Glenn Feit’s Fingerpicking Second Act
Glenn Feit has had his share of anxious moments. “It’s enough to take a bar exam,” said the partner in the international law firm Proskauer Rose LLP. “It’s enough to speak before hundreds of people in court. I’m a pilot,” he added, “and I’ve done all kinds of tests and so on.”
But it was not until 2011 when, early in his ninth decade and about to perform at Crossroads Music in Amagansett, his nerves briefly got the better of him. As Cynthia Daniels, the music producer, prepared to record the proceedings for later broadcast on WPPB Peconic Public Broadcasting, “My hand literally began to shake,” he said. “I have never even come close to being as nervous as I was that night for the radio show.”
Happily, the night was a success, and today, five and a half years after taking up the guitar around the time of his 80th birthday, Mr. Feit is one of the most recognized and beloved among the numerous musicians that call the South Fork home. He has performed at most of the live-music venues from Montauk to Riverhead, from open mike nights in dark bars to the bright stages at Guild Hall and the Suffolk Theater.
At the Bridgehampton house he shares with his wife, Barberi, several acoustic guitars are situated amid microphones, music stands, cables, and amplifiers. “I bought a new guitar, three months ago, as a ‘travel guitar,’ ” he told a visitor last week as he cradled a Taylor GS Mini, a compact model featuring a mahogany top. “The sound . . . I love it. I use it all the time. When I go to play now, people want to borrow it.”
Running through songs old and new, popular and obscure, Mr. Feit’s fingerpicking dexterity belies his relative newness to the instrument. This second career, however, was preceded by a false start, some 40 years ago in New York, where he and Barberi keep an apartment.
“When I first met Barberi, I had mentioned that I always wanted to play the guitar,” he said. With her encouragement, he discovered the Guitar Study Center, founded by Eddie Simon and his brother, the musician Paul Simon. “One Monday, I showed up. I looked like I was the landlord collecting the rent, because I don’t think anybody else was over 16,” he recalled.
But his attendance and practice regimen were hampered by the demands of his work. “I learned very quickly — not the guitar, but that if you want to play the guitar, you’ve got to have time for practice,” he said. “It doesn’t work if you just go one lesson to another, and not do anything in between. I had bought a nice guitar. I probably learned three chords. We put it away.”
Until many years later, that is, when he discovered the Sunday afternoon jam sessions at Crossroads Music, then on North Main Street in East Hampton. He bought a new guitar, “and I came in and basically learned by going to the jam.” A year later, he found abundant instructional videos on the website YouTube. “You can probably learn anything and everything,” he said of the site. “I put myself to it.”
Never a vocalist, a pivotal moment in Mr. Feit’s new career came at the Blue Sky Lounge in Sag Harbor, where Paul Gene, a pianist, was running an open mike night. “I loved just playing with people,” Mr. Feit said. “I would drive out from the city on Wednesday night just to go to an open mike to play with others, not by myself. There was a song I like, Eric Clapton’s ‘Wonderful Tonight.’ I had really learned it. Paul knew I did, and said, ‘Why don’t you play it as an individual, and sing it,’ which I’d never done before. There was a small audience, and when I finished, two women came up, independently, and kissed me on each cheek. I have to tell you, my reaction was ‘Well, they’re being nice to the old guy.’ But I got up, and everybody said, ‘No, do more!’ ”
Shortly thereafter, Ms. Daniels invited him to perform for the “On the Air” event at Crossroads, now at Amagansett Square. Mr. Feit overcame his fear and, he said, “I’m really enjoying what I’m doing.”
Now a veteran of the live-music scene, Mr. Feit has set his sights on the recording studio and is consulting with Ms. Daniels, who owns and operates MonkMusic Studios in East Hampton, on song selection.
“Glenn is definitely beloved around a rather large music community,” Ms. Daniels wrote in an email. “His decision to ‘follow his dream’ after a hugely successful business career at the ripe age of 80 is unique, to say the least.” He works tirelessly at his playing, Ms. Daniels said, and has progressed with remarkable speed. “Recording Glenn will be great,” she wrote, “and he will be able to work in a collaborative way in the studio with many local musicians who have supported his work.”
One such musician is likely to be Klyph Black, one of the South Fork’s most accomplished players. “It’s been a joy and a pleasure being part of Glenn’s musical journey. He’s become quite the guitar player as well as singer and performer,” Mr. Black said. “He plays songs that touch his heart and in turn they touch ours with his rendition of them. Glenn and Barberi are a blessing in my life as well as to the musical community — we couldn’t have more loving and beautiful friends.”
“This community out here is absolutely exceptional,” Mr. Feit said of his fellow musicians. “I have relatives who are musicians, and I tell them about this. They say there’s nothing that compares. Where they are, everything is very competitive, there’s a lot of backbiting. The support here is unbelievable. That, I would say, is a great part of why we’re having such a good time.”
Mr. Feit will be among the featured performers at Fresh Hamptons, in Bridgehampton, on Monday night.