Record label and publisher Hadley Music Group has released a companion CD to the book The Songwriter in Me: Snapshots of My Creative Process written by singer songwriter Donna Ulisse.
The CD is titled The Songwriter in Me: The Demo Recordings and includes all twenty-four songs that are featured in the book as lyrics.
As soon as the book was completed, Ulisse approached Kathy Anderson at Hadley Music Group with the vision of a companion CD offering readers of the book the opportunity to also listen to the songs as they were reading the lyrics along with the notes Ulisse has in the book regarding the meter of each song, how the melody works with the lyric and rhyming patterns.
It was also her vision to present the songs in much more sparse arrangements than her other recordings to show the listeners how she often hears her songs when she writes them and also how she records them to present to her publisher as a representation to pitch to other artists, inspiring "The Demo Recordings" as part of the title.
All of the songs are recorded with just acoustic guitar tracks and on occasion an additional mandolin, fiddle and vocal harmony.
Musicians on the CD are Bryan Sutton, Kenny Smith, Glen Duncan and Tony King. Ulisse's husband and co-writer on many of the songs, Rick Stanley, sings harmonies on multiple tracks and also sang lead on the song "The Man That I Am" which Ulisse felt was a bit more believable than having her sing it!
The album includes some of Donna Ulisse's most popular songs such as "Let it Rain", "Showin' My Roots", and "I Am A Child of God" as well as many songs that have yet to be heard. However, even the familiar songs will sound fresh to those familiar with the original releases when they hear them in this stripped down setting.
The beauty of the CD is that you don't need to own the book to simply enjoy the recordings but if you do own the book, you will surely want to add the CD to your collection.
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