Lori Lieberman - Truly

Sometimes an album can take a long time to think about. And sometimes, even longer to record. This album, however, proved me wrong on both counts. Twelve songs in six days!

The two years of Pandemic isolation affected everyone in different ways. For me, I descended into a kind of funk that led to a frustrating rabbit hole of writing songs that even I didn’t want to listen to. As I struggled with subjects that were either too positive, too self-indulgent, or too negative, I began to despair. Until one day while walking my dogs, I thought, “Wait! What about singing- I can still sing, can’t I?”

I thought about the songs that had filled my head with memories while growing up in Switzerland: wedged between my two sisters in the back, our mother in the passenger seat, my father would drive us through the dizzying mountain roads playing Sinatra and Bobby Short on his latest eight-track system. I loved and sang along to I Like the Likes of You, Moonlight in Vermont, You Go to My Head, and so many others. The music provided the perfect backdrop for a childhood marked by my father’s adventurous and joyful spirit. Having lost him three years ago I feel in many ways, he is behind this project, and so I dedicate this to my always colorful and forever, complicated father.

Once I had the idea to do an album of these songs, I ran it by my husband and Executive Producer, Joseph Cali, whose enthusiasm meant so much to me. From there, I reached out to Matt Rollings from Nashville, whose work I had first discovered on some of Mary Chapin Carpenter’s albums as well as his collaborations with Lyle Lovett, Willie Nelson, and Alison Krauss.

Joining Matt and me on this album, and superstars in their own right, were the gifted David Piltch on bass, Lyle Workman on guitar, and Victor Indrizzo on drums. We came together over Joe’s famous pour-over coffee, and in music and friendship, for six days recording live, two songs a day, at Apogee Studios in Santa Monica, CA.

I could never thank Betty Bennett and Bob Clearmountain enough for opening their studio to me.

~Lori Lieberman