[Cover photo credit to Neale Eckstein]
Multi-genre group, The Fox Run Five, will be releasing new album, Holding out Hope, on September 12th, 2025. They are now mourning the 2024 loss of beloved band member, touring songwriter, and Producer Tom Prasada-Rao, and this album is being released posthumously as a testament to the warmth and inventiveness of their collaborations together.
The band started putting down roots when in 2016, Tom Prasada-Rao and Eric Schwartz came to the home of Neale Eckstein in Sudbury, MA to see if they could write and record some songs in Neale’s home studio.
The following year, they invited NYC based drummer Jagoda to join them. A couple of years later, they invited Matt Nakoa. Each artist brought different skills and viewpoints to the writing process. In the course of these yearly writing session, the wrote and recorded over 40 songs in a variety of styles. To kick things off, the band released the 14 song album, Strange Times, in 2021.
The band says about their new album:
“Holding Out Hope: Soft pop expression of optimism for the healing of society and self songs and record them, often in the same day. Each of us brought unique strengths to the mix—as writers, singers, technicians, instrumentalists, and in one case, a certain spiritual glue. That was Tom Prasada-Rao. Tom said, “Yes”. Sometimes, when one of us would pitch an idea, egos (or whiskey) would get in the way. It was Tom who saw the good in these ideas and called us back to the table. Some of our strongest songs began this way.
Five years ago, Tom was diagnosed with a disease that would take him in June of 2024. Over this time, Tom helped to prepare us for his loss with his growing grace and gratitude. In the summer of 2023, Tom was too sick to join the writing retreat. We wrote and recorded “Don’t Wait” as Tom was in surgery.
Fox Run Five came together one last time, meeting at Tom‘s home in Maryland, where we penned our final song “This Is How We Say Goodbye” just three weeks before Tom left us. “What can we do to help you, Tom?” “Let’s write ourselves a song.” We did. It was the last we would write together.
We are proud of this project. It contains songs of many styles and sentiments, most of which we recorded live, and all of which we are excited to share with you. We are grateful that you have chosen to listen.”
Today, we’re honored to premier the song and video for “Rules of The Dance” here on Wildfire Music + News.
Knowing the context of the making of the song and video, it’s hard not to be influenced by the poignance of the band getting to work at songwriting and recording in this way during some of their last sessions together. But even in that context, the song takes on special meaning as a reflection on chance, relationships, or even upon youth and the passage of time. As with a lot of great songs, much is left up to the audience to determine in terms of the song’s significance. The percussion on the song, along with its multi-cultural feeling, create a hypnotic backdrop as we are led into the setting of a high school dance that quickly takes on a broader, almost mythological meaning, about participating in relationships and in the interconnected world going on around us.
Little touches of humor can be found in the nooks and crannies of the song if you look for them, hinting at the ways in which we learn from other humans how to survive and interact, but on the whole, there is a serious undertone. After all, if we don’t learn the “rules of the dance”, it could be that we face the dark side of the sink-or-swim scenario of life. But through it all, the song offers bits of wisdom in facing this “lonely game of chance.” Given that the “dance never ends”, we might as well become students of its nuances and keep learning as long as we can how to do better, and be better versions of ourselves.
The video for “Rules of the Dance” is a very special thing, something the band surely treasures, since it captures a moment in time for them, and also the broader context of their collaborative interactions. We get to see the way in which they perform together, in an intimate home studio-like set up, and we get to see that through a fairly meditative track that allows everyone a certain stillness and focus. Watching the video even adds another aspect to the song that might be yet another possibility–perhaps “the dance” could be musical collaboration, deciding who you can work with, and how, and how to become a sensitive and helpful collaborator in turn. That’s not something that can ever be finalized or fully “known”, but something to work at your whole life, a process as educative as life itself. The video itself supports this lesson for viewers, and aside from enjoying the meaningful song and performance, perhaps it will inspire others to work together in this deeply connected way, whether in making music or in some other fulfilling endeavor.
On “Rules of the Dance” and on the new album, Holding Out Hope, the following band members contributed: Neale Eckstein on vocals and guitars (Fox Run Road-ASCAP), Jagoda on vocals, drums, an percussion (Grimple Music-ASCAP), Matt Nakoa, on vocals, keys, guitars, bass, and trombone (Tip of the Tongue-ASCAP), Tom Prasada-Rao on vocals, keys, guitars, bass, and violin (Simple Gift Music-BMI), and Eric Schwartz on vocals, keys, guitars, bass, and flute (Claritone Music-ASCAP).
More about the contributors:
Tom Prasada-Rao (Silver Spring, MD) had a long career as a touring songwriter and producer. He wrote the song $20 Bill (For George Floyd) and almost 200 people covered the song in the weeks following that tragedy. He was honored with “Song of the Year” by Folk Alliance International. When Tom passed in 2024 from cancer, both the New York Times and The Washington Post published obituaries for him. A two CD compilation of some of Tom’s best songs was just released.
Eric Schwartz (Cambridge, MA) is an award-winning singer/songwriter, performer, satirist, multi-instrumentalist and entertainer Eric Schwartz has been prodding and wooing folk audiences for thirty years. From Bleecker Street’s Bitter End to Hollywood’s Improv, from Philly Folk to Falcon Ridge to Kerrville Folk Festival. Eric’s songs have been sung by Ronny Cox, Holly Near and Van Dyke Parks, and been played on radio shows as diverse as Bob and Tom’s morning show and NPR’s All Things Considered. Eric is now plying his musical, observational and interpersonal skills as a music therapist and mental health counselor.
Matt Nakoa (Kerhonksen, NY) is a singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist active in rock, classical, and acoustic music worlds. A modern troubadour, Nakoa has criss-crossed the US accompanying folk music icon Tom Rush, fronting classic rock act The Brit Pack, and giving spellbinding solo concerts. Nakoa has produced seven studio albums of his original music.
Neale Eckstein (Sudbury, MA) spent 45 years as a pediatric dentist while simultaneously recording and producing dozens of albums for other artists. In addition to music, he also known for his photography and video skills. Neale released his first full length solo album, Never Too Late, in 2024.
Jagoda (Ogden, UT) Like most children of immigrant parents, music was forced onto Jagoda the way castor oil was forced onto others. Fortunately, music tasted good. Violin at 7 years old. Piano at 9 years old. His parents could not be happier. Then, at 11 years old, Jagoda sat down at a drum set and said “I wanna do this.” And so, much to his parents shock and dismay, thus his true journey began…
