Often referred to as one of the region’s ‘most influential women songwriters’,
my guest joining me for today’s episode grew up in Rutherford New Jersey in the late 60’s, where she remembers listening to WABC with Cousin Brucie
relentlessly on her radio (which she hid under her bed, so her parents wouldn’t hear that she was playing it late at night).
After hearing from a friend in 2nd grade that they were taking piano lessons,
my guest today began stashing away her milk money from lunch & shortly after, began taking lessons of her own. Although she claims she had no notion of wanting to grow up to be in a band, she was known to be seen walking around singing (& making up) songs. She shares that, once, as a 5th grader, she was walking home from school near the campus of Fairleigh Dickinson University,
& remembers hearing very LOUD music coming from the concert hall…
& although her parents had always warned her to steer clear of those
(quote) “beatnicks!”, she witnessed the gathering of these young “hippy” kids
& a loud psychedelic rock band playing on a big stage (& she was completely sucked-in). She continued to sneak out to those concerts whenever she could and shares that these concerts influenced her beyond measure at this early stage.
Later on, when she was around 12, our guest heard her friend’s older sister
playing guitar & singing “Fire & Rain” by James Taylor at a sleepover & was blown away that a regular person could just sing & play guitar like that. And so, soon after that, she started saving up green stamps from the local Shop-Right grocery store to purchase her very first guitar.
At 15, after playing in local folk rock festival (in Tampa, Florida where she now lived with her family), some older boys had heard her & asked her to audition for their band… where she did so by singing the song WHITE ROOM by Cream
from inside the bathroom (due to her intense shyness) that they listened to
from speakers on the outside - &, she made the group
& toured around Florida while still in high school. At age 20, she met a poet in a park & although only speaking briefly in person, they exchanged letters for a year before he sent her a one-way train ticket to Vermont which directly
changed the course of her life. She often jokes that she came here as a (quote) Mail Order Bride.
She is always striving to expand upon her creative endeavors:
She was music consultant for ‘The VT Movie’, worked as the promoter for author Fay Webern, has produced a total of 38 videos, & in 2013, she curated the ‘Rural Revolution’ Photography Exhibition of 70's Era Goddard College Art Student Photography. Currently, she is owner & engineer of her own recording studio in downtown Burlington - “Emotionoise Studio” & says her main focus now is on writing, playing & recording with her current band known as:
Peg Tassey & The Loud Flowers.
She is so much to so many… She is a musician, a songwriter, a producer,
a bandleader, an audio engineer, & has over 40 years of experience performing & recording with both her own (as well as other) bands.
Please welcome to today’s episode… the legendary force known as:
Peg Tassey

Peg's 3 songs are:

  1. The Great Gig In The Sky by Pink Floyd

  2. Mother by John Lennon

  3. I Remember by The Hollywood Indians


    Soundtrack
    • 94 bpm
    • Key: Gm
    • Burlington, Vermont