Music for an imaginary exit
The Unitarian Church in Westport, Connecticut, sits between Exits 42 and 44 on the Merritt Parkway, but no Exit 43 was ever built. “We chose this imaginary exit for our band name because it is through the imagination that we can begin to build the kind of world we want,” say the liner notes for Exit 43’s debut CD, Home at Last. The folk music quartet features four professional musicians from the congregation (from left): Blues singer Scarlett Lee Moore; eleven-time Emmy winner Andy “A.J.” Gundell; the church’s music director, Ed Thompson; and singer Suzanne Sheridan, whose song “90 Pound Suburban Housewife Drivin’ in Her SUV” was profiled in UU World in 2006. “We’re a brave choir of passionate fools,” Exit 43 sings in “Prayer,” “who believe it’s still not too late / For love.”
Pictured, from left: Blues singer Scarlett Lee Moore; eleven-time Emmy winner Andy “A.J.” Gundell; the church’s music director, Ed Thompson; and singer Suzanne Sheridan.
