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From their humble beginnings in Brooklyn, New York on an
appropriately blustery day in December 1957, The LawTunes have long been the
lone (and occasionally nearly harmonic) voice filling the void, vacuum, and
other euphemisms for "not a whole lot" that is the unique genre of original
law-related holiday music. Purportedly conceived during the broadcast of an
episode of "Perry Mason" at the moment that a night-table clock radio
spontaneously turned on and played an Elvis song, The LawTunes were destined
to blaze a path and mix other metaphors as the first legal rockers. Indeed,
they would have been the world's first "garage band," had they not lived in
an apartment house that lacked internal parking facilities. Instead, they
became the world's first storage room band, introducing their music to an
appreciative assemblage of empty steamer trunks, rusty tricycles, and
yellowed newspapers. Needless to say, the audience was dumbstruck.
As they
developed and, more importantly, briefly considered learning how to play
music, The LawTunes and the three chords they eventually mastered soon
became headliners on the competitive Bris, birthday party, and potty
training celebration circuit. They wrote and played songs that gave voice to
their most profound life experiences, such as spilled finger paint, gum in
hair, and dislike of peas, be they intact or pureed. But they felt they had
not reached their zenith (which, by then, had been replaced by a Magnavox).
The chance
came when, after their unchanged repertoire raised some eyebrows at
weddings, college concerts, and corporate events, they chose to put down
their instruments (relics of their briefly considering careers in medicine;
earlier, they had lost their guitars, drums, and keyboards on a subway), and
attend law school. They chose the University of Michigan, primarily for its
warm weather.
Invited
(obviously sound unheard) to participate in the Law School's annual alleged
"talent show," the band came to the groundbreaking realization that perhaps
they should compose songs that had a modicum of relevance to their current
audience. They did, and the reaction to the band nearly exceeded that from
their debut performances. Upon graduation five years thereafter, however,
the rigors of practice forced the band's musical aspirations to take a back
seat, which was soon an even greater challenge as that location became
occupied by multiplying child safety carriers. Three-row SUVs helped a bit,
but not on grocery days. And over time, reflecting the lateral movement
increasingly common in the legal profession, the bandmates drifted apart,
separately moonlighting for even-more-pale-by-comparison wannabes such as
the Breach (of Contract) Boys, The Four First-Years, and Jan and (the Law
School Admissions) Dean.
But finally,
with more than 30 years of practice (unfortunately not musical
practice) under their belts (or, more accurately, the elastic waistbands of
their polyester suit trousers), and the ironclad career stability such
tenure affords in the law business nowadays, the "Fiduciary Five" felt it
was time to take a short (and, indeed, by their employers strongly
encouraged) leave of absence to, like a can of off-brand fruit beverage,
reconstitute themselves. After their extended hiatus (subsequently repaired
surgically), the band made its long-awaited (they were late) return during
intermission at a NYC CLE program on noise pollution legislation. A furious
burst of arguably original songwriting during a 20-minute cab ride from the
Brill Building to the deli across the street, followed by months in the
studio (a relic of their briefly considering careers in art) resulted in
these albums (actually, it resulted in the master tapes from which these albums
were duplicated, but you get the idea). The albums represent a Sherman
Act-compliant combination of classic rock musical styles with articulation
of the realities of law practice, to create the band's trademark (pending)
"Ethical Wall of Sound." With record companies, movie producers, and
television executives all banging at their door (although it could also be
the upstairs neighbors), without doubt the sky is the limit (of how far you
can see). Viva The LawTunes!Micah ("Courthouse Steps") Jagger  Plaintiff's Counsel, Oral Argument, Strutting Around, Shirt Removal, Lead Vocals Nicholas ("Prosser on") Tortolli In-House Counsel, Bass, Alto Fax, Photocopier, Invoice Review, Vocals Maxwell ("Max") Billings External Defense Counsel, Drafting, Electric Guitar, Electronic Discovery, Wardrobe, Vocals Smash ("Bones") Drummond Prosecutor's Office, Drums/Percussion and Other Auditory Damage, Cellphone, Vocals Malcolm ("Mal") Practisse Solo Practitioner, Keyboards, Shredder, Excuses, Professional Liability Insurance, Vocals |
Philosophy:
LawTunes' albums are dedicated to the proposition that lawyers' zealous
representation of clients and furtherance of the public good can be only
enhanced by a healthy willingness of lawyers to poke fun at themselves
appropriately on occasion. Our philosophy emphasizes that lawyers and other people really need to
take the time to pursue their "after-hours" dreams, despite the increasing
pressures, longer work days (and nights), and other factors that may make
them think it is impossible -- and no matter how unrealistic or unlikely
realizing those dreams may be. Being able to enjoy or express ourselves or
just blow off steam ends up making us happier, and thus better, at whatever
we do that actually pays our bills.
History: Savell’s musical take on the legal world started with performances at the
University of Michigan Law School’s “Law Revue” (alleged) talent show in the
early 1980s. It continued with solo and in-house band performances at summer
and holiday functions at his former law firm, where his poking
good-natured fun at lawyers and the legal profession was (thankfully) well-received and
encouraged. Over the years he recorded many of these songs, producing vinyl
records, cassette tapes, and then CDs which he gave each holiday season to
family, friends, colleagues, clients, and people he met on airplanes.
Preparing a commercial release was the natural next step.
Production:
Guitars include a Rickenbacker 360 semi-hollow electric and a Yamaha FG-160
acoustic, the latter upgraded with a Roland GK-2A midi pickup to a GR-30
guitar synthesizer; the primary keyboard is an old Yamaha; the basic drum
set is from Pulse; also employed is
a set of sleigh bells of unknown origin. On the
hardware side, Savell's PC is a Rain Computers ION 4 low-noise system optimized for recording,
running Windows 10 Pro, with a Gateway LP2424/FHD2401 24" widescreen/HD
display, and an AKAI EIE Pro Electromusic Interface Expander, outputting to M-Audio Studiophile BX5
D2 Bi-Amplified Studio Reference Monitors and BXS Subwoofer
(except when others are asleep or watching TV, at which point he switches in
the interest of all to Bose QC3 noise-cancelling headphones). Chief among
peripherals are an M-Audio Midiman MIDISPORT 4x4 MIDI interface, a Ketron SD2 Sound Module/Orchestral Wizard, a TC-Helicon
VoiceLive Play GTX, a DigiTech Vocalist VR harmonizer, a Roland Boss Dr.
Rhythm DR-550, and a Mackie Control Universal surface mixer and Extender . Primary microphones
are a TC-Helicon MP-75, a RØDE NT2, and an AKG C 1000 S,
used with an sE Electronics Reflexion Filter (plus two acoustic blankets)
for room ambience reduction. On the software side, Savell runs PG Music Band-in-a-Box and RealBand, the DAW/sequencer Cakewalk Sonar Platinum (including Dimension Pro, Native
Instruments Guitar Rig, and Roland HyperCanvas/TTS-1), Realivox - The
Ladies, Realivox - Blue, Soundprovocation Vocalotheque, Soundiron
Questionably Barbershop, Mercury Boys' Choir Micro, and Olympus Mike-Ro Solo
Tenor; Roland Super Quartet,
Native Instruments Kontakt and Bandstand, IK Multimedia SampleTank, and several
vocal/audio processing
packages/plugins, including Izotope Nectar. He has used the Microsoft Songsmith program, which
allows preliminary voiced song ideas to be captured in both audio and MIDI
formats. Savell composes his lyrics in MasterWriter songwriting tools
software, and, when blocked, uses an Executive Machines EPS-1501X shredder. He
edits audio in Audacity and burns his masters with Nero Platinum. Savell
designs his album covers, CD faces, and promotional materials using CorelDraw
Graphics Suite, Corel Paint Shop Pro, and other graphics/layout
software.
Except for live performance tracks, all songs
are
performed, recorded, and produced in Savell's home studio. The CDs
are then
mastered and manufactured by Disc Makers or National Media Services.
Contact: Lawrence Savell - LawTunes -
www.lawtunes.com - savell@lawtunes.com
P.S.:
Amazingly, we got through all this without a single footnote. Something is obviously very wrong.*______________ *Sorry, I just couldn't resist. |
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Copyright © 1986-2024 Lawrence Savell. All Rights Reserved | Contact | Check Out SurfChords! |
