In another life, I was a producer.
A fundraising producer, yes—but a producer nonetheless. Producers always have favorites: talent, editors, engineers. Mine were Brian O’Donovan and Edgar B. Herwick III. At GBH, it was never a question of who I wanted pitching alongside Brian on A Celtic Sojourn. If Edgar was there, we were three. If he wasn’t, Brian and I carried the pitch ourselves.
Fundraising producers were rarely admired in public media. But with Brian and Edgar, I never felt like “less.” Together, we pulled off the impossible: pledge drives that made listeners laugh, call in, give, and even thank us for asking. (A rarity in fundraising, I promise you.)
When I left GBH for Life is Good, Brian asked me to lunch. He didn’t try to convince me to stay. Instead, he gave me a portable recording device.
“I hope this says everything, Amanda,” he told me. “Because no matter where you go, you’re a producer.”
He was right. Producing is how I move through the world. It’s how I give back.
When Brian passed in 2023, Edgar and I walked into his celebration of life together. A decade had gone by since we’d worked as a trio, but that didn’t matter. We showed up for the final production.
What many fans never knew: Brian insisted his events had a ticket price (to cut down on no-shows), but if you needed the medicine of live music and couldn’t afford it, all you had to do was ask. Community was never negotiable.
On Sunday, October 5, I’ll be producing again—this time with Edgar hosting—at Pastoral Artisan Kitchen in Boston. A night of storytelling, food, and of course, a bit of live music (Brian worked hard to coin the phrase: Live music is where it’s at.
I’d expand Brian’s phrase, just slightly: Live performance is where it’s at.
And I think he’d be fine with that.
It’s highly likely that I worked on this piece with Brian, Lisa Mullins (then the voice of PRI’s The World and fellow Brian supporter), and Andy Hicks - another fundraising producer who loved the work as much as I did (maybe even more).