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Rod & Boots photographed by Christian Tabor
February 13, 2013
© 2013 Stanyan Music Group. All Rights Reserved
A Thought for Today
If you love somebody, tell them.
TO BEGIN WITH / A Report from Ben at Stanyan House
Thanks Rod for turning the top of your blog over to me today. Here’s a
tally of what folks in the middle of May are buying from
Stanyanhouse.com.
Hi Everyone,
There have been a few major changes on our best-seller list since last
month; as far as music goes Listen to the Warm & Sold Out at Carnegie
Hall now occupy the #1 & #2 spot respectively and The Platinum Album
Vol. I stays in place as #3. Vol. 2 moves up two places to grab the # 4
spot, this in a tie with ConcertoWorks. The Unknown War soundtrack is #5
and Rod’s jazz tinged After Midnight clocks in at #6, Petula Clark’s
much praised rendering of Rod’s songs Solitude & Sunshine is now #7.
Two concert collections (The Amsterdam Concert & Live in London) are
tied at # 8, while Beatsville & In Search of Eros both occupy #9. Here’s
a real surprise - With Love by The San Sebastian Strings (with Rod
speaking the words) enters the list at #10. But not for long since there
are now only six or seven copies left in stock and as QVC loves to say,
“Once they’re gone, they are gone.”
Here’s the complete list of the top CD’s and books at Stanyan House.
BEST SELLERS AS OF 5/15/2013
Compact Discs:
1. Listen to the Warm
2. Sold Out at Carnegie Hall (2 CD Set)
3. Platinum Album Vol. I
4. TIE: Platinum Album Vol. II / ConcertoWorks
5. The Unknown War Soundtrack (2 CD Set)
6. After Midnight
7. Solitude & Sunshine (Petula Clark)
8. TIE: Amsterdam Concert/Live in London (2 CD Sets)
9. TIE: Beatsville / In Search of Eros
10. With Love (The San Sebastian Strings)
Books:
1. And Autumn Came
2. TIE: A Safe Place to Land / Frank Sinatra: A Man Alone
3. Rusting in the Rain
4. Lonesome Cities (book) The Sea (CD) combo
5. Stanyan Street & Other Sorrows
6. Beyond the Boardwalk
7. Suspension Bridge
8. Seasons in the Sun
9. Moment to Moment
10. Watch for the Wind
Happy Listening & Reading,
Ben
ben@stanyanhouse.com
IN PRAISE OF ANITA KERR
As much as I like being in total control of a song I really enjoy
working from time to time with other songwriters. My work with Anita
Kerr on the San Sebastian Strings project was a joy so naturally I’m
pleased that “With Love,” our fifth album in the series is a near sell
out in its 1st CD incarnation.
I first met Anita when I was under contract to RCA. She had recently
married and re-located from Nashville (where she was very much in demand
as an arranger) to try her luck on The West Coast. Neely Plumb, my
producer thought she might be right to arrange & conduct a session for
an album I was set to record entitled “Other Kinds of Songs.” The three
charts she turned in more than held their own with those done by the
other arrangers working on the LP. I decided then and there that Anita
should be composing original music. She had never done so up until then
but on the other hand when you frame a song for an artist if your
arrangement is any good at all there is plenty of original stuff in it.
I had a project in mind that I had long been thinking about called “The
Sea.” I kept putting off working on it because at the time I had a few
too many things on my plate to give something new the time it needed to
become a reality. There was my solo career as a performer and recording
artist and the songs I was writing for myself were beginning to attract
other singers. To complicate things further I had become, of all things,
a best-selling poet. So, I figured, rather than writing both music and
words for “The Sea”, it might not be a bad idea to have another writer
compose the score. What about Anita Kerr? The rest is history. “The Sea”
went on to become the first double platinum album Anita or I had ever
had and The San Sebastian Strings was soon established as one of the
hottest acts in contemporary music.
Believe me, I wasn’t doing Anita Kerr any favors. The San Sebastian
Strings project turned out to be a totally equal partnership. To this
day I treasure every moment we had together and apart that made the SSS
a success. Our friendship was unique and so was our working
relationship. As for her ability as a composer you have only to listen
to any one of the dozen albums we did together to see how meaningful her
music was to my words. And her musicianship is on display in dozens of
arrangements she did for nearly every major act that walked into a
Nashville recording studio during the decades she spent there. Then
there is her own group, The Anita Kerr Singers, one of the most unique
vocal quartets ever. All Hail Anita Kerr.
-RM 5/22/2013 Previously Unpublished.
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