Red Hook musician releases song about weathering Sandy’s storm
On the night of October 29, 2012, the bang of doors breaking off their hinges, the whoosh of water rushing into his Red Hook home, and the rattling of the windows against the pounding wind and pouring rain were the only sounds that Sherman Ewing heard. Those sounds soon made way for the stillness of the night and the silence of people’s faces as they surveyed the damage, then eventually the sound of voices asking, “Hey, do you need any help?”
Now, a year after Superstorm Sandy invaded Brooklyn, New York City and New Jersey, Ewing, 49, has transformed those sounds and that experience into a heartfelt, catchy, folk-rock ode to the “Wild River” that forced the neighborhood to “come together in the darkest of times” with the age-old reminder that “storms they pass over, but the people remain.”
“The gist of the song is that the town pulled together during really tough times. Something that was a really horrible event, when all is said and done, really changed my life,” explained Ewing, a singer-songwriter who counts John Hyatt and John Klein as big influences, and whose sound may remind listeners of the songs of Neil Young and Bob Dylan.