Steve Van Dien
Contemporary timelessness.
Many folks would call that an oxymoron - a paradoxical saying that used two words with directly opposite definitions - jumbo shrimp, for example.
But it's an accurate description of "Pax," an album by New Berlin singer Eileen Carr of traditional Latin hymns with synthesized, ultra-modern orchestrations.
"Pax," which is Latin for "peace, futures such classic compositions as "Ave Maria, " "Dona Nobis Pacem" and "Panis Angelicus."
Though definitely modern, the orchestrations enhance rather than detract from the worshipful atmosphere created by Carr's clear, warm alto and the backup voices, which include those of her daughter, Emily; son, Christian; and sister-in-law, Barbara.
Began Singing At 13
Carr began singing, she recalled as one of 13 kids in a close-knit, "very Catholic family."
"It was at the very end of the Latin Mass era," she explained. "So I grew up knowing all the Latin hymns."
It wasn't long before her exceptional voice began opening doors. While a student at Catholic Memorial High School back in the 1960s., she appeared in musicals at Elm Grove's Sunset Playhouse, as well as radio and TV commercials.
In fact, she did the original spot for Hall's Chevrolet.
"I was like 16 when I did that, a thousand years ago," she laughed.
Her budding talents won Carr a drama scholarship to Marquette University. But during her second year there, she met another young performed named Johns Shebesta, who became her husband.
"He was a lounge lizard, as schmucky as they come, She laughed, laughing again. "He knows all the bad jokes, and they still work!"
For the next 15 years, the couple played private parties and conventions across the United States, enjoying the excitement of live performing and earning a living in the show business.
Raising Four Children
But as Carr and Shebesta's family grew, they decided to leave the grind, to spend as much time as possible with their four children.
"The kids we saw on the road either acted like they were 35 or uncontrollable," Carr said. "We wanted to raise our right."
So Shebesta went into the piano business as a technician and Carr became, for the most part, a full-time mom. Occasional commercials and convention jobs were the limit of her musical activities during those years.
That pleasant routine was interrupted seven years ago, when Carr was stricken with cancer.
But her powerful faith and loving family combined with topnotch medical treatment to defeat the disease.
In its wake, she decided to become a nursing assistant, a job that gave her a firsthand look at the ravages of illness and old age.
"I deal with death every day," she noted. "so I started to think about what I wanted to leave on the Earth when I'm gone."
Those thoughts were on Carr's mind when she was driving back from a convention gig in Chicago with her friend and colleague, Terry Sweet, who owns Terry Sweet Studios in Wauwatosa.
"We were just talking, kicking ideas around, " she said. "Terry said, 'If you had all the money you ever wanted, what would you do?'
"I said, 'You know, I'd take the old Latin hymns and put them to modern sounds and make a CD.'
"He said, 'That's a great idea.'"
For a while, though, it looked like Carr and Sweet's lack of funds would keep that promising idea from fruition.
But then Carr's father, John - an attorney who hasn't been slowed by either his age, 80, or legal blindness - stepped in.
"He thought it was a great idea, too," Carr recalled. "I said, 'But Dad, I don't have the money.'
"He said, 'I do.'".
With John aboard as executive producer and Sweet as arranger and instrumentalist, the project took off.
The response of listeners has been very gratifying, Carr said.
"People who've heard it have cried," she said.
A Family Effort
Having family member participate was especially rewarding for her. It's obvious that Carr and Shebesta's kids have turned out much, much better than those show business brats their parents used to encounter.
[Emily, a college senior at Minnesota State University, Mankato, has maintained a 4.0 grade point average. She regularly sings mass at her local Catholic Church and volunteers on campus. Christian, who is known as "Bubba," has sang the National Anthem at Milwaukee Kicker Sporting Events and at the New Berlin Fireworks Extravaganza. J.J., Johns and Eileen's oldest son graduated from Emerson University of the arts in Boston, has appeared in Coca-Cola commercial and won an "Emvy Award" from the college for his work on Comedy Projects. Nik, and Osh Kosh University freshman, plays college soccer and recently won the Milwaukee Kicker's "Sarah Hegarety Award" for integrity, spirit, and hard-work.]
She praises them all along with Shebesta and her parents, for their involvement with and feedback on the project.
"As far as my family is concerned, this is the best thing I've done," she said.
She [performed] some songs from "Pax" at Catholic Memorial in a special service September 20th, 1998 in honor of the mobile version of the Vietnam War Memorial that will be there.
Tat will feature another family connection. Carr noted that she lost a brother in Vietnam - and September 20th is his birthday.
"Everything is woven together," she said.
September, 1998