Lori Lieberman - The Girl And The Cat

When Lori Lieberman first performed at the Royal Theater Carré in Amsterdam some years back, she reached out to the respected Matangi Quartet https://www.matangi.nl/ to accompany her. A strong musical bond was formed and ever since, Lieberman has been looking for the right project to do. “The Girl and The Cat” came to fruition over a period of a year. While the songs were written and recorded in LA with engineer, Joseph Cali, the Matangi Quartet was recorded at Studio Groenland in the Netherlands. The string arrangements were created by Lieberman and Stefanie Fife, with the exception of a song by the Dutch songwriter, Daniël Lohues, (with an English translation by Lieberman and recording artist, Stéphanie Struijk), and arranged by Netherlands’ Reinout Douma. 

One of the unique songs on this Album, “Empty Chairs” is a cover of the Don McLean song that he originally performed in 1971 at the Troubadour in Los Angeles. Lori Lieberman was about to release her first album for Capitol Records but needed one more song. She attended the show that night at the Troubadour and was so moved by Don’s song that she wrote a poem on a napkin that became the inspiration for her manager / songwriter /producers to write the song “Killing Me Softly” which Lori recorded to complete her album and released as a single. Without “Empty Chairs” there would have been no “Killing Me Softly” and Lori has recorded it here on this new collection with a beautiful string arrangement she composed. Truly a piece of Music History. 

The album, entitled “The Girl and The Cat”, with The Matangi String Quartet, is mixed by legendary Bob Clearmountain (Springsteen, Rolling Stones, Bryan Adams etc.) and mastered by Grammy winner Darcy Proper at Wisseloord Studios.

Recorded at 192/24.