(Dorchester, MA ?? September 28, 2004) Holbrook, MA native Joe Pernice, of the critically acclaimed Pernice Brothers, has written and recorded an homage to Red Sox slugger Manny Ramirez, called ??Moonshot Manny (Pega Luna Manny)? which is available for a limited time as a download at
www.pernicebrothers.com/manny. Pernice and his record label, the Dorchester-based Ashmont Records are asking for a minimum donation of $1 per download, and the proceeds will benefit Boston??s First Night.
Said Joe Pernice, ??At some point in the middle of the season I started singing, ??Manny hit me home with a moonshot, baby? to the TV set every time Manny would step up to the plate. Just as my falsetto was shaping up fairly and the tune was actually becoming a song, my wife started singing it too. Then our friends joined in. Pretty soon a gang of us was dancing around the apartment, singing the tune and making a racket. And Manny was on fire. He gave us one of the best summers I can remember.?
It??s an interesting time to be in Boston. Red Sox Fever is palpable. Every other person on the street is dressed in Red Sox gear. The public gathering places without big screen TV??s are dead any night the team is playing. The hope that a Red Sox fan carries in his or her heart for 364 days a year is surging. Possibilities exist. Dreams come true.
Dreams do come true, as was witnessed last Wednesday, when a man named Frank called the First Night Boston people, after reading in the Globe that they couldn??t afford the midnight fireworks this year, and said he was sending them a check for $50,000. Said label co-owner Joyce Linehan,* ??We don??t have $50,000, but since the cheap digital recording equipment we used to record this was largely paid for with money from First Night gigs over the past few years, and the Red Sox are as Boston as First Night, the Fourth of July on the Esplanade, the Zakim Bridge, the Marathon, and so on, we thought we??d take this opportunity to exploit one Boston Institution (the Sox) for another (First Night) thereby maximizing the exploitation of another future Boston institution, Dorchester??s Ashmont Records, home of Joe Pernice??s recording projects. It??s really just a cheap publicity stunt. But it??s also a great song. And a great cause. All proceeds will go to First Night Boston. We thought this was especially appropriate, since the aforementioned hope that Red Sox fans carry throughout the year, is similar in quality to the hope that Bostonians greet the New Year with on First Night. ??
Said Linehan, ??The download will be available for a limited time only. There are no plans to make this song commercially available, because it was just recorded last Thursday, and by the time we get it replicated, the Sox will have won the World Series, and it won??t be as timely.
