So, about Cry Me A River...

I’m pleased to announce it is releasing imminently - Friday August 26, 2022 !

Since I’m sure some are wondering ‘what does it sound like this time?’ I thought I would just say: Julie laid it down. Sure, maybe there's some that were/are 'equal', but she owned it. The rest of us are borrowers, from Dinah Washington right down to me.

And I've sung it that way many times. I hear her voice in my head, as if I'm hanging over a record player, playing the part. It's bliss, melodically melodramatic perfection, dry in my throat but also confession-confection sweet. I can see her expression, how she languidly presses out a cigarette and stares at nothing.

Then sometimes I sing it another way, not to disrespect the song but to give room to the real thing, somehow. The dark funky groove just came to me naturally one night while working on something else - an accidental find. It’s all about that opening hook. I was idly singing that when I realized where the whole song was going, and I sang it for a couple of hours almost without stopping. It had a great momentum, and was fun to riff on. It didn’t sound cheesy - it had a genuine vibe to it.

So long-ish ago and not far away, Dean Sharp took up his sticks at his studio in Kingston and, based on my little keys+vox demo, laid the foundation of this alternate sound. Along with Steve Raleigh on guitar and Jim Curtin on bass, we recorded three songs that day, two of which went on my first record, and this one: a funky version of Cry Me A River. I think Dean Sharp really nails the feel and is just so precise and liquid, everything else follows. Skip a few years, and after my 'Under A Spell' CD release, Todd Giudice spent some time mixing the tracks and I added a vocal at his Roots Cellar Studio. Skip another few years and - with my own booth at home to really be with a vocal - I recorded the lead again and back-up harmonies. Next was a visit with Art Labriola at his studio for the Wurlizter part, after which the gracious Manuel Quintana sent over percussion. After a few rounds of comping and editing, settling the music into place here at my little Night Ride Studio, I took the project to Rob Kissner at Cassandra Studio, who put his mixing talents to work. Brian Wallace of Majestic Sound Studios gave it the mastering touch, and into the megastream it was sent.

It's not the convention to recount all this up front, but I do here because after all that time and going here and there and back and forth, it sounds and feels like it’s meant to be as it is - it meshes - and sometimes songs are like that: they take a while to get to the table. But it's worth the wait.

It’s R&B time!

New Single Release

- Friday 8 / 26 / 22 -