Marblehead Morning
Daring & Stahl: 50 Years in Harmony
Marblehead Morning
Daring & Stahl: 50 Years in Harmony
Tim Jackson
(Director)
Tim directed three feature documentaries: Chaos and Order: Making American Theater, Radical Jesters and When Things Go Wrong: The Robin Lane Story, and two short films, The American Gurner and Joan Walsh Anglund: A Life in Story and Poem. In addition to recording and performing as a drummer with Daring and Stahl on and off since the 1970’s, his 50-year music career includes some 20 music groups, recordings, national and international tours. He was an assistant professor at the New England Institute of Art for 20 years. He is a member of the Boston Society of Film Critics writing for the Arts Fuse. As an actor, he has worked as a member of SAG and AFTRA since the 1980s.
Director’s Statement:
Since the early 70’s I’d worked with Mason & Jeanie as a drummer on folk albums. Mason produced artists like Bill Staines, David Mallet, as well as Jeanie and himself. In the 80s and 90s, I also recorded on several film soundtracks for Mason, most notably films by John Sayles. Then, in 2023, Mason gathered the musicians he and Jeanie worked with over the past 5 decades, including my wife, Suzanne Boucher, to record some of their best songs. Mason knew I had directed five documentaries, so when he suggested I helm a film about their careers, built from those recording sessions, I leapt at the opportunity.
Bill Aydelott
(Producer, Cinematographer, Editor)
Way back in high school, I played drums and piano, but early on, it became clear that as a drummer and pianist…I was a good filmmaker. However, working with film and video over many years, I have always loved music – what it brings to productions, and indeed, what it
brings every day to our collective lives. I am especially appreciative of those who do it well. Mason Daring and Jeanie Stahl have been doing it well for a long time, and a film telling the story of this unique, enduring collaboration and how it has impacted their own lives, has been long overdue.
Bill has been making films since high school (8mm), eventually graduating as Dartmouth’s 1st Special Major in Film Theory & Production. Founding Waverly Motion Pictures, based in
Salem, MA, he has shot, directed and edited TV spots, corporate industrials, several documentaries and awarding dramatic shorts, while producing local shoots for a variety of major network TV series (Cheers, St. Elsewhere, Wings, Newhart, Ally McBeal, Boston Legal, Bones, The Gilmore Girls, The Good Doctor and others).
He was also co-producer and cameraman for writer/director John Sayles’ first independent feature, Return of the Secaucus 7, for which Mason Daring wrote the original score. The most recent dramatic short he co-wrote and directed, Mail.Man, appeared in 48 international festivals, winning numerous Audience Choice Awards.
Bill and Mason have worked and played music together as far back as high school, when Bill was Mason’s drummer in a greater Scranton rock band – The Squires. Making films, however, is his preferred beat.
Mason Daring
(Principal Role & Executive Producer)
Why I wanted to make this movie:
When Jeanie and I hit the 50 year mark, I recommended we go into the studio one more time, with some of our favorite players and a video setup – the result was better than I had expected….when I then suggested to my friend John Sayles that we turn it onto a concert film, he recommended we use Tim Jackson and Bill Aydelott as a director/producer team…….things got out of hand – here is the result.
——-
‘Mason Daring is to a director what a Stradivarius is to a violinist. He makes moments that might well go by unnoticed spring to life in a way that they suddenly touch the soul of the audience.’ – Wes Craven
Mason Daring is a music producer and critically acclaimed feature film composer for 75 motion pictures and mini-series.
After graduating from Amherst College in 1971, Mason enrolled at Suffolk Law School, and soon thereafter met folk-singer Jeanie Stahl. Her extraordinary vocal talent persuaded him to renew his performance career. But it was Mason’s law work that led him to his first film score. He served as legal counsel to first-time filmmaker John Sayles during the production of The Return Of The Secaucus Seven. Sayles heard his recordings, and at the end of editing brought him an offer to write the music score for the film. From these beginnings he embarked full time into a wide-spanning composing career.
His long list of credits includes the scores for seventeen of John Sayles’ movies, including The Secret of Roan Inish, Eight Men Out, Matewan and Lone Star. His television scores include the Emmy nominated score for Bailey’s Mistake, the Emmy award winning theme for Yankee Magazine and the long-playing themes for PBS’s Nova and Frontline. His major film credits include, among others, From Earth to the Moon, The Opposite of Sex, Music of the Heart, and Where the Heart Is. In addition to dramatic scoring, Mason has written scores for dozens of documentaries. He co-wrote the theme for the PBS series Frontline, which is the longest running TV theme currently on the air (40 years).
In addition to his film credits Mason taught film composition at Berklee College of Music for 20 years and at Savannah College of Art and Design as a guest professor. He was also the founder and driving force behind Daring Records, a sub-label of Rounder Records, which produced and released albums for a variety of artists including Bill Staines, Bob Franke, Billy Novick, Guy Van Duser, Duke Levine, Butch Thompson and Jeanie Stahl.
Jeanie Stahl
(Principal Role & Associate Producer)
Jeanie Stahl’s “voice is so rich and smooth,” wrote one critic, “it should be bottled and sold.”. New England DJ Dick Pleasants wrote, “I am constantly amazed at the range and warmth of Jeanie’s voice, a voice that’s as at home with English ballads as with jazz standards.”
Jeanie Stahl began her professional career in the 70’s. While in her final year at Wellesley College, she teamed up with Mason Daring in 1973, and the duo soon won the hearts of Boston and Cambridge audiences. The release of their first album, Sweet Melodies in the Night, which included the popular song, Marblehead Morning, significantly broadened their reputation and brought them radio airplay throughout the country. She has recorded eight albums; four with Mason Daring and four solo albums, produced by Daring.
Jeanie’s songs and vocals have been featured on television and in films, including John Sayle’s movies Lianna and Return of the Secaucus Seven. She also starred in eight music videos of vintage songs from the 30’s and 40’s, which aired nationally on PBS following the Masterpiece Theater series Love in a Cold Climate.
While pursuing her music career Jeanie also collaborated with her husband, John Jacobsen, planning new and expanding museums and IMAX theaters. Together they co-executive produced the IMAX film, The Living Sea, which featured music by Sting and was nominated for an Academy Award.
In recent years Stahl has concentrated on studio work with Mason and a small selection of performances annually.
Davita Nowland
(Executive Producer)
As Mason’s partner in every way, Davita (Dede) Nowland came to this project to support the film shoots, studio sessions and live performances with catering, cheerleading, marketing, and financing.
With an MBA, Dede specialized in the sales and marketing of intangible products and services such as advertising, software, insurance, and corporate and retail training. Following her corporate career, Dede spent the next 25 years as the creator and owner of Nauticals of Marblehead, where she designed and built furniture and fine gifts, mostly from wooden boats that were considered beyond restoration. By featuring the hand of the previous craftsman her pieces were authentic, sculptural, and fun.