Album Notes

With Every One Tells a Story, Norman Smiler Zamcheck, the Real Stormin' Norman, returns to the road.

Norman Zamcheck was the pipe-smoking piano-banging composer/leader of the band Stormin' Norman & Suzy, acclaimed from the mid-seventies through the early 90's for their unpredictable and explosive barrelhouse-rock shows. The group started in Boston, toured for years across the northeast, and moved to New York, where they soon gained national attention and major record deal. When the band split up Norm switched gears and toured for nearly a decade with Andy Statman, celebrated master of bluegrass and Klezmer (traditional Jewish) music. To support a growing family he also became a teacher and administrator in a series of tough inner-city schools.

Norm's piano style is based on the sound of his masters: James P. Johnson, Meade Lux Lewis, Otis Spann, Mose Allison. His songwriting reflects his blues and boogie-woogie background (with some harmonic detours) along with rock and folk roots.

He has written hundreds of songs over the course of his lifetime. Every one tells a story.