rage rhythms by bill biss
Nellie
McKay
Bright and Shiny on
Normal as BlueBerry Pie
A TribuTe To Doris DAy
In what is surely a blast of inspiration, Nellie McKay has created an
enchanting song tribute to her idol and fellow animal lover, Doris
Day. The 13 songs encompass selections from the early days of the
singer and smoothly cover a range of almost 20 years of Doris Day’s
career in song. McKay keeps it simple and in doing so puts her own
unique stamp on the material presented. Why, she even penned
lyrics for one of her older songs to honor Doris Day and created a
song that Doris Day could easily have made a hit. The rage Monthly
spoke with Nellie McKay about her love for Doris, this very special
nopf
new work and her process of putting together this collection of
classic material.
oline K
ar
y C
y b
ograh
Phot
On discovering how to give a different musical background early 1960s… like Doris Day is so
to some of Doris Day’s song… I have a weakness for that kind of stuff but I did strong and big…
Yeah. I just wanted to do something different. The try and contain myself. I told my A&R [Artists and she goes for the note and
nice thing was on “If I Ever Had a Dream” because it Repertoire] that I was hoping to have a lot of male she’s gonna hit it. With
was my song, I felt I could make it sound more like her background singers. I think he kind of blanched a bit me, I feel it’s a lot more precarious. Maybe the hardest
records. I was so happy with the arrangements that (laughter). I hope it turned out for the best. though, was the song I wrote myself…because I’m a
Paul Holderbaum and Bob Dorough did because On the intimate feeling created with sparse arrangements knucklehead like that.
when you are each doing different arrangements, and ukulele… On “If I Ever Had a Dream” written by Nellie McKay…
you never know how it’s going to turn out. I think we It’s a recession album (laughter). I’m glad it We’re hoping to do a video around that with pic-
work well together. worked. tures of Doris Day and her animals and pictures of her
On using steel drums on a couple of the songs… On selecting the songs… fighting for animals and maybe, some footage of ani-
That was just a fellow I heard in the subway. Every It was SO hard. She never stopped working! She mals in not good situations and then animals when
time I went to the subway, he’d just be playing stuff just made movie after movie and album after album. they’ve been rescued. I also have a video treatment
and it just sounded so romantic. He plays a lot of It was a swamp to wade through and I can’t even written for “Send Me No Flowers.” That song really is
Frank Sinatra songs on the steel drums. So, we say that I listened as well as I should of to every song beautiful music and it’s another side to the 1960s…
decided to get him in. For the song, “Black Hills of because there are just so many. That was the hardest it really has that feel for me of that little lady in the big
Dakota,” before she [Day] sings it, she says something part….for sure. city and she is going to make her name.
like “Gosh. What a beautiful country. No wonder the On any song that Nellie sang that was more challenging On her inspiration for honoring Doris Day with this CD Normal
Injuns want to keep it so much!” So, we decided to than the others… as Blueberry Pie…
move away from the cowboy version of it and into a Yeah. “Wonderful Guy”…pretty much every one! It’s high time people rediscovered her. She’s kind of
more solemn thing. I’ve never been known as a singer. I tried that when I been lumped into the failures of an era. She has more
On recapturing the musical sound of the late 1950s and was starting out. I’m kind of a weakling and someone artistically to bring to the table than that.
20 RAGE monthly | november 2009
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