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Another Good Morning 3:100:00/3:10
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Plant A Radish 3:010:00/3:01
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A Beating Heart 3:290:00/3:29
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New Words 5:150:00/5:15
Latest News
1) THANK YOU for visiting my website. I continue to release music each month, and my latest offerings include a lovely song written for me by B. Iris Tanner called "Nevertheless," a very clever song written by Zina Goldrich and Marcy Heisler which I recorded with Jinny Sagorin and Doug Hammer called "There's Nothing I Wouldn't Do," an original song written by me and Molly Ruggles called "My Sweet Honeydew (A Cappella)" which we recorded with our friends Ellen Epstein and Michael Cicone, a song written by Burton Lane and Ralph Freed for Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney to perform called "How About You?", a song written by Harry Warren and Arthur Freed for Fred Astaire to perform called "This Heart Of Mine," a beautiful waltz by Lorenz Hart and Richard Rodgers called “Falling In Love With Love,” a very peppy song by Hoagy Carmichael and Johnny Mercer called "I Walk With Music," an uptempo Irving Berlin classic, “Puttin' On The Ritz,” and an original song co-written with Molly Ruggles and recorded with her and Carole Bundy, “Under My Umbrella.” If you are curious to listen, you can click on any song title above for streaming links.
2) A HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who is listening to, "liking" and adding my songs to their playlists. Streaming totals for songs that I've released continue to rise… For example, I now have 271,000+ lifetime streams on Pandora alone!
3) You are always welcome to visit my blog AMusicaLifeOnPlanetEarth — where I share personal musings and lots of music on a monthly basis.
4) A few years ago I wrote a song called “My Sweet Honeydew” and recorded it with Doug Hammer playing piano. A couple of years later, singer-songwriter-pianist Molly Ruggles added a new section and arranged a four-part harmony version. We ended up performing and recording it with our friends Ellen Epstein and Michael Cicone. I am happy to report that "My Sweet Honeydew (A Cappella)" has been getting airplay on a bunch of folk radio programs — including KALW (San Francisco, CA), WFMT (Chicago, IL), KFCF (Fresno, CA), KPFA (Berkeley, CA), KVMR (Nevada City, CA), WDCB (Glen Ellyn, IL), WERU (Blue Hill, ME), WHRW (Binghamton, NY), WIOX (Roxbury, NY), WOMR (Provincetown, MA), WRKF (Baton Rouge, LA), WTBQ (Warwick, NY), WTMD (Towson, MD) and WVBR (Ithaca, NY). Yet another THANK YOU to all of these hard-working — and often volunteer — DJs!
5) Sadly our planet's climate equilibrium continues to swing more and more wildly out of balance. You can click here to listen to a song I wrote inspired by our ongoing denial regarding climate catastrophe called “We're Running A Big Experiment” as well as a few other politically-engaged originals: “Democracy Is Under Attack," “Asleep At The Karmic Wheel,” “See What We Become,” “Ode To Water," "Boil A Frog Slowly," and “Waltzing With COVID-19.”
6) Molly Ruggles, Carole Bundy and I have released a bunch of songs — some originals and some covers — to all of the popular streaming sites. You are welcome to sample them by clicking on their titles — “Under My Umbrella” (written by me and Molly), "Simple Rules" (written by Molly), "The Beauty All Around" (written by me), "The Garden Song" (written by Dave Mallett), “Let The Day Unfold” (written by me, Javier Pico and Scott Kowalik), "Let's Do it" (written by Cole Porter and updated by Molly and Carole), "A Beating Heart" (written by me), "The Surrey With The Fringe On Top" (written by Rodgers & Hammerstein), and “The Crazy Touch And Go Of Our Lives” (written by me).
7) Due to a new health adventure in my life, pianist Molly Ruggles and I — as well as Joe Reid when Molly is not available — are taking a short sabbatical from performing hour-long programs of music at retirement communities around the greater Boston area including Chestnut Park in Brighton, Brightview in Wakefield, Carleton-Willard Village in Bedford, Neville Place in Cambridge, Springhouse in Jamaica Plain, Brightview in Arlington, Fuller Village in Milton, Waterstone At the Circle in Boston, Cornerstone in Milford, Lasell Village in Newton, Newbury Court in Concord, North Hill in Needham, Goddard House in Brookline, Concord Park in West Concord, Standish Village in Dorchester, the Carriage House in Wayland, The Commons in Lincoln, Avita in Needham, Carriage House at Lee's Farm in Wayland, Atria Marina Place in North Quincy, Brightview in Danvers, and the Center Communities in Brookline. Please send me a message if you might like us to bring a fun musical event to YOUR community in 2027.
8) I am also taking a sabbatical from leading my beloved Music Together classes in Arlington Heights. A heartfelt thank you to all of the wonderful families who have shown up week after week in order to share some musical fun! Our time together acts as an oasis for me in the catastrophic desert of our 24-hour news cycle. You are welcome to click here to find out more about my classes, which I plan to resume sometime in 2027.
9) It was an honor to be part of a musical reunion at 54 Below in Manhattan with the original cast members of PIPPIN in 2023. Our four performances sold out months in advance, and our livestream had more attendees — from all around the world — than any previous performance at 54 Below. And our performances four were voted Best Special Event (Multiple) in the 2023 BroadwayWorld Cabaret Awards. If you are curious, you can watch a minute-long video of the final song from the live-streamed performance by clicking here. Some of my memories were included in an article about the 50th anniversary of PIPPIN opening on Broadway which you could read by cllcking here. You can also click here for a review in Broadway World. And finally, you can click here to listen to a version of "Magic To Do" from PIPPIN while I recorded with Doug Hammer and Mike Callahan while preparing for a performance at Scullers Jazz Club of songs written by people named Steve, Stephen, and Stevie called WILL LOVES STEVE.
Please feel free to wander around my site and learn more about my musical life here on planet earth.
And THANK YOU for dropping by!
About
My Blog
You are welcome to visit my blog — which features at least one song per post— and read about topics ranging from climate change to songwriters (such as Yip Harburg, Dorothy Fields and the Gershwin Brothers), to my somewhat unusual childhood working professionally around the USA, to my time as a standby in the original production of Pippin when I was ten years old.
My 100th blog post features the song "Overjoyed" — written by Stevie Wonder and performed by Doug Hammer, (piano), Mike Callahan (clarinet), and me (vocals).
You Can Help Will Keep Making Music...
In the past, I have been reluctant to ask anyone for financial contributions. However, several people — especially when I was leading nightly sing-alongs via Facebook Live in 2020 — told me I needed to offer a tip jar. So here it is!
New Releases
You are welcome to download these songs on a "pay what you can afford" basis.
You can also listen to them on various digital music platforms via links on the right side of the music player at the bottom of this screen.
