events and they coincide with the actual anniversaries of the big battles. Typically, there's maybe fifteen or twenty thousand reenactors so some of the battles are almost full scale. 

KIMPTON: Wow!

SLAUGHTER: I got a lot of inspiration from that. For example, at Antietam at the 145th anniversary there was fifty canons on the Union side and fifty canons on the Confederate side and they were all lined up stretching for a half a mile! And we started shooting before daylight so it was just lightening flashing and the ground was shaking and it was just, you know...

KIMPTON: You could imagine!

SLAUGHTER: It was easy to put yourself back in time.

KIMPTON: Well, sure, sure. And of course in a less sophisticated time we weren't quite aware of some of the horrors.

SLAUGHTER: Oh, absolutely, yeah. 

KIMPTON: And of course no pictures really, just a few and mostly after the war, not necessarily during the war. So, you can imagine some Michigan farm boy being scared to death. 

SLAUGHTER: Oh, yeah. They called it "seeing the elephant" back then. It was horrific and the technology had far outstripped their tactics so the wounds were terrible. 

KIMPTON: Right. You brought a letter here that's part, of course, of the very famous documentary, Ken Burns' The Civil War. Let's listen. This is the soundtrack from Ken Burns' The Civil War and this is called the "Ashokan Farewell." 

(Plays "Ashokan Farewell.")

KIMPTON: Well, that's the "Ashokan Farewell" from Ken Burns' The Civil War. It includes the text of the Sullivan Ballou letter. But your experience with the Civil War really, in a way, prompted you to do something else.  

SLAUGHTER: Right, exactly.

KIMPTON: A lot of people don't realize that you're an author and that you've written a very successful book about the Civil War. 

SLAUGHTER: Yeah, this was my first novel. 

KIMPTON: How did you pick the story line? How did you develop that? You're married to an English teacher so... (Laughter)

SLAUGHTER: Yeah, right. I put everything I know into this, Jeff! No, actually I have the connection with the artillery so that was easy and there really isn't that much written about the artillery part of the Union army. I have ancestors. I had one, my Great-great-grandfather actually, who was shot as a spy down in Tennessee during the Civil War and I've grown up hearing that story repeated and the family in it got me interested. So, I started digging and doing some research and got in contact with a distant cousin who was from the other side of the family and he grew up hearing the story too. So, we got together and he had pictures, so that turned out being such an interesting story I wrapped my story around it because it was just too good to pass up. And a lot of the events in the book are things that happened to me that I just placed back in that time period. 

KIMPTON: We want you to read something to us. So, have you picked something you'd like to read? 

SLAUGHTER: Okay, yeah, I'll set this up for you. 

KIMPTON: Yeah, set the context. 

SLAUGHTER: The story is about a Michigan farm boy. He comes back from the Civil War; he's got post-traumatic stress disorder. The heart of the story is basically in putting is life back together after the war. He was a land-looker, worked in a lumber camp, and actually made a pretty sizable fortune as a land-looker, and now he's decided he wants to settle down. And he comes north to Monroe Center which is just right across from Duck Lake, where we are right now. He meets the school teacher of the little one-room schoolhouse in Monroe Center and they are very formal with their language at the beginning of their relationship and in this scene that I'm going to read here, he is in his open sleigh and he has a team of horses pulling the sleigh and he pulls up to the house that she lives in near the school and picks her up and they're just going to take a sleigh ride. This is kind of what they did for a hot date back then. (Laughter)

(Reads from his novel, Echoes of Distant Thunder) 

"Well good morning to you, Mr. Castor" she said pleasantly. "I must say you are very punctual, sir."

"I learned the hard way some years ago. It's best not to keep the teacher waiting." 
Emma half-smiled at yet another well-worn reference to her profession as he handed her up into the sleigh. When they were both settled Will unfolded a heavy, black bearskin robe across their laps and draped it down over their legs and feet. 

"The last time you rode in my sleigh you suffered a case of cold feet, Mrs. Reed" said Will, floating the double meaning. "If you will allow me," he said as he threw caution to the wind and reached under the robe to slide her feet over onto the hot soapstone that lay wrapped in canvas on the floorboard between them. Emma was starting to warm to the verbal sparring and said, "Oh my, Mr. Castor, you are fresh! But I must admit that does feel heavenly. It's a wise man who knows the way to a woman's heart is through her feet." 

Will threw his head back and laughed as he snapped the reigns lightly and started them forward. It was cold, but still a beautiful morning for a sleigh ride and Will let Annie and Pete pace themselves. He was in no hurry to end the intimacy of sharing the warmth of the robe with Emma. Snow clung to every limb and branch of the big dark trees lining the way and the low sun sparkled like scattered diamonds between the smooth, white, windswept fields where the trees had already been cut. There was no wind to speak of this morning. It was quiet save only for the restless power of the horses moving in their harness, the rhythmic jangle of the sleigh bells that hung around Annie's neck, and the continued slice of the runners on the frozen road. Puffs of hot breath from the horses hung back on the frigid air in little clouds as they passed. 

Will shot a sideways glance at Emma. Her brown fur hat was fashionably tilted forward and her hands rested easily together on her lap inside a matching fur muff. The turned up rabbit collar of her red wool coat framed her smiling face; cheeks blushed from the cold as she looked off to the pristine winter landscape. Will was pleased to see the beauty of the picturesque moment was not lost on her.

KIMPTON: Very nice. So, when you write there's a rhythm and a melody to the words. How often do you go back and have to dissect it?

SLAUGHTER: Oh, constantly. My method was to write straight through once, and then let it set for a day. Then the next day when I started writing again I would go back and read what I wrote the day before and it almost always needed work, something. So, I would rework it and then I would start writing again and then I just kept doing that. And then of course when I was done I had to go back. But you're right, the rhythms are very important. I can't read something that doesn't flow and doesn't have a rhythm to it. I've always been a veracious reader and I think that that contributed probably most to my writing. 

KIMPTON: Sure, yeah. So, when you finished how did you know it was done? 

SLAUGHTER: I got the story in there about Interlochen and the trees that were saved here. I did kind of a wrap up - at that point - of their lives. I didn't have any trouble knowing when it was done. And of course then I didn't have a publisher to tell me when it was done. I was really writing it more for my own gratification than anything. It's almost like hitting the lottery to get a publisher interested enough to publish a first novel. But I sent it out - sent my query letter out to several people and got a response right away so I was pretty happy about that!

KIMPTON: That's great! So, is there a sequel?  

SLAUGHTER: Yes, I'm working on it. 

KIMPTON: Oh, great! 

SLAUGHTER: I'm picking the story up in the UP with the little boy in this story and I'm learning about iron mining. (Laughter) 

KIMPTON: Well, it's fascinating. It's fascinating to learn about and then tell a story through the eyes that you learned from, historical or real. So, you've had a very interesting career. You did some work in IT, in computers...

SLAUGHTER: Yes. 

KIMPTON: ...and you were out here at IPR and now you run the Interlochen Box Office. 

SLAUGHTER: Right.

KIMPTON: At one point in time - we're going to get to Repose here Frank (Laughter) - you worked for a mortician. 

SLAUGHTER: Yes, I worked for a mortuary ambulance. 

KIMPTON: Yeah, and so you went and picked up people who had moved on to the great beyond.

SLAUGHTER: Right. 

KIMPTON: I'm sure there were some interesting stories. 

SLAUGHTER: Oh, yeah. We had an account with the Wayne County Medical Examiner so generally when the funeral home would call us we would go down there. Yeah, it was interesting. 

KIMPTON: How did you become a radio music show host? 

SLAUGHTER: Probably some of our listeners who have listened to IPR for many years remember Ed Catton. He used to be the program director here. My second year on the staff at IPR we had these periodic staff meetings and he said, "Well, we need to have more local shows. We need to have more local programming." And he said, "Anybody who wants to do a show, put together an idea and bring it to me and we'll talk." So, about that time George Winston was starting to come on the scene.

KIMPTON: Yes, that's right. 

SLAUGHTER: I'd kind of been attracted to his music and so I thought, "Well, you know, maybe." They called it new age music back then, but I thought, "Well, I'll try that." I thought Ed would never go for it, but he did! He said, "Sure, no problem," and that's how it started and actually this is my 25th year. 

KIMPTON: Oh my gosh! Always called Repose? 

SLAUGHTER: Yes, always called Repose. 

KIMPTON: Wow. And why this particular group, Secret Garden? I know you're very fond of that group. I mean, my wife and I are listeners, we listen to Frank (Laughter).

SLAUGHTER: I'm not sure exactly why. I like the Celtic influence there and I really love the violin. I mean, Fiona is a wonderful violin player. 

KIMPTON: Well, this is the group Secret Garden and the tune that Frank has selected is "Hymn to Hope." 

(Plays "Hymn to Hope" by Secret Garden)

KIMPTON: That's Secret Garden, "Hymn to Hope." Selection by Frank Slaughter, the host of Repose and you might have heard that tune on his program just before he tells Maureen he's turning the light on. (Laughter) Except you're probably home listening to it anyway!

SLAUGHTER: Right! You know, it's funny. A couple of years ago we went to a party and there were a lot of computer programmers there and the first thing that came up - I had a guy come up and he said, "Are you Frank Slaughter?" And I said, "Yeah." And he said "And you're Maureen?" (Laughter) He was more interested in talking to Maureen then he was me! 

KIMPTON: Well, I think it's interesting the number of people who think that we do these programs live. 

SLAUGHTER: Well, I used to do it live in the beginning...

KIMPTON: Sure, sure.

SLAUGHTER: But then of course when we went into automation and what not...

KIMPTON: And you'd be surprised, on a Saturday morning I'll be somewhere and someone says, "Aren't you supposed to be on the radio?" (Laughter) I'm curious about the book because as you were reading and thinking about the process, developing the story and doing the history around it, would you sell the book to be a movie? 

SLAUGHTER: Absolutely! (Laughter) Yes, if there's anybody listening out there that has a tie! 

KIMPTON: I guess that's a rhetorical question? (Laughter) Well, you know sometimes people are very picky about letting others take their words and put them in a different medium. I was just listening to that and the very strong visuals that were there and you could see it in your mind almost as a film. Whether or not you would stoop so low to allow...  (Laughter)

SLAUGHTER: I would! Absolutely, Jeff! (Laughter)

KIMPTON: You never know! You got it published...

SLAUGHTER: Right. If the right person picks it up...

KIMPTON: Steven Spielberg's probably listening in, so... (Laughter) You've selected another piece here, another Gordon Lightfoot piece. What's the significance of this? 

SLAUGHTER: Anybody who knows Maureen and I - two people could not be more different then the two of us. Maureen, who is my inspiration for Emma is very smart, well spoken, proper...and I pretty much go with whatever. (Laughing) But anyway, when we were getting married and putting our lives together I always liked Gordon Lightfoot. I had all of his recordings at the time and as we were sorting through some of her stuff I came up with a Gordon Lightfoot CD in her things! So, we realized that we both shared a common like of him. So, this is kind of our song. 

KIMPTON: "Beautiful." 

("Beautiful" by Gordon Lightfoot)

KIMPTON: That's the song, "Beautiful," Gordon Lightfoot. A favorite song of Frank and Maureen Slaughter. So, as we close here, when you think you've done Repose as a program for 25 years and you've watched, kind of going from the George Winston new age beginning all the way through and now different ethnic influences are coming in to the music and you can hear Arabian and you can hear Celtic - which are related, actually - Middle Eastern influences and Oriental influences coming in...is it changing? Do you see it morphing? Continuing to morph?

SLAUGHTER: Yeah, when I first started there was a lot of monotony in it. Kind of like Philip Glass, you know that type of thing...

KIMPTON: Philip Glass, Philip Glass, Philip Glass...(Laughter)

SLAUGHTER: Yeah, and a lot of electronic music. As time passed it became much more melodic and I made a point of just including acoustical instruments. Voice started to become more involved in it and my show doesn't have a complete range of the new age sound. I limit it to acoustic things and of course things that I really like! (Laughter) 

KIMPTON: As you should, as you should! 

SLAUGHTER: But I've had a really good response to it! I mean, we get a lot of people that call in or e-mail me and want to know about a particular piece and whatnot. 

KIMPTON: Right, and you play it all the way through and sometimes it's hard to remember what it was. 

SLAUGHTER: Right, exactly. 

KIMPTON: And you have this wonder void at the end that says, "You've heard," and you list the shows and you say, "Okay, was it the third one or the fourth one?" 

SLAUGHTER: Yeah, I get that!

KIMPTON: (Laughs) "I think it was the third one!"

SLAUGHTER: Yeah, I've thought of changing the format and I actually did early on, but it broke it up so much that it just didn't create a mood. 

KIMPTON: Right. Unlike this show where there's a mood all the way through.

SLAUGHTER: Right.

KIMPTON: Or an attitude! (Laughter) 

SLAUGHTER: Yeah, an attitude! (Laughter) 

KIMPTON: One or the other, so...Alright, you were very specific about our last number here and we thank you so much for being with us Frank.

SLAUGHTER: Well, thank you very much for having me Jeff! My pleasure!

KIMPTON: It was fun. I asked you what the story was behind the song "Meditation" from the opera Thais. (Laughter)

SLAUGHTER: That is the piece I want played at my funeral!

KIMPTON: Alright.

SLAUGHTER: That's a very appropriate ending I think. 

KIMPTON: But it is a gorgeous piece I think, and here by the great violinist Itzhak Perlman. "Meditation" from Thais, the last selection from Frank. Frank, thanks so much for being here.

SLAUGHTER: Thank you. 

(Plays "Meditation" played by Itzhak Perlman)

KIMPTON: My guest today was Frank Slaughter, published author and host of Repose, the Saturday night music show on Classical IPR. For more information about the music you've heard on Island Cabin Discs go to ipr.interlochen.org and click on Island Cabin Discs. Or write to us (ipr@interlochen.org) and refer to the program featuring the guest Frank Slaughter. I'm Jeff Kimpton, your host, thanking you for being with us today. The executive producer for Island Cabin Discs is Thom Paulson, and this edition of Island Cabin Discs was produced by Brock Morman for Interlochen Public Radio.