Bill Deasy set to release ‘happier record’

It only seems like every time Bill Deasy gets a break, external events intrude and put a damper on his momentum.

When the Gathering Field was on the verge of becoming a national touring act, Atlantic Records, which released the band's album "Lost in America" in 1996, stopped supporting the group.

In 2001, when Deasy's song "Good Things Are Happening" began to be featured on "Good Morning America" promos, the country was rocked by the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.

And the release today of Deasy's second solo album "Good Day No Rain" finds the country at war with Iraq.

No one would blame Deasy if he took a "why me?" stance, but he insists on looking beyond things he can't control.

"When you have just enough positive things happening," he says, "it keeps you from becoming bitter."

So Deasy looks back at the brush with a major label and thinks about how the band "almost realized a big dream and did realize a bunch of little dreams," including touring the country. The "Good Things Are Happening" experience (and the money he earned) enabled him to enlist the services of some of New York City's finest musicians for "Good Day No Rain."

Little wonder that Deasy call this "a happier record" than his previous solo effort, "Spring Lies Waiting."

"I'd really gotten used to the Gathering Field-Dave Brown crutch," he says of his longtime band and collaborator. "Dave is so talented and easy to lean on, but this was kind of a necessary step to instead lean on myself totally for the first time. It was a thrilling process for me in that sense."

Even the fact that he couldn't entice the interest of a major label -- despite having producer Greg Wattenburg (Five for Fighting, Dishwalla) work on four songs -- hasn't put a damper on Deasy's outlook. In fact, he might be better off on his own.

"You're up against people who think you still need to be 18 to get a record deal," says Deasy, 34. "They're not really catching on the to fact that older people are buying more records today than younger people."

"Good Day No Rain" is certainly far more substantive than the emotional ravings of that teen demographic. The album takes the form of a song cycle, with the songs creating a journey from uncertainty to true love.

Thing is, Deasy didn't intend the album to have such a structure.

"I write so many songs, and I tend to trust my intuition about these things," he says. "Some of the songs were written just before I went in to record them. Some of them I had for a couple of years. But since I'm a certain kind of writer, there's bound to be a theme that ties things together."

Deasy's ability to describe the emotional turmoil of the human condition has been his ace card since the "Lost in America" period. Now his writing seems to have another component: happiness. "Good Day No Rain" ends with a trio of tunes -- "Who We Are," "It's All Right There" and "The Gift of Seeing Through" -- that just might serve as oases of hope in these gloomy times.

"I feel like I'm shaking off the cobwebs a little bit," Deasy says. "I feel like I want to explore all corners and facets of life."

Deasy will give a free solo acoustic show at Borders Books & Music, 1170 Northway Mall, Ross, on Saturday. Details: (412) 635-7661.

Also, $10 tickets for Deasy's CD release party, April 18 at Nick's Fat City, go on sale today. Details: (412) 323-1919.

PLAYHOUSE 2003-04 SEASON

Classic works by William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens and Tom Stoppard, as well as a world premiere written by one of its own senior theater majors, are planned for The Pittsburgh Playhouse of Point Park College 2003-2004 theater season.

"The whole season poses the question: 'Are we going to be reasonable, spiritual animals or instinctive animals?'" says Ronald Allan-Lindblom, artistic producing director of the Playhouse and dean of the Point Park College Conservatory of Performing Arts.

The Playhouse's three companies -- the professional Pittsburgh Playhouse Repertory Company, the Playhouse Conservatory Company of undergraduate student performers and its children's theater company, Playhouse Jr. -- will present 14 theater productions at its three-theater performing arts center in Oakland.

The Pittsburgh Playhouse Repertory Company: