We get involved in the darndest things and this project was altogether typical in that respect.

This write-up chronicles our adventures with a project to produce a new music CD featuring JD Cash, a resident of and well known personality in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. During his long career he has had songs featured on CD compilations and also released three CD’s of his own with the last one being in 2003. Probably his most well known song was Theme From A Summer Place which was very popular. Since first meeting him a few years ago, we’ve always had a tremendous appreciation and respect for JD’s truly remarkable concert style voice and terrific presence in the delivery of his performances. Simply put, we were so impressed with his massive talent we wanted to see it taken to an even higher level of success.

We first encountered JD on a personal level in the latter part of 2007 through internet correspondence about some topics of mutual interest. That eventually led to us being invited to meet and visit with him at Club 2001 where he is the resident MC and DJ for the part of the entertainment complex featuring performances of Carolina Beach Music.

Those visits became a much enjoyed, regular occasion on all of our subsequent trips to Myrtle Beach. During the days and evenings when he wasn’t working he often joined us at other entertainment venues and for some memorable dining events. We had fun chauffeuring JD as one of the celebrities in the huge Society of Stranders Spring 2009 parade in North Myrtle Beach, and also in designing and producing the banners for the car we used.

On various occasions, sometimes at our behest for charitable fund raisers and at other times on his own initiative, he would do live performances of a few songs and frequently dedicate them to us. Without fail we always were truly amazed at his remarkable voice, and the polish and sophistication of his delivery. We also couldn’t help but notice the hugely enthusiastic reception he always received from the audience. And invariably we would find ourselves congratulating him and telling him that he really needed to be recording again so that incredible talent could be enjoyed by even more people. As we became more convinced of the viability of that idea, without JD’s knowledge, we had a few exploratory discussions with local friends of ours who are successful, current recording artists about possibly doing a duet or otherwise involving JD on a track or two of their future CD’s. There was certainly interest on the part of those folk in pursuing such an idea, but the real turning point which catapulted us well beyond that fairly modest concept came when our mutual friend, John Barker, telephoned one day.

Many people know John Barker as a much admired, literally living legend in the Carolinas’ music scene by virtue of his having performed with such renowned groups as the Catalinas, The Embers, The Entertainers and now with The Legends of Beach and Jackie Gore. He’s also well known for having composed the famous Summertime's Callin' Me. However, a lot of folk aren’t aware that John has his own professional studio and he is credited with producing recordings for notable artists, past and present. We first personally became acquainted with him and the lovely young lady who would later become his wife when over twenty some years ago we found ourselves floating around the Bahamas with them on a party catamaran.

So it was a delight to hear John’s voice when the phone was answered. After a few pleasantries he moved along to the main point of his call which was to inquire if we were seriously interested in doing something to further JD’s career. His message essentially was he felt we together could persuade JD to create a new CD and he was curious to know if we would consider providing the not inconsequential financial backing necessary for such an undertaking, if it were going to be done right. Since the prospect was being raised by John Barker, we indeed took it quite seriously.

That initial discussion led to more and they soon included JD as we explored the ramifications and tried to develop an understanding of the process that would be involved to accomplish such an undertaking. We think something that says a lot about JD is he had never asked us for anything, not the slightest favor, the entire time we had known him and it was clear as we had these discussions he was not asking us to undertake this effort. In fact, if anything, he was discouraging us because of his concerns that it might not prove to be a good investment on our part.

After we conducted an initial resource and cost analysis for various scenarios, we committed to pursuing the project and, in addition to providing all the funding, we volunteered to personally undertake all the photography and create all the graphics for the package and related materials. Though we had no practical or even theoretical knowledge about the creation of the music, we certainly had very considerable business planning and management skills we expected to be properly applied to the conduct of the project. We’ll interject at this juncture that the music creation components of the effort and the manner in which they’ve been traditionally undertaken weren’t always totally harmonious with our insistence on good business practices including meaningful scheduling, prioritization and structured process management (something a bit alien we gather to many creative, artistic type folk).