I am sending out a thank you to The Recording Academy (and to the cosmos) for giving me the opportunity to present my music here. When I first began this journey two years ago, I was not planning on doing any type of album, or even singing, for that matter (it had been 30 years since I'd done any solo singing!). But with the gift of a ukulele (and a red car!) and a friend who was writing poetry, these songs materialized. I only wanted to put them out there, and my goal was to do the best job that I possibly could to accomplish that. Because of that, I bit the financial bullet to bring in other musicians, and when I heard Michael Ronstadt playing cello at a local coffeehouse, I knew it would be wonderful to have him on the album, so I asked. Not only did he come into the studio on Day one, he ended up volunteering to do the beautiful string arrangements on the recording. I can't begin to say enough of the other musicians who joined in - with Dan Bacon (upright bass - & then whistling on My Red Car) and Russell Gellman (percussion) also in the studio on Day One to begin pulling together the music, and also my sound engineer & co-producer, Michael Richelle. We started with this core group, and added others as the music required, including two wonderful guitar solos by Jack Prucella (my long-time flute/guitar duo partner), and violin by Janet Marquardt. On listening to the finished master of the recording, my husband said, with a smile, "Congratulations! Once again you have managed to create something that doesn't fit into any genre!"
Anyway, I'm getting off-topic. When My Red Car didn't make it into Americana, I had a twinge of disappointment, but was so proud to have two of my songs in the composing/arranging division - Night Stroll (best inst. comp.) and On Nights Like These (best instu. arrang. accomp. vocals). So it was complete astonishment two days ago when I found that "My Red Car" had been sitting in Pop Vocal Album, and my husband said for me to check Song of the Year (he's the one who told me "it's 10 years old" when I didn't even think I could take the red car out for a test drive, that it was too fancy for me!). So at his assistance and with my own disbelief, there was "My Red Car" sitting under Song of the Year!
Today I have tears, but they are good tears, that these two years that greatly impacted my life (and my husband's) have culminated in being able to put my songs out there. And this site has allowed me to achieve my original goal way beyond any dreams or expectations I had. So I thank you, and whatever allignment of the stars & the universe allowed this to come together, and I will continue to be a member & support this community, not because I have any plans for more recordings, but because it is you that has allowed me to do accomplish this. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Lore Constantine