I joined Brian Dewan and Nina Katchadourian in this collection of songs about Roosevelt Island. The island has a long and colorful history, and has had many names over the years: Hog Island, Manning’s Island, Blackwell’s Island, Welfare Island. For much of the 19th and 20th century, it was used as a prison and hospital. We collected historical songs, and wrote some of our own. The project was originally done for the show “Romantic Detachment,” at MoMA PS1 in 2004; we then made up CDs (with artwork by Brian) and a few LPs as well.

I contributed two rounds: “Blackwell’s Isle,” a moralizing schoolroom lesson about the prison; and “Captain Manning’s Catch,” a boisterous drinking ditty about the disgraced and rum-besotted officer who owned the place in the late 17th century.

The other songs were:

A Loaf of Bread (traditional)
Patient Island (Nina)
The Fancy Peeler (traditional)
The Ballad of Nelly Bly (Nina)
Isle de Blackwell (historical, by Dave Braham and Ed Harrigan)
Brain Surgery (without anesthesia) (Brian)
The Lighthouse (Brian)
Roosevelt Island Promo Jingle (Nina)

We also performed a few gigs as The Patient Island Singers, joined by Meg Reichardt and Clare Ellis.