We’re up against the composers and songwriters of (among others) “The Penguins of Madagascar,” “The Amazing World of Gumball,” “Green Lantern the Animated Series,” and “Robot Chicken.” We love our lives.

One of the songs we’ve written for TINKER BELL is really heating up at Disney — and it’s fascinating to see the resources of this powerful company in action as they get behind this song. The single will “drop” on iTunes on November 8th: it’s the theme from the upcoming TINKER BELL & THE PIXIE HOLLOW GAMES half-hour TV special (which premieres Nov 19 on the Disney Channel), and the tune is called “Dig Down Deeper,” sung by 15-year-old Disney starlet Zendaya.

For the first time, a modern-sounding “pop” production style has been approved for a Tink song (up until now, the consistent sound of Pixie Hollow has been a Celtic, Enya-meets-Loreena-McKennitt sort of vibe — very lush, cinematic and beautiful, but not quite hurtling-up-the-radio-charts-style ear candy) — and this one, thanks to the ideas and wisdom of Disney music exec Matt Walker, plus the creativity and craft of producer Scott Erickson, has been transformed from our original down-home demo to a veritable Beyoncé-esque festival of pop-ness. It’s a single with a bullet, our first ever. 

There’s a full-on Janet-Jackson-style music video due to be released any moment now (see preview below), replete with dancers and a drum line in the high school gym…and Zendaya will be performing “Dig Down Deeper” at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, while riding atop the Build-A-Bear Float.

We never cease to be amazed at the ways life does not turn out according to plan, instead surprising and stunning and sometimes delighting us in ways we never ever imagined. (If you believe, clap your hands…)

We’re proud of this simple lullaby, co-written with film composer Joel McNeely, that plays over the end credits of TINK 3 (TINKER BELL & THE GREAT FAIRY RESCUE) — and we love the singer, Cara Dillon, whose gorgeous voice and delivery truly make the song her own. She’s been performing it at live shows all over the British Isles and Germany, along with her husband, guitarist/producer Sam Lakeman.

The song in a literal sense is all about Tink teaching a human girl named Lizzie how to fly — she’s just sprinkled pixie dust all over her in her bedroom — but out of context, it’s just a song about having courage…which, if you know us well, you’ll know is one of our favorite subjects.

We would definitely take flying lessons from Cara and Sam — they’re utterly convincing — and you’ll see how adorable they are in this shot-on-someone’s-phone video from a recent gig.

Gene, Andy Einhorn (piano, musical director), and Mark Vanderpoel (bass) backstage at Carnegie Hall

Gene writes: “I am loving touring with Audra … the music is wonderful and the hang is great.  This photo is the trio backstage at Carnegie Hall on 10/22: l-r it’s me, Andy Einhorn (piano, musical director), and Mark Vanderpoel (bass).  It was such a thrill to play a full concert there with Audra, Ted Sperling conducting, and a wonderful orchestra of 30+ of NY’s finest musicians.  Most of the shows are just Audra and the trio, which we’re all loving … audiences and venues have all been first rate.  Come out and see one of the remaining shows!”

• Friday, November 4: University Musical Society, Ann Arbor, MI
• Saturday, November 5: Philharmonic Center for the Arts, Naples, FL
• Sunday, November 6: Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, Sarasota, FL
• Tuesday, November 8: Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, Gainesville, FL
• Wednesday, November 9: Lucas Theatre for the Performing Arts, Savannah, GA
• Thursday, November 10: Gaillard Municipal Auditorium, Charleston, SC
• Friday, November 11: Peace Center for the Performing Arts, Greenville, SC
• Saturday, November 12: Spivey Hall, Morrow, GA
• Sunday, November 13: Alabama Symphony, Wright Center at Samford University, Birmingham, AL
• Tuesday, November 29: Center for the Performing Arts at Penn State, College Park, PA
• Wednesday, November 30: The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia, PA (rescheduled from 10/1) 

Choreographing "Paper and Pen" during a rehearsal at the Kirk Douglas Theatre.

I’m getting to work on something wonderful and strange: a piece of theater about the father of behaviorism, entitled “The Behavior of Broadus.” Back in March I lucked into seeing an invite-only, hastily-rehearsed and gleefully thrown-together performance of this play with songs by the Burglars of Hamm. Center Theatre Group was commissioning this piece–and my friend Matt Almos was reluctantly banging out chords on the piano for this piece that had slowly but inexorably turned into a musical. The actors were making up their own harmonies, and the melodies were simple and memorable. I laughed and cried and it was better than Cats.

I approached Matt afterward and told him that it was wonderful–and they simply needed a little help from somebody who does this sort of thing and can help finish the songs the way they intended them. You know, like me.

And I said I’d love to do it.

Fast forward a few months, and Matt takes me out to lunch. Were you serious? he asks. Yes, I was, I reply.

And now here we are: there’s a commission, I am now a co-author of the piece, and 8 actors, a director, a musical director and a choreographer are making stuff REALLY HAPPEN here during a luxuriously-long two-week workshop at the Kirk Douglas Theatre, the same place we did Sleeping Beauty Wakes back in 2007.

The way the Burglars write together–and their painfully funny script–directly affected how Val and Gene and I wrote the script for Wheelhouse in the middle of August. I had already begun my work on the score of this piece before I left for the Rhinebeck Writers Retreat, and the way these Burglars challenge each other and go with whatever is best/funniest/most right for the piece, no matter who wrote it–this is what we in GrooveLily were striving for as we revisited our painfully funny past to write the Wheelhouse script.

It’s odd to be back here in the same rehearsal room, four years later, and be working on something so…utterly different. The Burglars have written a musical (yes, it’s actually a musical now) that is so damned funny and wrong and wonderful, and I’m just grateful to be a part of something that is so WAY beyond my ken. And yet I’m here at the table contributing, being a part of it, and writing and arranging music to support the weirdest, sickest, funniest, and unexpectedly moving piece I’ve ever been associated with.

There are two performances that are open to the public. Tickets are ten bucks. Here’s the link. If you are anywhere near Los Angeles on September 17 or 18, come and see this. It’s great.

Carnegie Hall

Gene writes: On May 5th, I performed with Audra McDonald and the NY Philharmonic at the 120th Anniversary gala at Carnegie Hall.  Audra performed 4 pieces from a Duke Ellington suite, 3 of which I play on.  I work regularly with Audra, and it’s always a thrill, but in this case it was sorta a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Check out the broadcast tonight, May 31!

Jimmy Ray Bennett in "Say You Do"

Interestingly, the 10-minute movie musical that Val and I wrote music and lyrics to, and that Val and Gene and I played on the soundtrack of (along with Chris Tarrow and Sean Flahaven), and that Jimmy Ray Bennett starred in–well, it’s getting screened on Sunday, May 15th in NYC. Admission is free, and if you’re in town (which we unfortunately won’t be) you oughta go.

Jimmy won’t be able to make it either, because he’s busy starring in this little musical that’s happening in Princeton. If you can go, see below for details.

Hence: this.

But wait! There’s more!

We also recently worked our butts off on another spec song. Some of our adventures in spec songs have led to odd things that may have no other homes ever, or to songs that become part of the GrooveLily canon and are among our most-requested live numbers.

We wouldn’t presume to predict what’ll happen with this one, but we like it. Suffice it to say that it will most likely not be used for the big epic nature movie we intended it for, but we were inspired by footage of animal parents and children in the wild…and we wanted to write something that resonated for human parents and kids as well.

This one we’re basically giving away–it’s a free-or-pay-what-you-will deal. Merry belated Christmas, Hanukah, and all the rest–and enjoy the fruits of our labors. We hope that you spend this last week of the year among people that you love, doing things that bring you joy, and bring joy to others.

Here’s the song. Listen, share it with your friends, and please enjoy it with our best wishes for a terrific 2011.

photo by Kris Umezawa. I love the fact that my head is a blur--I was racing to get through the 15-minute sound check...

First things first: a BIG thank-you to all you righteous people who came to see us on our East Coast jaunt last weekend. It was such a pleasure to see you and share the new Wheelhouse stuff with you.

Back in the day, when we drove from gig to gig all the time and brought two (!!!) P.A. systems with us, ran our own sound, and had our own monitor mixer set up next to Gene on stage…

Let me rephrase that. Back when we were kinda control freaks about our live sound but playing small enough gigs that we couldn’t afford to bring a sound guy on the road all the time, we spent a LOT of time hooking things up before a show. We would actually put the following language into our contracts: “WE NEED TO ARRIVE THREE HOURS BEFORE SHOWTIME TO SET UP ALL OF OUR STUFF.”

And Gene made up a song which he sang during the ever-lovin’, extremely long set-up time, reliably cracking me up and getting me out of my pre-show nervousness with his trademark wit:

I
Like
Microphones and wires.
And, Instruments and Songs.

Okay, maybe you had to be there. But there was something delightfully funny about it. Nowadays we fly to the gigs, arrive to set up a rented drum set, and leave most of the microphones and wires to Kris Umezawa, our redoubtable sound ninja, and the local crew. But there are times when we do have to roll our sleeves up and get into the electric spaghetti, and a few weeks ago we did so with alarming speed and not a small amount of stress. We did a GrooveLily showcase at the Midwest Arts Conference, which was our usual 15-minute speed-through of Striking 12, Sleeping Beauty Wakes, and a new song from Wheelhouse. And then, we did something new: 15 minutes of Valerie doing three songs solo, with violin, vocals, harmony box, and looping with a computer program called Ableton Live.

Getting these three songs together took about a month. The hard part for me wasn’t so much the arranging of violin parts and singing; it was deciding how many crayons to use out of the limitless crayon box that is Ableton. Someday when we’ve got things down a bit more smoothly, I’ll share what I’ve learned here on the site. In the meantime, here’s a little photo which should explain things a little bit:

Val doing her sound check. Click the image to see precisely what's what amidst the spagetti.

Until this morning, that is, when Val’s dad sent us some links to YouTube videos of the song being sung in Hebrew, Polish, Greek, and a wild number of other foreign tongues into which we never imagined we’d hear our song transmogrified. Needless to say, it’s sometimes hilarious, sometimes illuminating, and always humbling to know that something we wrote is literally ALL OVER THE PLANET. WOW.

“Summer’s Just Begun,” original English version, sung by the marvelous Cara Dillon

“Summer’s Just Begun” in Hebrew

“Summer’s Just Begun” in Polish

“Summer’s Just Begun” in Greek

“Summer’s Just Begun” in Russian

“Summer’s Just Begun” in Bulgarian

“Summer’s Just Begun” in Romanian

“Summer’s Just Begun” in Ukrainian

“Summer’s Just Begun” in Portuguese