<p>Oh, sorry -- Family Ties was a late '70's sitcom in which a neatly dressed teen with politics right-of-center drove his parents nuts. They were aging college-educated hippies pushing 40. They worried for his soul. He wanted to go to business school and was rebelling against granola for breakfast, etc.</p>
<p>Allmusic - son is involved in a variety of projects, none of which currently pay much more than beer money, but he thinks that one or two of them really have the potential to take off.</p>
<p>One group is a young composer who has experience in film scores. He is currently writing stuff for a 10 piece band that includes strings and brass. They are laying down tracks for an album this summer and hope to find a label this fall. They also play at several bars in Manhattan fairly regularly. </p>
<p>His second big project is a female vocalist in her 30s. She is somewhat established but needed to redo her band. They have booked a couple of paying gigs - a festival and a college show - for the fall and hope to have a CD out in late fall. That group is smaller than the first one and he has a lot more input into what he plays. </p>
<p>He is also subbing this week for a cellist who plays with a dance company - 5 dancers and 3 musicians. It is a 1 hour performance piece that is all improve, requires him to play standing up the whole time AND requires him to dance some while playing! The performance is about an hour from us so we are getting to see it. Should be interesting. </p>
<p>In addition, he plays for a couple of other singer / songwriters when they need a cellist. Again, at this point, most of his work is minimally paid, but he thinks this will begin to change this fall. (He did get paid for the dance gig.) I can send you some links if you are interested.</p>