A couple of years ago I produced an album called Coming Home for artist, Mindy Jostyn, for Watchfire Music.

It was a labor of love in that I had been a great fan of Mindy’s for many years, her being in my estimation, one of the most talented women on the planet.

Mindy played great guitar, fiddle, piano, accordion, and one of the best blues harmonicas I have ever heard.

On top of that she was a wonderful vocalist and, with her husband, lyricist Jacob Brackman, a superbly talented song-writer. This lady had it all and the process of working on the CD was just a joy.

Mindy was your typical working-class musician – hopping all over the country doing her own gigs as a solo and sometimes duet act, and working as a sideman (sidewoman?) with stars like Billy Joel, John Mellencamp, Donald Fagen, Cyndi Lauper, Shania Twain, and even the great Laura Nyro. She also had steady work as a studio background singer here in NYC.

This lady just worked all the time and used her talents to the max. One of her favorite long-term gigs was working as musical director for Carly Simon. Carly and her ofttimes lyricist, Jacob Brackman (“That’s the Way I’ve Always Heard it Should Be” and “I Haven’t Got Time for the Pain.”) had worked together for years and Jake met Mindy working for Carly, they fell in love and married.

To make matters even more interesting, I had collaborated with Jacob as lyricist/composer on our 1978 production of the musical King Of Hearts which opened and ran on Broadway. So I knew each of them independently and was completely gassed when I learned that my two friends had actually fallen in love and married.

A long story to set up a good story.

Back to the making of Coming Home. Mindy had a song that she had written with Jacob called “Angel Of The Darkest Night” that she said would make a good duet. We ran through a number of potential men for her to sing it with. We had some interesting choices, but finally Mindy said, “I wonder if I could get Carly to do it with me?” Not a bad addition to the CD, I thought.

Carly said, “Yes”.  I produced and engineered the session here in NYC at Link Recording Studios. Mindy had already put her vocal on the song. Carly came in, was totally prepared, worked hard singing in the booth, always ready to do what was necessary, sounded just like Carly Simon, and was concerned the entire time that she not, in any way, steal the moment from Mindy. A total pro.

Link Recording Studios is in my home here in NYC. Earlier that morning before the session, Julia’s (my wife) cousin and her 16-year old daughter had dropped by from out of town for breakfast.

They had to catch a plane later in the afternoon and asked that we keep their bags since they had checked out of their hotel, while they walk over to Times Square for several hours.

They came back to get their bags and leave for the airport just as the session was ending. I was sitting in the studio with Carly chatting, she with her back to the studio door. People were going in and out, cleaning up and getting ready for the next session and someone left the door open. Cousin and daughter were big Carly Simon fans, but I had made it clear with everyone that it was a closed session.

As Carly and I talked, I looked up through the open door and saw cousin and daughter craning their necks around the corner down the hall, gawking and trying to get a glimpse of Carly Simon. I couldn’t decide whether to just get up and close the door or simply wave them off when Carly noticed that my attention had been diverted to something behind her and turned around in her chair to see what was going on behind her.

There stood the gawkers, gawking away unabashedly. I groaned inwardly. Caught gawking, the 16-year old girl actually gave Carly a little awkward wave. What happened next was a class act.

Most stars would have turned away and ignored the fans in this most private of situations. Instead, Carly sized up the situation immediately and instead of turning back to our conversation, waved back and said, “Hi.  How ya’ doin’?” The two gawkers were star-struck and speechless. Carly went on. “Are you friends of Peter’s?”

They still were speechless, so I introduced them to Carly. She stood up, walked down the hall, met them and completely charmed them asking them where they were from, where they were going (with their bags) and how their visit to NYC had been. She spent all of 3 minutes with them, but turned an extremely awkward situation into a gracious encounter that I’m sure cousin and daughter will never forget and Carly will never remember.

But in that moment as I watched, fascinated by the study of human behavior, I saw why Carly is a star. Her graciousness was bigger than life in that moment. She turned a potentially embarrassing moment into a moment of grace and sweetness that I shall not forget.