Song Chronicles

Welcome to Season 3, Episode 3 of Song Chronicles. Our guest today is singer and songwriter Billy Valentine, who just released a new album called "a masterclass in soul interpretation" by Record Collector. Billy Valentine & The Universal Truth was chosen as the first record for the relaunch of Flying Dutchman, the iconic imprint known for releases by Duke Ellington, Gil-Scott Heron, and Leon Thomas.

Billy was born in West Virginia as one of thirteen children and later moved to Columbus, Ohio where his parents owned a nightclub. His brother Alvin introduced him to the path of professional entertainer. At 15 years old, Billy booked his first paying gig after sitting in with his brother Alvin during a performance at Leon’s Cocktail Lounge in Patterson, NJ. After a stint in the original touring company of The Wiz, Billy and his brother John formed The Valentine Brothers. Together they recorded four albums and had a breakout Reagan-era protest single "Money’s Too Tight (To Mention)."

The Valentine Brothers

After the duo split, Billy began a songwriting collaboration with Bob Thiele, Jr and Phil Roy. The trio’s songs were recorded by Bonnie Raitt, Pops and Mavis Staples, The Neville Brothers, and his hero Ray Charles. We talk about the "pinch me" moment of hearing Ray’s recording of his song, the title track of the album My World.

Ray Charles's 1993 album My World

Billy’s incredible vocal interpretations made him a sought-after demo singer for songwriting greats like Burt Bacharach & Hal David and Gerry Goffin. Bob Thiele, Jr. says it was Billy’s voice that made the songs they wrote together irresistible, making Billy "the secret weapon of nearly every songwriter in LA." We talk about how Billy came to sing on the soundtrack of Boston Legal.

Burt Bacharach and Billy Valentine

Recording during the COVID-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 brought Billy back to the '60s, being brought up in Ohio during the Kent State and Vietnam War protests. He chose to reinterpret iconic protest songs by Gil-Scott Heron, Curtis Mayfield, and Stevie Wonder for his new record Billy Valentine & The Universal Truth. We talk about the permanence of protest songs in our cultural landscape.

After many decades in the business, Billy says he is finally feeling good in his own skin and proud of how he made these songs sound. We talk about how hard artists are on themselves and how pleasing yourself is the hardest part. He has an ageless quality about him and describes himself as having a "young heart."

Enjoy this conversation with a storied interpreter of songs.

Season 2: Episode 9

Jon Platt

 

Welcome to Episode 9, Season 2 of Song Chronicles. Our special guest is Jon Platt, the Chairman and CEO of Sony Music Publishing – a man Jay-Z proclaimed as the “the Obama of the music industry.”

 

 

Jon took a quite unusual path to becoming one of the most powerful and influential (music) publishers of the past 25 years," according to Variety. Born in Philadelphia and raised in Oakland, Jon was a high school student in Denver when he took his first step into the music industry. While working in a sporting goods store, he befriended a local DJ named Thomas Edwards, who showed Jon the deejaying basics and he soon became a popular club DJ.

 

Jon with Chuck D. photo by Desiree Navarro/Wire Image

 

Jon's next life-changing moment came when Jon was MC’ing a Public Enemy/Ice Cube concert. He got to talking with Public Enemy’s front-man, Chuck D, who told Jon not to settle for just being a DJ. “My music dream started the next day from that day,” Jon reveals in our conversation.

 

with Jay-Z

 

Inspired by Chuck D's words, Jon began managing some songwriters and producers in Los Angeles. In 1995, he got a low-rung job in EMI’s A&R department and quickly struck gold by signing Marqueze Etheridge, co-writer of the TLC’s smash, “Waterfalls,” one of the year’s – and the decade’s – mega hits. He credits his “DJ instincts” for his talent for breaking records like “Waterfalls” as well as his role behind the making of the Jay-Z/Alicia Keys smash single, “Empire State of Mind.”

 

Jon (on the right) with Sean Combs, Jay-Z, and Clarence Avant, one of Platt's mentor figures. Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Image

 

At EMI Music Publishing, Jon signed Kanye West, Jay-Z, Diddy, Beyoncè, Drake, and Usher, while working his way up to being President of North America, Creative in 2011. He later moved Warner/Chappell, where he was appointed Chairman and CEO in 2015. Then in 2019, he took the same positions at Sony Music Publishing, the world's No. 1 global music publisher with a catalog of over three million songs.

 

 

 

Highly respected inside and outside the music business, Jon has received such honors as SESAC’s Visionary Award, Morehouse College’s Candle Award in Music, Business and Entertainment, and Black Radio Exclusive Magazine’s Man of the Year, and has been a perennial presence on Billboard’s prestigious Power 100 list.

 

with Pharrell Williams. Photo by Frazer Harrison, Getty Images

 

Jon’s most cherished honor, however, is the City of Hope’s Spirit of Life Award - because the event raised more than $6 million for the hospital. He wholeheartedly believes in the importance of helping people because you can help. This belief is underscored in the story he shares about assisting in getting Kanye West onto Usher’s Confession tour along with his many philanthropic endeavors – such as starting the Big Jon Platt Scholarship Program in 2005 to help Denver high school students go to college.

 

Jon with his wife, Angie, Usher, and Rita Ora

 

He’s extremely proud too for being able to assist songwriters during the pandemic. Jon, who has championed songwriters throughout his career, helped to have Sony’s COVID Global Relief Fund donate over $2 million to songwriters – and not just Sony Music Publishing songwriters -worldwide. We also discuss the Music Modernization Act, which he believes is a step in the right direction for songwriting compensation. It’s important, Jon says, “to do the right thing by songwriters.”

 

Photo by Mary Beth Koeth

 

Please enjoy this very special conversation with Jon Platt as he offers his perceptive personal insights along with talking about his unique place in the music business, and his love for music and music-makers.

 

Season 2: Episode 3

Jeff Trott

 

 

 

“When you make a record, it's like a snapshot of your life at that time.” Jeff Trott, the guest on this episode of Song Chronicles, certainly knows what he’s talking about when it comes to making records. The songwriter/producer/multi-instrumentalist has appeared on hundreds of albums since he started out playing guitar with the San Francisco-based alt-rock band Wire Train in the mid-80s.

 

 Wire Train (Left to Right)

Jeff Trott, Kevin Hunter, Anders Rundblad, Brian MacLeod 

 

Jeff is best known for his long-running work with Sheryl Crow, a collaboration that has earned him a Grammy and BMI’s Songwriter of the Year honors. They first met, in a true case of serendipity, in the early ‘90s. Starting with her second album, he has served as a co-writer, accompanist and producer for Crow straight through her latest full-length, Threads.

 

Jeff with Sheryl Crow's band, circa 1997

 

Jeff talks about his songwriting process with Crow – including how her contributions to his early version of “If It Makes You Happy” turned the tune into the Grammy-winning smash hit – as well as why he finds collaborating such as fascinating, mysterious thing to do.

 

Jeff performing with Sheryl Crow

 

Now Nashville-based after living most of his life on the west coast, Jeff possesses a lengthy and impressive resume featuring well-known acts that cut across the rock, country, blues, folk, and pop genres. Jeff was awarded Songwriter of the Year by BMI in 1998. Along with hits with Sheryl Crow, such as "If It Makes You Happy”, "Everyday is a Winding Road” ,“A Change”, "My Favorite Mistake” and “Soak Up The Sun”, he's written songs with Counting Crows, G. Love, Clare Dunn, O.A.R., Robert Randolph, and more. He's toured with Tears For Fears, Pete Droge and World Party and recorded with the likes of Aimee Mann, Stevie Nicks, Liz Phair, Wade Bowen and Rob Thomas, to name a few. 

 

During his days with World Party. Photo by Chris Whitten

 

As a producer, Jeff’s credits include working with Aaron Lee Tasjan, Fastball, Leighton Meester, Max Gomez, Martha Wainwright, and Pete Yorn. Probably his most prominent production work, outside of the Sheryl Crow albums, was doing Hootie and the Blowfish’s widely-acclaimed recent reunion record, Imperfect Circle. It’s a job he got rather unexpectedly, with a casual get-together with the band to talk songwriting leading to them asking Jeff to produce their album.

 

Assistant engineer Sean Badum, engineer Buckley Miller and Jeff during the Hootie & The Blowfish recording sessions

 

Jeff’s production work extends to film and TV too. He did the soundtrack for the Abigail Breslin film Janie Jones and co-produced a couple of Stevie Nicks tracks for the Practical Magic soundtrack. He even got a Daytime Emmy nomination for co-writing and co-producing with Crow the theme song for the Katie Couric talk show.

 

 

Despite his seemingly constant stream of work, Jeff did take the time out some years back to do a solo album, Dig Up The Astroturf, which he released on his own label. But even he used this project as a learning experience to discover all the things you need to know about making an album.

 

Photo by Kim Stringfellow

 

With his wealth and range of musical experiences, Jeff has accumulated all types of illuminating thoughts on what it takes to be a good collaborator, the tricky line you walk producing a band, and what has kept him enthusiastic about making music.

 

Photo by Steven Weinberg

Please enjoy listening to songwriter/musician/producer Jeff Trott on episode three of the second season of Song Chronicles.

 

Episode 9

Al Schmitt
Part 2

 

Song Chronicles is proud to present the second of a two-part interview with Al Schmitt. This episode, done via Zoom on August 7, took place three days after the first interview after Al emailed to say that he had some additional stories and memories he wanted to share. It’s a testament to his generosity and work ethic that Al would take the time to follow-up because he wanted to make this interview even more special even after a great first interview – which is a fascinating conversation on its own.

 

Al Schmitt has spent his 70-some year career making things better. The universally revered engineer and producer has received awards with the most notable all-time Grammy winners – and the top among engineers - as well as receiving the honored prestigious Grammy Trustee Award.

 

Al Schmitt with Tommy LiPuma and Paul McCartney

 

Al’s unrivaled resume crosses generations and genre lines. The 90-year-old master of the soundboard has worked with a seemingly endless list of musical superstars: from Miles Davis to Madonna, Quincy Jones to Nina Simone, Dolly Parton to Brian Wilson, Elvis Presley to Bob Dylan, Liza Minnelli to Luis Miguel, Kenny Rogers to Kenny G., Linda Ronstadt to Rod Stewart.

 

Al with Ray Charles

In this episode, Al shares some of his favorite moments from his illustrious career – like the time in the early ‘60s when he hung out in a hotel suite with Sam Cooke and Cassius Clay (just weeks before took the name Muhammad Ali). Cooke was helping out Clay, who just had gotten a record deal, and Al recalls how funny and irreverent to two men were - “I never laughed so hard in my life.”

 

Al had a long-running working partnership with Henry Mancini, which started with the Peter Gunn record and resulted in Al’s first Grammy for the Hatari! soundtrack. The acclaimed composer, Al reveals, had a great sense of humor as well as a great way to endear himself with session musicians – here’s a hint: it involves how doing one song past 11 pm made the musicians very happy.

 

Al at work at Capitol Studios

 

When Al was a kid, he used to play hooky from school to go see Frank Sinatra sing at the Paramount Theatre. And Sinatra was one artist that he had long to work with but never had – until producer Phil Ramone called him to engineer Sinatra’s Duets album. It was a job, Al says, he would have done for nothing. He talks about how the studio was set up for Sinatra and how the singer wanted to do this “this way” in the studio as well as what a thrill it was just to be part of Sinatra’s dinner party for three nights.

 

His Sinatra stories also involves the fabled U47 microphone, a subject close to Al’s heart because he is a self-described “microphone freak.” During this episode, Al discusses how much he enjoys mic-ing a room and trying them out in different placements, moving the band around the room. He fondly remembers his time at RCA where he would experiment in the studio every day and discover the ambience and best recording spots in the room. Al also describes his process of working with an artist to make for the most rewarding and productive recording session.

Diana Krall with Al Schmitt

 

During my conversation with Al, he speaks too about how he developed such a strong work ethic as well as his various interests outside of the studio. Additionally, he shares how he has continued working during the COVID pandemic, having recently wrapped up engineering jobs on upcoming releases by Diana Krall and Melody Gardot.

 

 

 

 

 

Episode 5.

Gail Ann Dorsey

Song Chronicles is proud to present its fifth episode, a conversation with singer-songwriter, bass player extraordinaire, and dear friend Gail Ann Dorsey. 

"I think... since I was a little kid... I wanted to get out of Philadelphia. I wanted to see the world. I wanted to do these things. Honestly, the odds were not in my favor, from my background, of me achieving what I've achieved, regardless of... talent and things. But. I think I've always [had] a good daydreaming, uh, imagination thing, you know, a law of attraction thing. You think you see it, you see it, you see it, and then... it comes."

 

 I first met Gail in the early '90s in London. I reached out to her to see if she wanted to write some songs and perhaps start a duo project. The band name was going to be South of Venus. She came over and we started a song called "Femme Fatale" and then ended up demoing some other songs together in the English countryside (with recording engineer Andrew Jackson, who I'd met recording at Astoria Studio, David Gilmour's houseboat on the Thames). We were hoping to write more songs and play some gigs when she got a call from Bryan Ferry. He wanted her to go on a European promotional tour for television. I was happy for her and thought our plans would simply be delayed; but soon after, Roland Orzabal, who I'd occasionally see in the coffee shop around the corner from me, wanted her to play with Tears For Fears, so it looked like our duo plans had bitten the dust. The next thing I knew, she'd put my name in the hat to play guitar on the Bryan Ferry TV tour and I got the gig. This was the beginning of a long and cherished friendship.

 

Happy times with David Bowie

 

 

 

Louise & Gail recording for "South of Venus" in London

While traveling in Europe, we had dinner with filmmaker Pedro Almodovar and actors Rossy de Palma and Beverly D'Angelo in Madrid and went to Copenhagen, Paris, and other major cities. We made a dark Berlinesque video for Bryan of his cover of "I Put A Spell On You" and then back in London, I focused on songwriting and played some shows with an expanded line up and called it South of Venus. My hair was short then anyway, but then I dyed it blonde for a minute. Somewhere in that period of time Gail and I were called into the studio to sing backgrounds together on a Gang of Four album called Mall. I was already friends with Andy Gill. He was a beloved friend and he loved to cook and also knew all the best East End markets and wine bars. He produced some songs for me too that were never released. That was a snapshot in time, of changing busy lives going off into different directions. I was in London only another eighteen months before getting a gig opening for Swing Out Sister and decided at the end of it to stay in LA, ending my ten-year chapter as a Londoner and eventually ending up back on Lookout Mountain in Laurel Canyon. Gail, meanwhile, had done two tours with Tears For Fears, played on their records, and Roland Orzabal was mentoring her on her own solo record when she got the call from David Bowie. 

Over the years, we'd find time to meet up in LA, Woodstock & Nashville, and always we'd get right back into our groove. Gail was always fascinated with Hollywood and filmmaking, and in fact, had won a scholarship to Cal Arts and had attended film school well before her career as a signed recording artist (first for CBS and then Island) and her star side-woman singer-bassist-performer extraordinaire status with icons — none more famous than David Bowie, with whom she shared a lengthy residency from 1995 to Bowie's death in 2016.

 

with David Bowie

 Gail sang lead vocals on live versions of "Under Pressure" and dueted with Bowie on other songs, including "The London Boys," "Aladdin Sane," "I Dig Everything," and a cover of Laurie Anderson's "O Superman."

 

 

 

 

Behind the Scenes at the video shoot for Bryan Ferry's "I Put A Spell On You": Gail Ann Dorsey, Rossy de Palma and Louise Goffin 

 

 

Episode 4.

Kathy Valentine

Song Chronicles is proud to present its fourth episode, a conversation with American musician, songwriter and author Kathy Valentine.

Kathy was a member of the first, and to date, only all-female band that wrote their own songs and played their own instruments to top Billboard charts at #1, having one of the most successful debuts of all time. The Go-Gos sold over 7 million records. When they went on tour opening for The Police, they soon rose up the charts surpassing the headliner, with Sting breaking open a bottle of champagne for them to celebrate. 

The Go-Gos

To be in a band of young women frought with both tension and love, who stuck together through the rigors of the road and high profile promotion, defying stereotypes, brought intense challenges. The only way its band members could survive to lead healthy and successful lives was to leave behind the band that had brought them together. 

 

 Kathy’s memoir, titled All I Ever Wanted, is an inspiring and honestly told story. She’s found her way to discover her own voice as both a writer of prose and a lead vocalist, playing multi-instruments on her own songs, which she’s used to create a soundtrack to her book.

The music stands on its own as a body of work. It’s a great soundtrack!

 She tells her story without the affectations of someone trying to sound “writerly.”  

Kathy and I knew one another throughout the years at a distance but became friends when we both found ourselves expecting within months of one another. We both have 17-year-olds so we’ve known each other a while and she’s awesome.  

I'm honored to be able to present to you the first Song Chronicles stay-at-home interview ever...

 with the bad-ass, magnificent Kathy Valentine.

 

Song Chronicles is a new podcast hosted by songwriter-producer Louise Goffin chronicling music history as told by the music-makers themselves, the back story of the life we love to live, behind the songs we live to love.

Find us on Instagram: @songchronicles

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