Hi. My name is Julie Benko My name is Jason Yeager.
And we are here at Playbill to give you a sneak peek of our new album.
Hand in Hand on Club 44 Records.
When the pandemic began,
we started a series called Quarentunes of us playing music from our living room
just on Facebook Live and Instagram live for our friends and family.
And we would pick songs every week and
and then some times people would request songs.
And so we started developing these arrangements
and we played Quarentunes every week for a year.
Yeah.
And we would often people would want to give tips or make donations
and we would donate half of the proceeds to a different charity each week.
And it was a really great community building effort
or it felt to us like a way to maintain our community of loved ones and friends
during the time where we felt, you know,
where things were more isolated and live performance was really happening.
Yeah, in the middle of it, Jason said We should record these.
And so so that's.
Kind of our that's. Really that's where the idea came from.
And then we got on the recording train and that lasted a while.
There were certain songs we would come back to and that always
felt, Yeah, we know how we do this song.
It feels like part of our book of repertoire,
whereas others we would, you know, it's a lot of
if you do an hour each week for 52 plus weeks, that's a lot of music.
And so we tried all sorts of things from all different shows,
from the Great American Songbook, from pop music and elsewhere.
As Julie said, we got a lot of recommendations, but
there was a certain core of 10 to 15 songs
that really became ours in a way.
Well, the album is coming out this Friday on Club 44 Records.
We're really thrilled to be partnered with them.
And we're going to be doing an album release party at Birdland Jazz
Club on Monday, August 29th at 7 p.m..
That would be both obviously an in-person audience, but a worldwide
live stream is available as well.
And because this album is a duo, just me and Julie,
you know,
you might think, Oh,
it's a piano and voice record, but in fact there are many other instruments
and layers that we overdubbed on the record.
We call it an enhanced duo experience.
So at Birdland, this coming Monday, we're going to have a full band with us,
a quintet helping us recreate
that enhanced duo mini orchestral experience. Yes.
On the album I play flute and clarinet, but the person who is playing
flute and clarinet at Birdland is the significantly better flutist and clarinetist.
And now
we're going to hear a song from our forthcoming album, Hand in Hand.
This is “It Might as Well Be Spring” by Rodgers and Hammerstein.
The things I used to like I don't like anymore.
I want a lot of other things
I never heard before.
It's just like Mother says.
I sit around and mope
pretending I'm wonderful and knowing,
I’m a dope
I'm as restless as a willow in a windstorm,
I'm as jumpy as a puppet on a string.
I'd say that I had spring fever,
but it isn't even spring
I’m starry eyed and vaguely discontented
Like a nightingale without a song to sing Oh,
why should I have spring fever
when it isn't even spring
I keep wishing I were somewhere else
Walking down a strange new street
hearing words that I have never heard
From a guy I've yet to meet.
I’m as busy as a spider spinning daydreams
I'm as giddy as a baby on a swing,
I haven't seen a crocus or a rosebud,
Or a robin or a bluebird on the wing,
But I feel so gay in a melancholy way,
That it might as well be spring,
it might as well be spring
I keep wishing I were somewhere else,
Walking down a strange new street,
Hearing words I have never never heard,
from a guy I've yet to meet.
I'm as busy as a spider spinning daydreams,
I'm as giddy as a baby on a swing,
I haven't seen a crocus or a rosebud,
Or a robin on the wing,
But I feel so gay in a melancholy way,
That it might as well be spring,
Might as well be,
spring.
Thank you so much for, watching and thank you, Playbill, for having us.
We'll be celebrating the release of Hand in Hand this Monday,
August 29th at 7 p.m., and also streaming worldwide.
Our album will be available as of Friday.
Anywhere you buy or stream music, you can get hard copies as well, CDs.
And you can catch me as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl at the August Wilson
through September 4th
and then every Thursday thereafter, beginning September eight.
So thank you so much.