Story

During the early months of my divorce, I listened to a lot of Frank Sinatra (All Alone or No One Cares or Sings For Only The Lonely or Watertown or In The Wee Small Hours) and Chet Baker (Chet Baker Sings) and anything by Blossom Dearie. 

I’ve always been drawn to torch songs from the American Songbook.  One of my favorite things to do is flip through a thick book of old standards and play through it—songs like You Don’t Know What Love Is or Lollipops and Roses or Misty. Some of these songs are the most beautiful and devastating you’ll ever hear.

I had to write a song for Salon, and had only an hour to do it.  Just as I was about to give up, and just skip that week, this song tumbled out almost entirely intact.  Darius Mines plays the piano so beautifully while Jim Hoke’s saxophones twist and bounce around him.