Extended Liner Notes to Tricia and Dana Countryman's “In Harmony”

Extended Liner Notes to Tricia and Dana Countryman’s “In Harmony”:

This is the album that almost never was!

Although Tricia and I have been in two bands together, and I’d been the music director for three of her stage musicals, we had never done much actual recording together. We first met in 1989, when I was the leader of a popular Seattle-area comedy cabaret act called The Amazing Pink Things. The often-told story is that when Tricia came to audition, upon first sight of her, I privately said to my music partner, “Well, she’d better not get into this group, or I might fall in love with her!” Wouldn’t you know that Tricia did get into the group, and I DID fall in love with her. We married in May of 1991, shortly after The Amazing Pink Things disbanded, after a fruitful 6-year career.

A few years later, Tricia and I started a new band called Moonlight Express - a jazz vocal group patterned along the lines of the Manhattan Transfer. I was the leader, arranger, bass player and tenor vocalist, and Tricia was our alto, and choreographer. The band played a fair amount of gigs, parties and conventions, but its popularity never really caught fire the way I had hoped it would. Moonlight Express was a lot of fun, but when key members moved away, Tricia and I let it end. Besides, we had a baby by then, Matthew, born in 1996, who occupied much of our time.

After a 7-year hiatus into print publishing, and not playing music at all, I fell into an amazing musical partnership with legendary French electronic music composer Jean-Jacques Perrey in 2005. We recorded two CDs of original, playful melodic electronic music, and did many concerts, both in Europe and in America. I followed that with a solo CD of my own similar electronic music in 2009, and I immediately followed that by writing a book on Jean-Jacques’ life during 2010. Jean-Jacques Perrey and me, performing in Berlin.

It was also in 2010, that one of Jean-Jacques’ and my songs was used on the Comedy Central TV show, “South Park”. With the money from that, I was able to purchase all new recording studio gear, which we ultimately used on this project. While our son was growing up, Tricia was also busy being involved in several theatrical productions as a singer, actress and dancer. She conceived, wrote and starred in a musical based on the life of Mary Martin: “I’m Flying!,” which premiered as part of the Burien Little Theater New Works Festival. In 2009, she revived and co-starred in a little- known Canadian musical, “Jubalay!,” which was performed to Dana and Tricia with Matthew in 2003 full-house audiences in the Seattle-Everett area.

During the years that I was doing instrumental music with Jean-Jacques, I had occasionally brought Tricia into the studio to sing a few background vocals for our electronic pop albums, but other than that Tricia and I had only recorded a couple of full songs, and a couple of radio station jingles, in all our years together.

The idea for this album came about when I posted onto my Facebook page the two old songs that Tricia and I had recorded so many years before. With just our two voices, Tricia and I had recorded a multi-track choir, with us layering eight to twenty-five different vocal harmonies on each song. The response to these two songs on Facebook was great. People really seemed to enjoy them. One of my friends, Yvonne Hendrickson heard the songs, and sent me a note saying, “You guys really need to record an album together. I know I’d buy a copy!” That really started me thinking. I remember walking upstairs and asking Tricia if she’d consider recording a whole CD of vocal music with me. She responded with an instant “Yes!”

We began working on this album in April of 2011, shortly after celebrating our 20-year anniversary, and having just returned from a romantic two-week vacation in Italy. We finished work on the album in March of 2012, after almost a year of very intense musical work.

I have to say that this has been a very rewarding project. Working so closely, musically, with my wife has been a great experience. I think it’s really enriched our relationship, as we both share a deep love for music, and for singing. Tricia and Dana in Venice, Italy, 2011 She’s also amazed me with her expressive vocals for this new album. Little did I know that I’d been living in the same house with a virtual Karen Carpenter!

I’m also amazed and delighted how well our two voices blend together, as we actually sing quite differently separately. But when we harmonize, and double the vocals, there’s this SOUND that is really rich and rewarding. Well, at least I like it!

I also really liked working with all the musicians and recording engineers involved with this album. Everyone was so cheerful and fun to work with. Tricia and I drafted quite a few of our musical friends to contribute either their voices or their instruments, and we made some new friends when we hired some of Seattle’s top jazz musicians for this album project. In fact, this album should really be credited to “Tricia and Dana Countryman, and FRIENDS”!

The music on this album will never be any big threat to Justin Bieber, or whoever the current popular singers of the day are. Nevertheless, Tricia and I had a ball working on this project, and we hope that you have as much fun it listening to it, as we had making it. Adding vocals at David Lange Studios

Dana Countryman March, 2012

Thanks to our “cheering and enthusiasm” team: Vinnie Bell, Bonnie Loan, Dick Hyman, Dorothy Buller, Leila Realiza, Jean-Jacques Perrey, Dr. Bob Agnew, Ike Reeves, Kurt Uhlig, Darrell and Marion Countryman, Rev. Steven C. Hill, Chelsea and Rob Johnson, Melissa and Jeff Thirloway, and Frank M. Young. Special thanks to Michael Andrew, Robert Kechley, and Nick Moore for their musical advice.

Album produced by Dana Countryman.

Notes on the songs of “In Harmony”:

WELCOME TO THE CLUB Dana: I first heard this song a long time ago when Tricia and I were once driving in her car, and we heard it on an old Nat King Cole album. I had never heard the song before, and I loved it immediately. I knew I had to do a vocal group arrangement of it! Tricia and I had our vocal jazz group Moonlight Express at the time, and once we learned this song, we began all of our shows with it. Our pianist Steve Rice blew everyone away with his amazing piano solos on this tune, so we had to bring him back all these years later to recreate one of his smokin’ solos for this recording. Mark Ivester played drums, and Jon Goforth and Brad Allison played the overdub equivalent of four saxes and four trumpets. I played electric bass, and “Wild” Bill Johnson played guitar. This is the one tune that uses the most musicians. Super-Fun! Tricia: This is the last song that we recorded for the album, and interestingly enough, it’s the first track that starts the album! Steve Rice One year after starting this project, “swing” is still a challenge for me, but not as much as it was in the beginning. Also, a year later, Dana and I are very much in sync, concerning what is a good vocal take or not. My famous comment (when I don’t like a vocal I’ve just done) is “EE-er!”, or simply: “Let’s try it again!” Dana’s response is always “It’s getting there!” I love that! How sweet is that guy!

THE THREE BEARS Dana: I’d never heard this song, until some friends of my parents gave me a box of old records, back in 1980. “The Three Bears” was one of the dusty old 78 records in that box, and I was charmed by The Page Cavanaugh Trio’s recording of it. I like the jivy-ness of it, and its references to bebop. I wrote the “Goldilocks Baby” section in the shower. (I write some of my best stuff in the shower!) This is another Moonlight Express song. Unfortunately, we never recorded it with the band back then, so this was Tricia and my chance to do it right. We can’t say enough good things about the jazz trio that Nick Moore backed us up on this: Chuck Deardorf on bass, Nick Moore on piano and Mark Ivester on drums. What a thrill it was to record with them! Tricia: I’ve always loved this song, and Dana’s amazing addition of the “Goldilocks” section sends it through the roof! As Dana said, that jazz trio is amazing! How fortunate we were to have them play on this album.

PRETTY WORLD Tricia: This was one of the first songs we recorded for this album. Dana gave me a Brazil ’66 recording of this song to listen to, and to learn it from. I was really nervous about singing this one, because Brazilian music was a genre of music that I had never attempted before. However, after we started working on it, I loved the style. Now it’s one of my favorite tracks. Dana: I remembered hearing the original on the radio, when I was still in high school. Over the years, I’d always thought that “Pretty World” was a rather obscure song, but since recording it, everyone has come forward to tell me that Mark Ivester, drums and percussion they know it! O-KAY! It was fun to do the Latin percussion with Mark Ivester, and I really enjoyed working with our flute player, Dane Anderson, and flugelhorn player Brad Allison. I re-tooled the original arrangement to make this a girl-boy duet, along with adding “Carpenter-esque” background vocals.

LOVE OF MY LIFE Tricia: One evening after we had started this album project, Dana came up from the studio with a recording of the original version of this song by Queen. He played it for me, and asked me if I would be interested in singing it. After one listen, I immediately said a resounding “Yes!” I love the lyrics to this song, and the meaning behind those words. My interpretation of the lyrics was that in the first verse, her initial reaction of being jilted was almost one of disbelief. Therefore, I took a gentler and a more “hurt” approach. However, in the second verse, she has had time to grieve, and has now moved on to the emotion of “How could you have done this?” By the final verse, it's her final plea for her lover to change his mind, and then she realizes that he is gone forever. Dana’s idea to do it with just piano and cello was brilliant, but don’t tell him I said that, or it will go to his head… Dana: I’d always loved the original version by Queen, from the same Traci Hoveskeland, cello album of theirs that brought the world “Bohemian Rhapsody.” I think Freddy Mercury was a true musical genius, not only as a songwriter, but also as a vocal arranger. But I really didn’t want to record it the same way that Queen did. Instead, I heard a stripped-down version of it in my head, as Tricia and I rehearsed it. We found cellist Traci Hoveskeland by recommendation of our pianist friend Steve Rice. She was a joy to work with, and her playing here adds true elegance to this recording.

Of all the great vocals that Tricia sang on this album, this is my favorite. When we first rehearsed it with me accompanying her on piano, I thought her vocal was “okay.” But when she got on the microphone, she really pulled out the magic, and literally brought tears to my eyes with this amazing vocal. I think she sang it with an amazing combination of love, wistfulness, sadness and vulnerability.

GREEN HILLS OF EARTH Dana: I first heard this Dave Frishberg song, back in the late‘80s. At the time, I was subletting an apartment from an actor, while I was living in San Francisco. He had an amazing record collection, which he invited me to play during his absence. I discovered this song there, and I was mesmerized by Frishberg’s concept of a destroyed past civilization, longingly remembered by its lone survivor. I just found the song very haunting, and I always thought it would be great to someday re-arrange it for a vocal group. The original version was just Frishberg’s voice and piano, but I wanted to work up an arrangement on a grander scale. Our friend Mike McFadden had the perfect voice to start the song, and remarkably, Tricia and I both had the same idea to ask him to sing the verse on this. The backwards piano, added at the end is kind of a ‘wink’ to my lifelong fascination with the Beatles’ music. Michael Gene McFadden Tricia: Originally, this song was going to be a duet for us, with us both singing different solo lines. As soon as we started recording the song, it was clear that the backing track was not in the right key for me. Dana ended up doing a fabulous job on the solo lead vocal, and my buddy Mike’s vocal contribution was a great addition to start it all off.

FIX YOU Tricia: This song (and actually, this entire album) is dedicated to our late, dear friend, Dale Yarger, who had a heart of gold. He bravely battled cancer for over two years, and always remained positive through all of the pain. When I recorded the vocals for this song, he was my inspiration. We dearly miss him, and he will remain in our hearts forever. Dana: Tricia and I weren’t familiar with this Coldplay song, until we watched a film documentary called “Young @ Heart”, in which a group of senior citizens perform contemporary rock Dale Yarger and Tricia songs in concert. In the film, an elderly gentleman named Fred Knittle is so ill that he can barely walk on to the stage, but he sings a heartbreaking version of “Fix You”. When Tricia and I watched the film for the second time, we both decided that we had to record our own

6 version of the song. Making it truly a family affair, our teenage son Matt (15 at the time), played the acoustic and electric rhythm guitars here. The tasty guitar solo was played by Ryan Hoffman. We lost our precious friend Dale in March, 2012, and we will always think of him when we play this in years to come.

COME TO BABY DO Dana: Tricia and I had been looking for a song to record with our talented singer-friend, Kelly Harland. When I heard an old recording of this song, originally done by Tommy Dorsey’s Pied Pipers, I knew I’d found the perfect song. I played it for Kelly, and she loved it. Kelly, Tricia and I had never sung together before, but we had a ball pretending to be the Pied Pipers, with saxophonist Jon Goforth, trumpeter Brad Allison, and drummer Mark Ivester joining in the fun! Tricia: Okay, as many people already know, Kelly is one of my most favorite people in the world. To have her perform on this album is awesome! Shortly after Dana and I were married, he introduced me to her. I asked Kelly if I could study voice with her, and she took me on as a student. My background is musical theatre, and hers is jazz/rock. I spent many lessons laughing with her, and learning from Kelly. I adore her! Dana: By the way, Kelly’s husband Chuck Deardorf played stand-up bass Kelly Harland on two songs on this album!

WHEN I FALL IN LOVE Dana: When my sister Sharene was planning her wedding, she asked me to provide the music for it. I immediately thought of this classic love song, which is regarded by many as the “most beautiful love song ever written.” (What makes it so universal, is that the lyric is not directed to any one person, but rather, it’s a wistful song about WANTING to be in love.) I arranged “When I Fall in Love” for four voices, and with the help of a couple of other wonderful singers, Tricia and I sang it a capella at Sharene and Scott’s wedding. For this album, I re-tooled my original arrangement, and asked our friend Ike Reeves to play a piano introduction for the song. Ike Reeves Tricia and I had been fans of Ike’s solo piano CD for some time, so it’s a big thrill to have him play for us here. I love what he did with his piano part. Anyway, this song always makes me think of my sister Sharene, whom I love dearly. Tricia: This is one of my favorite Dana vocals…he sounds so...should I say, sexy? I love his deep baritone

7 voice on this track. I’m sure there will be many girls swooning. Back off girls! Ike Reeves—whom we’re big fans of—did an AMAZING piano solo at the beginning! Again, how lucky are we to have such talented friends!

SLAPPIN’ THE CAKES ON ME Dana: Another Dave Frishberg song. He writes some very hip songs, and this one particularly grabbed me. Tricia and I invited former Moonlight Express baritone Aaron Douglas to sing with us on it. Bless his heart, Aaron drove almost 200 miles to be at our recording session! The song really needed Aaron’s vocal sassiness!! Thanks, Aaron! (The jazz trio heard here is the same one we used on “The Three Bears.”) Tricia: How fun are Dave Frishberg’s songs? He actually came to one of the Pink Things’ shows in Portland, OR, back in 1990. We had just been listening to his music, while we had been performing up in Alaska. A month later, while we were performing in Portland, Oregon, by sheer coincidence, Dave came up to us after our show, and introduced himself to us! Dana: Then, just recently, we ran into him again, 22 years later, at a Dick Hyman concert. When I told him that we had just recorded two of his songs on our album, he looked shocked! We sent him an Aaron Kirk Douglas advance copy of this CD, and he recently sent a very nice note to us. Thanks, Dave!

SWINGIN’ ON A STAR Dana: I’ve been a fan of Michael Andrew’s singing for many years, and we struck up a pen-pal friendship over the internet. When I got the idea to re-arrange the old Bing Crosby song “Swingin’ on a Star”, to be done mostly a capella, I asked Michael to sing lead on it, and he cheerfully agreed. However, it took over a year for me to actually create the vocal arrangement for it. Mike did a wonderful job, as you’ll hear. On various parts on this recording, Tricia and I sang as many as 25 vocal parts at one time. Mean producer that I am, I frequently dragged Tricia down to our studio, and forced her to sing for sometimes four hours at a time – until her eyes started crossing! It was the first time that Tricia had sung “swing”, and it wasn’t easy for her. But she got the hang of it, and she sounds great on it. Michael Andrew

At the last minute, I decided that the song needed a single instrument: a swingin’ guitar. Ryan Hoffman came in and provided that. This song makes me think of our son Matt. When he was a newborn, and he would cry, I used to carry him around the house singing this song to him! Now at 16, he outweighs me and is taller than me. He could probably carry ME around the house now! Tricia: As Dana stated, this song was difficult for me. I secretly think that Dana took a little pleasure in torturing me. However, I am very pleased with the outcome. And what about that Michael Andrew vocal???? Crazy good!

SOMEDAY Tricia: I first heard this song when I was performing in a Christmas concert at our church some years ago. Lyrically, the song is about Mary singing to baby Jesus on the night he was born…I think it is very moving. I’ve always wanted to record it, and it took only a minimal amount of coercion to get Dana to agree. The pianist on this recording is our very talented friend, Gayle Sells, with whom I have performed with many times. I really love this song in so many ways...the music, the lyrics, just the thought of Mary singing to baby Jesus on the night he was born. As I recorded the vocal, my feelings were so emotional...imagining singing to baby Jesus intertwined with thinking of my feelings about my own son Matt, when he was born. Dana: I was also enchanted by this song, and I used to sneak into the back of the audience to hear it sung at our own concert each night! Gayle Sells played the piano so elegantly on this, that it inspired me to orchestrate the song for a fuller orchestra. It was a delight to arrange, and to conduct the musicians on this. Most of all, Tricia’s vocal completely took my breath away. My favorite memory of working on this album with Tricia, was Gayle Sells watching her step back from the microphone, after she sang this wonderful vocal. As I turned off the recording equipment, I simply said to her: “Wow.”

WALK SOFTLY Dana: The only time I’ve heard this poignant and sad song about the end of a love affair was on a live album by the Four Freshmen. Unfortunately, their vocal performance of the song wasn’t very good, but I grew to like the song and their arrangement. I pulled the vocal parts off that record by ear, and shortly after, taught it to The Amazing Pink Things, my vocal group at the time. We normally did a comedy show, but singing this “straight” number was much more of a challenge. Some of the harmonies are VERY tough, so singing this song “a capella”, live on stage every night was a bit like walking on a tightrope. For this recording, we reunited the Pink Things, with Tamara Marston joining us on soprano, Bob Overman singing baritone, Tricia on alto, and myself on tenor.

Tricia: This is probably the most difficult song I’ve ever sung onstage. When I was cast into the Pink Things, they couldn’t wait to have me learn it. I had always felt like close harmonies had been somewhat a forte’ of mine, but ooh! This one was a challenge. There was one note in particular toward the end of the song that always plagued me. I would ask Bob almost every night, after performing, if I had nailed it. The nice thing about doing a recording is that once you sing it right, you can always “nail it”!

The Amazing Pink Things (1990) I LEFT MY HEART IN SAN FRANCISCO (clockwise from top left: Tricia: When my mom and dad were nearing their 50th wedding Bob Overman, anniversary, quite a few years ago, I asked Dana if he would do a Tami Marston, Dana Countryman vocal arrangement of this song, being and Tricia Countryman that it was “their” song. So, shortly before we were married, we recorded an earlier version of this for them, and we surprised them with the recording of it on their anniversary. Dana: For this album, I re-tooled that original vocal arrangement, and wrote new orchestral parts. A few years back, I made friends with 84-year old musician, Robert Drasnin. He is a well-known composer in Hollywood, having contributed music to the classic TV series, “The Twilight Zone”, “The Wild, Wild West”, and “The Man from U.N.C.L.E”, to name but a few. When I mentioned to Bob that Tricia and I were going to record a CD together, he immediately volunteered to play sax for us. We jumped at the Bob Drasnin chance, and you’ll hear his wonderful playing here. This is the first song that Tricia and I worked on, for this album.

MY DAD Dana: I met songwriter Dale Gonyea (who wrote this song), while I was in Hollywood, on tour with The Amazing Pink Things, back in the ‘80s. Dale gave me a cassette of some of his original songs, and this one always stuck with me. When Tricia was looking for material for a one-woman show that she once starred in, I remembered the song and played it for her. She loved it right away. I brought in my old bandmate Bob Kechley (from another old band of mine: The Swingaires,) to play oboe on this (and also on “Someday.”) Tricia: This is “MY” Dad’s song! I’ve performed it many times over the years, and every time I’ve performed it live in front of him, it’s always brought tears to my Dad’s eyes. I also think it’s really cool that my brother Gary played the horn parts that you’ll hear on this recording—making it a tribute to “OUR Dad”!

EVOLUTION

Dana: I heard the Manhattan Transfer perform this song in concert in the early ‘90s. I fell in love with it instantly, and I later reconstructed the vocal harmonies from what I’d heard that night, by ear. They mentioned in concert that the song had been arranged by the legendary vocal arranger Gene Puerling. As far as I know, this vocal arrangement has never been recorded until now. By the way, the lyrics actually have nothing to do with the theory of evolution, but are more about “How far have we really come?” I think it’s a very thought-provoking, and beautiful song. This is probably my big favorite on this album. Tricia: I was at that concert with Dana. (Hey Dana, did you forget?) Anyway, I remember us turning to each other and saying: “Wow!” I’m so glad that I have a husband/ musical partner that can do the arrangements—musical mastermind that he is! God is good to me!

ISN’T IT ROMANTIC? Dana: Back in the late ‘80s I met arranger-singer-performer Billy Stritch when he was performing in San Francisco. (Since then, Billy has been Liza Minelli’s musical director for many years.) For a time, we shared the same manager in New York. When Tricia and I started this CD project, I asked Billy for permission to do his arrangement for our album, and he readily agreed. He also agreed to sing on the “introduction” verse, which he did at a New York City studio. Thank you, Billy! Tricia: I echo Dana’s thanks to Billy! My only funny bit to add, is that my first solo line, “You were meant for love” was too low for me and too high for Dana, so we thought, let’s try it with Tricia’s “morning voice.” I leapt out of bed (well, maybe not quite “leapt”) on a Sunday morning before church, and I recorded just those 5 words… Billy Stritch Hey! Whatever works, right?

KMUZ RADIO JINGLE Dana: This jingle was recorded by Tricia and me in 1992, shortly after we were married. I was asked to write some ID jingles for a Portland, OR radio station, and for fun, we’re including the actual recording that Tricia and I multi-tracked exactly 20 years ago! Amazingly, I think we sound pretty much the same, 20 years later! Tricia: How fun is that!?

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