Art LaFleur, a Profile, by Eric Van Hall

Art LaFleur is a songwriter, guitarist, vocalist, and front man. In various greater Albany, NY-area outfits over the last 25-plus years, he’s performed at bars and festivals, in addition to opening for legendary artists like Blue Oyster Cult and Charlie Daniels. He gigs regularly in the country rock band Grit ‘n’ Whiskey, and with his wife in the duo Art ‘n’ Shawna.

Given his upcoming original album release – and based on our 50-year friendship, as well as my having been front man in a past band of his – I sat down with Art recently. We touched on his personal music history. Then we discussed his storytelling / songwriting approach and how it helped him survive tragedy, then develop the narrative and drive the imminent release of his new record’s powerful first single, “I’ve Come to Realize.”

Art grew up in Galway, not far from Saratoga Springs. He remembers, as a kid, being completely absorbed in whatever was on the radio in his parents’ car, or whatever was on the stereo in the house on Friday and Saturday nights.  He was always drawn to the guitar. Art got a Crestline acoustic guitar for his thirteenth birthday, took lessons, and played along with favorite records on his bedroom stereo.

Fast forward, after finishing college and getting married to his first wife and raising two kids, he began a run at being in numerous capital region bands. During this run he started an original music project, Byrds of Prey (BoP), where he honed his song writing skills.

When Byrds of Prey disbanded due to personal challenges that Art was going through, which included the end of his first marriage, he stepped away from music.

And then there was Beth.  She was initially a friend, then grew to become a new woman in his life who – by way of real love and his future heartbreak with her loss – would become the story of, “I’ve Come to Realize.”

Described by Art as, “… (His) soulmate if there ever was one,” Beth – not long after she married Art – developed the first symptoms of polycystic liver disease in April of 2016. She began showing signs of real decline in June of that year, rapidly worsened, and was admitted at one of the best facilities in the United States for remediating organ failure, MedStar at Georgetown University Hospital.

Art describes the impact Beth’s aggressive illness had on him as, “…being rendered helpless,” just as quickly and completely as his wife was declining. Having found the person he knew he was supposed to be with forever – then suddenly being told by the country’s best doctors that she was slipping away – was of course initially crushing for Art.

Yet along with Beth, he fought on… even as numerous complications emerged, and determination of need for a liver transplant evolved into accelerated preparations for a multi-visceral procedure. This involves – with the exception of the heart and lungs – complete replacement of several major organs: the intestines, liver, pancreas, and kidneys. As Art describes the procedure, “…it’s like replacing the engine of a car.”

Art explained to me how the most exhausting part of Beth’s illness – both for her and him at the time, while they were fighting together – was how the Georgetown / MedStar team approached preparation for Beth’s enormously complex surgery.

“The procedure that (Beth) needed,” Art told me, “…the type of transplant she needed has, remarkably, a success rate of 85 to 90 percent. That’s pretty fucking amazing” And while this is true, Art went on to describe in detail, the huge challenge Beth and he faced.

“Even leading up to her procedure, they did everything for her that they knew how to do, addressing and correcting physical issues that might lead to her not surviving. While this process was overwhelming yet reassuring… my fear was still always that they (the MedStar team) were going to remove her from the waiting list based on their constant assessment. Then, finally, she received an organ offer.”

While the last part of his story of losing Beth – her actual death – was hardest to hear, I also saw as we were talking that it was the most important part of the story for Art, because it hurt him the most. “She was in for surgery; they were actually doing the transplant, and she crashed on the table,” Art told me. “The surgeon came out of the operating room to tell me that he had tried to manually restart Beth’s heart with his own hands. Then he just looked me in the eyes and said, ‘I’m sorry, man.’”

Less than a year after her initial symptoms began to appear, Beth was gone.   To say Art was devastated is meaningless, pointless to anyone who has experienced the loss of someone they truly love. Art sought refuge in and expression of his loss in the same place he had always found both: music, and his song writing process.

“Not long after Beth died,” Art told me, “I was at the Cape Elizabeth lighthouse in Maine, and it was low tide,” he says. “I had walked out on the rocks as far I could go, with the ocean all around me. And I just felt so completely alone and broken. I just sobbed. Then I got up and walked back to my car and pulled out the notebook I always have with me, to capture song ideas. ‘I’ve Come to Realize’ just came to me, complete, right there.”

In his real life since Beth died, beyond his new happiness with his wife Shawna, Art now works as a Program Coordinator on the kidney transplant team for MedStar / Georgetown University. He helps the people who tried to save Beth… and could not.

I’ve Come to Realize by Art LaFLeur is available now on all streaming platforms.

For information on becoming an organ donor go to donatelifenys.org