Album Notes

This is a concept album very much like one of the first ever to hit the pop market, Frank Sinatra's "In the Wee Small Hours." There's an interesting discussion about this historic album, and the innovator Frank Sinatra himself, and why the album was so groundbreaking, on the Sputnikmusic website.

As I was making this album, I believed that there was a way to meld paying tribute to the great idea of Sinatra's project and keeping it original and different - not covering any of the songs, just the mood and the ideology.

Well, since times have certainly changed, and the way people listen to music has changed, we decided to make the first half of our album an experience much like sitting in a small cafe and listening to songs of long lost love, obsession, despair, and unrequited love. I wanted the listener to know that it would be ok to revel in his or her heartache.

In our 2011 concept of a GOOD haunting, we decided that we would slowly lift the spirit by speaking of survival. In other words, in our musical set, both listener and singer feel triumphant at the journey's end. Just to be fair though, before we are completely finished with our journey, we find ourselves reflecting once again on a love that cannot be forgotten - "Sentimental Favorite."

I am proud of this collection of beautiful music. I was honored to have worked with so many great songwriters - John Bucchino, Heather Sullivan, Tracy Stark - and to reinvent some of the music of Mercer and Arlen, Harburg, Rupert Holmes, Hank Cochran, Cyndi Lauper and the others on the CD.

I am proud of the unique talents of our musicians, Sean Harkness, Mary Ann McSweeney, David Silliman, and our Music Director Tracy Stark.

--Marcus Simeone