...” Doc and Eugene must have thought, and they bottled their uncamouflaged concert to embrace music-friends all over the world. We hear the professional-songwriting-singer and the non-professional-singing-songwriter diving into their acoustic Oeuvre, for the very first time together and practically unrehearsed = PURE NATURE! Two men writing and singing straight from their emotional heart & soul, about emotions, sorrows, hopes and joys, in life, love, dreams, choices and chances … shortly said about feelings that keep our minds 24/24 wordlessly busy, by these heartists mother-of-pearled in 4-minutes gems. Well, here they are at Eddie’s Attic. The result is this Magnificent Necklace of Brilliant Ruffolo and Schneider Pearls, sung by their authors, laced together with most interesting and funny stories, reflecting an incomparable friendship. At your right Mr. Ruffolo, going solo with his famous celebrities, a brand new “World Minus One” ode to his late friend Artie Traum co-writer of “The Hills Of Sicily”, his marvelous version of Schneider’s “Everything Gold”, rushing “Time Played A Trick”, and his fascinating frissoning fragile Three Graces “Sweet Southern Eyes, Gracefully, A Rose For Pierrette”. At your left Mr. Schneider, the legal guitarist, with a most personal version of Ruffolo’s “Holding On To Faith” typifying each other’s music by this touching slipup “With melody as sweet as the sky” i/o “With melody as sad as the sea”; singing his life in this strong and gripping “Choices & Chances” and becoming irresistibly disarming in “Homemade Song” wherein he cuisines a literally demonstration of his lyrics. The lawyer-litigator knows how to explain stories, and so does Mr. Ruffolo. Listen to the interaction! There’s also his incredible delicate Rose For Pierrette, the story-song that brought both friends even closer since it soon after turned out that both their fathers, unknown to each other, were Brothers-in-Arms in the Battle of the Bulge …amazing to hear these heroes’ sons “duetting” together as Brothers-in-Arts. These duets are making this album unique. The Second Chances Author Himself joins the album’s performing Terrific Voice in pearls that led to this “Unexpected Friendship”, the one who voiced Schneider’s songs in full devotion, and the one who found the color of his inner voice in Ruffolo’s; (Nantucket Island) whirling “Deeper”, and the absolutely goosebumpsing beautiful “Wherever You Are, Massapequa, A Second Chance, Marie”. Beautiful, unique, intriguing, touching, ánd funny, that’s what this document is!
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Duets and collaborations can be clumsy or forced.  Recordings of live performances are often disappointing.  But in April 2009, in an Atlanta club called Eddie’s Attic, the odd couple of singer-songwriters – Doc Schneider and Eugene Ruffolo – gave their lucky audience a performance that the rest of us now have preserved on this 2-CD set.

Some of the songs, including “Massapequa,”  “Wherever You Are,” “Everything Gold,” and “Marie” will be familiar to those who have enjoyed Doc’s earlier studio CD, SECOND CHANCES.  These even more personal and intimate live versions alone would make this new CD a must for Ruffolo and Schneider fans.  But there is much more to this recording than live versions of Doc’s earlier studio efforts.

The “stories” part of SONGS & STORIES LIVE doesn’t refer only to the lyrics.  In “An Unexpected Friendship,” Eugene recounts how a day on his friend’s sailboat resulted in him working with and ultimately meeting an Atlanta singer-songwriter-lawyer named Doc Schneider.  Ruffolo, the well-known tenor and songwriter with an impressive list of musical credits, at first thought working with this unknown lawyer sounded ‘shaky.’   It didn’t take Eugene long to change his mind.  The mutual respect that quickly developed between him and Doc (think James Taylor with roots in Long Island instead of North Carolina and Martha’s Vineyard) shines through.

One of the more poignant pieces, in song and intro story alike, is Ruffolo’s “A Rose for Pierrette,” a moving tale of his father’s love for a inn-keeper’s daughter whom he met as a soldier during World War II in Belgium.   

Several other songs stand out on this Ruffolo-Schneider CD.  In “Nantucket Island (The First Day of September),” the Long Islander sails beyond James Taylor’s Vineyard, standing with his lover under the stars, “clinging to the flame.”  Ruffolo sings of the bittersweet memories of a not-so-graceful brake-up in “Gracefully”:  “We walked here together / It takes two to break the vow / From glory to ashes / Yeah – just take a look at us now.   Loss is the beautifully expressed theme in “Hills of Sicily,” which Eugene wrote with his now-departed friend Artie Traum, and especially in “World Minus One,” a eulogistic lamenting of Artie’s passing.

This CD set was skillfully mastered by the great Ben Wisch.  You would have to look long and hard to find a live recording with a better sound than SONGS & STORIES LIVE.  Settle down with it, listening through good speakers or headphones.  Add a glass of wine or beer, and you’ll be transported back to Eddie’s Attic.
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