Album Notes

Modern medieval folk cabaret, our producer called it. That's about the most succinct description of this historic 1992 recording (now reissued on CD), which showcases the overlapping vocal ranges, musical tastes and bent for invention of tenor/composer John-Michael Albert and mezzo/guitarist Kathy Biehl.

During their collaboration from 1985-1994, Albert and Biehl amassed a repertoire that spanned medieval song, early opera, Lieder, operetta and Broadway (heavy on the goofy or obscure), consciousness-raising works by contemporary singer-songwriters and Albert's own wide-ranging compositions. The last two styles form the basis of The Magic Music Makes, which pairs nine of Albert's works with four of our favorites by Romanovsky and Phillips. Albert's run the gamut from a lyrical recorder/guitar duet (Amara's Dance) and acoustic art songs (The Magic Music Makes, Beauty Is Its Own Excuse and A Season for Lovers) to haunting vocal interweavings (Mystic Lullaby, Peace, My Heart Leaps Up and Dennis Dunwoody) to the hard-driving folk anthem Survivors. The title song was Kathy's birthday present, inspired by a past life reading that painted the duo as itinerant performers centuries ago in Italy. Six of Albert's songs on this recording have progressed to another life of their own as well, having also been arranged for men's, women's or mixed chorus. (They are The Magic Music Makes, A Season for Lovers, Peace, My Heart Leaps Up, Dennis Dunwoody and Survivors - and the scores are available from Yelton Rhodes Music.)

After bounding across a host of unconventional stages (the sanctuary of First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston, Munchies' Classical Cafe, Ovations, even the drained pond at the folk art environment The Orange Show), Albert and Biehl have gone their separate ways, musically and geographically. This is their only non-live recording, but it still captures the magic their music made.

Looking for the men's choir arrangement of Fred Small's "Everything Possible?" Email us for the details.

Mike's latest book of poetry, Two-Ply and Extra Sensitive, is now available through Sheltering Pines Press. 60 pp, softbound. To order send $12 ($10 + $2 s/h) to

Sheltering Pines Press
P.O. Box 1344
Kennebunk, ME 04043
or visit www.shelteringpinespress.com

Alice Persons (editor of Moon Pie Press) writes:
"The emotional and geographical range of Albert's poems, from Texas, to World War II France, to the Mideast, the South, and Poland, and the particulars of seasons in New England, is sweeping and exciting.I was caught up in every story, every scene. I like the mixture of "looking back" poems and ones vividly set in the present, with the "poetry" poems providing just the right contrast - not too much or too little. His deft handling of many settings and themes, with a frequent, welcome leavening of humor, marks a mature poet who has read and written a lot. Albert is obviously in love with words and knows how to bend them to his purposes."