If you’re expecting the rip-roaring, two-piano arrangements Bostick and Brier created for “Dualing at the McCoys,” you’re in for a pleasant surprise. “Missing You at the McCoys” is mellow, mellow, mellow -- a reflective collection of new and old ragtime plus other delights best suited for easing a workday commute or soothing a troubled soul.
The CD opens with Nan’s solo performance of her exquisite “That Missing You Rag,” composed in memory of Phil McCoy in whose home this CD was recorded. Next Tom and Nan take a relaxed stroll with “Original Rags” (1899) – the first published ragtime composition by the King of Ragtime, Scott Joplin. Women composers are well represented with Nan’s interpretation of Louis Gustin’s “X-N-Tric Rag” and the duo’s fun renditions of “Snowball, “ “Lindy,” and “Chicken Chowder.” Throughout, Nan provides lyrical solo interpretations of the melodious compositions of her own great “Uncle Charlie” (Charles N. Daniels) including his “Innocence Valse Lente,” a moving concert piece with history attached--all explained in Nan’s superb liner notes.
Still the dynamic duo couldn't resist rollicking away on “Dill Pickles,” ragging the heck out of a parlor piece called “Woodland Dove,” and happily bouncing through “Sutter Creek Strut,” Gil Lieby’s contemporary tribute to ragtime in California’s Mother Lode. Original compositions by Nan and Tom bring this collection up to modern times. Then to wake you up from your ragtime reverie, the CD ends with the duo’s hot rendition of Nan’s “Bean Whistle Rag” followed by a previously unreleased 1974 recording of “Bean Whistle” orchestrated on Moog synthesizers. Not to be missed!
California’s Nan Bostick and Tom Brier enthrall their audiences with their delightful ragtime antics and incomparable two piano arrangements, always adding a little history to the toe-tapping. Both are accomplished composers and recording artists and have performed at festivals throughout the country, including the Scott Joplin and Blind Boone Festivals in Missouri. They are mainstays at the Sutter Creek and West Coast (Sacramento) Ragtime Festivals, the Ragtime Corner at the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee, plus RagFest in Fullerton, CA.
Nan Bostick, of Menlo Park, CA, is the grandniece and biographer of Charles. N. Daniels. A dedicated researcher and historian, Nan is a frequent contributor to vintage music publications and her musical seminars and performances are warmly received wherever she travels. Nan co-founded the Mother Lode Ragtime Society and served on the board of the West Coast Ragtime Society. She continues to coordinate the seminars at the West Coast Ragtime Festival in Sacramento. She recently retired from a career as a curriculum writer and educator and a Music Together® teacher for babies newborn to 4.
Tom Brier is a favorite at West Coast ragtime events and has produced several of his own CDs. An avid sheet music collector, Tom is noted for performing and popularizing extremely rare but wonderful rags. Tom caught the ragtime bug when his parents purchased a Schubert mechanical player. At 4 he was picking out tunes he heard from the piano rolls. By 11 he had composed nearly a dozen rags. His current count is somewhere around 170 ragtime compositions, many originating on napkins in the lunchroom at the office where Tom works as a computer programmer for the County of Sacramento, CA.
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