{"id":3632,"date":"2011-05-24T08:31:59","date_gmt":"2011-05-24T15:31:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/anthologysd.com\/blog\/?p=3632"},"modified":"2011-05-24T08:35:11","modified_gmt":"2011-05-24T15:35:11","slug":"sound-observations-with-brenda-russell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/press\/2011\/05\/24\/sound-observations-with-brenda-russell\/","title":{"rendered":"Sound Observations with Brenda Russell"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

By David Moye<\/strong><\/cite><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Songwriting is an art form based on inspiration. All an artist can do is make themselves aware of when the moment arrives and act on it.<\/p>\n

Just ask Brenda Russell, the composer of standards like \u201cGet Here,\u201d \u201cIf Only For One Night,\u201d and the Grammy-nominated \u201cPiano In The Dark,.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI have to let it come to me any way, even when I\u2019m washing dishes,\u201d Russell said. \u201cThat\u2019s how my first hit, \u2018So Far, So Good,\u2019 came to me. To me, songwriting is spiritual and I try to be open.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an approach that has worked for Russell, who in a three-decade career has been a multi-Grammy nominee and cowrote the songs for the hit Broadway musical, \u201cThe Color Purple.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now she is bringing many of the highlights of that career to Anthology on May 28 — most of them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis time, I doing songs that people are familiar with and some that are not so familiar but I like,\u201d she said. \u201cI am not doing anything from \u2018The Color Purple,\u2019 but hope to work some of them into the show at a later date.\u201d<\/p>\n

As she mentioned, Russell, considers songwriting a spiritual activity, but while she is a great, self-taught piano player, she admits not being able to read or write music.<\/p>\n

In many ways, that\u2019s been an advantage.<\/p>\n

\u201cI allow the songs to happen in my head, then I get out of the way,\u201d she laughed. \u201cI\u2019ve tried many different ways of writing songs. One thing I do is collect song titles. That\u2019s how I wrote \u2018Piano In The Dark.\u2019 My co-writers, Jeff Hull and Scott Cutler, came up with this beautiful music and wanted lyrics and a title. They were rushing me so I went to my song title collection and said, \u2018Piano In The Dark.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said, \u2018We like it, but what does that mean?\u2019 I said, \u2018i\u2019ll figure it out.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The song ended up as a top ten hit for her in 1988 and was nominated for a Grammy in the Song Of The Year category.<\/p>\n

Not being to write a song down may be a hindrance at time, especially, she says, \u201cwhen I\u2019m trying to articulate something to the musicians,\u201d but she sees the value in having to commit a song to memory.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I wake up and it\u2019s not on my mind, I know it probably isn\u2019t that good,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s like I once said, \u2018If your boyfriend doesn\u2019t last more than six months, you probably have a good song.\u201d<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

WHAT: Brenda Russell<\/strong>
\nWHEN: Saturday, May 28th, 2011, 7:30 & 9:30pm<\/strong>
\nTICKETS: $10-$49 Buy Tickets<\/a><\/strong>
\nMORE INFO: Artist Profile<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By David Moye Songwriting is an art form based on inspiration. All an artist can do is make themselves aware of when the moment arrives and act on it. Just ask Brenda Russell, the composer of standards like \u201cGet Here,\u201d \u201cIf Only For One Night,\u201d and the Grammy-nominated \u201cPiano In The Dark,.\u201d \u201cI have to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":3634,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[893,863],"tags":[1026,693,739],"class_list":["post-3632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews","category-upcoming-shows","tag-brenda-russell","tag-david-moye","tag-sound-observations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3632"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3632\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3636,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3632\/revisions\/3636"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anthologysd.com\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}