Ann Doyle and I met through Will Spencer of Solid Sound studio in Ann Arbor in 2000. David and I had just moved from the house we’d renovated in northwest Ann Arbor out to a new place near Zeeb road. (I guess we’ve been moving west ever since we got together, come to think of it.) One day I got her phone message out of the blue.
Her regular piano collaborator had moved to California and she was looking for someone local to work with. She sent me the album they’d done together, I’m Not Walking Away. Wow, am I ever glad Will thought of me, because I loved her music right away. Yes, she was folk, but not just. Her voice had an edge, her chords had question marks in them, her lyrics awoke mystery. I hadn‘t listened for very long when I realized Will was right, and I was in. (Will engineered all the tracks on this playlist, by the way.)
So I learned her existing songs, and we rehearsed some new ones. I wrote out charts for myself, which I often do. Her previous pianist took more of an ad lib approach, but I’ve never been much of an ad libber. (That’s been changing a bit over the years, and these days, I rarely write out a complete chart anymore…) I always approach the song as a whole, thinking of the lyrics and their meaning, thinking of the total arrangement. My playing was less technical, less flowery maybe, and more rhythmic and harmonic. Less jazz and more gospel.
That first summer we started playing live gigs together, and really bonded over a trip to hear Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now” concert at Meadowbrook. We did Pride festivals, folk festivals, Ann Arbor Summer Festival “Top of the Park.” Christmas carols in Chelsea, a house concert. We even got to do a couple sold-out concerts at the Ark, Ann Arbor’s legendary folk venue.
When we still lived at Hawkswood, near Manchester, she’d come out to the country after work and we’d rehearse at the piano while Davey cooked us up something special, the tempting smells wafting over to help make our harmonies a little more delicious. Or she’d pick up dinner on her way and we’d do a TV night down by the fire. And we called her “Miss Ann” (After the heroine in Jane Austen‘s Persuasion. That was in her B.C. days—before Chris.) A.C. we still keep in touch when we’re back in Michigan, they’ve been to visit us in Hilo, and are planning another visit next year.
We began work on her album Ready To Move soon after we met, releasing it at one of those Ark concerts. A few years later, we did another to release my Jimmy & Me album, which Ann had sung background vocals on. A few years after that we worked on her Toll Road EP. Oh, yeah, and we even worked a few cubicles away from each other at the same research and education high tech organization, Internet2, for nine years!
I’m really proud of the work we did together. We had some unforgettable connection moments, both on stage and on the recordings. You’ll hear me performing in a completely different context on these songs, more like a studio player—although she likes to say I brought a composer-arranger sensibility to my piano parts. I keep hoping we’ll have another go one of these days… But whether we do or not, I’ll always be thankful for the chance to collaborate on these wonderful little gems, Miss Ann!
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