Blue Eyed Doe

And now, introducing a new album, "Love Is Not An Open Door." Listen to it HERE. The first track is "Blue Eyed Doe."

Back in 10th grade (that's right, this was the year of my supergroup Extreme Delusion) I liked a certain girl who rode my bus. I asked her out in the summer but she said she didn't know if that made sense because she would be away for a month at camp. I went off to camp myself and developed affections for somebody else (that's a whole other song called "Amiss"). But nobody can take away those bus rides home after school.

I decided to keep the song light in tone, and add an electric guitar solo.

The album cover art is by my friend Portside.

Lee's Second Band

Q: OK, so what happened after Extreme Delusion dissolved?

A: Well, I went to a new high school starting junior year. In my physics class, I met a guy named Ian who was a blues fan like me, and played saxophone and flute. We planned to jam sometime. But when he said he was in the school marching band, I didn't know what to expect; was he going to want to play John Phillip Sousa marches? Ian turned out to be a cool cat who could play the blues and jazz with great technical skill as well as improvisational flair and emotion. He got me into John Coltrane, and during my junior year we played a few live gigs and recorded several tunes, whose stories you can read in the Istrail Tunes archive: "Blue Rain," "A Picture of You," "Amiss," and "Nostalgia"

Ian eventually went off to rabbinical school, and I hope he's entertaining a congregation somewhere with his musical stylings.

Wake Up in the Morning: Song for Economic Stimulus

I originally wrote "Wake Up in the Morning" as a cheer-up song to a friend. However, I think it can be recast as a song for these tough economic times. So buck up, America, because Lee Istrail is on your side.

Click on the following link and scroll to track 6:
http://amiestreet.com/music/lee-istrail/live/

Lee's First Band

Q from loyal reader: Lee, what's the story of your first band?
A: From eighth grade until 10th I was in solo artist mode, but in 10th grade I was invited to join a rock 'n roll outfit that needed a guitarist. The band frontman insisted on the name "Extreme Delusion." I was not thrilled at the moniker (are we conceding that we have delusions of being a band?), but in the interest of getting down to business I did not lobby for an alternative.

The frontman decided U2's "Sunday Bloody Sunday" would be our first song. Now, you might think we'd start off with some Chuck Berry or "Wild Thing," but no; we had to try a song with challenging drum and vocal parts, in the same key that Bono sang it. That song never came together, but we did play a good cover of The Beatles' "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" (I have a live performance on tape), an original I wrote about an unrequited crush (taped from the same concert), and an original about Anthony Burgess' "A Clockwork Orange," which we performed as an English class assignment (the recording was lost, but I know how the tune goes). At the end of 10th grade, I changed schools and we did not have the momentum to continue. But it was a fun time creating something with others, and we managed to rock out in public a few times.

During college, I saw a new reincarnation of this band, which went by the name, "Urine Sane." The band had gotten much better, but the name had gotten much worse. I shook my head.