Music CD Till There Was You, performed by guitarist Terrence Farrell

Featured Album

Till There Was You
Guitar Classics

Terrence Farrell * Guitarist

Terrence Farrell album Till There Was You

Listen to MP3 excerpts from the album Till There Was You:
	What a Wonderful World	Till There Was You
	Someone to Watch Over Me	Over the Rainbow
	The Shadow of Your Smile	Fly Me to the Moon

1.	What a Wonderful World George Douglas	9.	My Funny Valentine Richard Rogers
2.	Till There Was You Meredith Willson	10.	Blue Moon Richard Rogers
3.	When You Wish Upon a Star Leigh Harline	11.	Evergreen Barbara Streisand
4.	Over the Rainbow Harold Arlen	12.	Fly Me to the Moon Bart Howard
5.	I'm Always Chasing Rainbows Joseph McCarthy & Harry Carroll	13.	Send in the Clowns Stephen Sondbeim
6.	Someone to Watch Over Me George Gershwin	14.	Try to Remember Harvey Schmidt
7.	The Shadow of Your Smile Johnny Mandel	15.	My Way J. Revaux, C. François & Paul Anka
8.	Moon River Henry Mancini

When I began my career as a classical guitarist I made extra money playing for various occasions. Invariably an older adult would come up and say "You probably don't know this tune since it is old and before your time, but do you know .... ?" and then mention some song from the 30s or 40s. I would think to myself, "I am a classical guitarist and almost all of what I know is MUCH older than that!" Later, when learning the classical repertoire was not so imperative and most of the literature I wanted to know was learned, there was freedom and time to explore other realms.

This recording started out as a birthday present for my wife. It was a very special birthday and I wanted to do something that reflected our journey together. Our anniversary is in the same month and has always been the case the two have become inexorably linked together as the kick off to the holiday season. It's a great way to start the party that winds down on January 1st. The music included is the accumulation of our shared experiences and of our family backgrounds. In fact a good deal of the music most represents our parents' generation. My wife comes from a family of four girls and they would dance around the house to the music of Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald and company. My family had three boys. We boys did not dance around much. But, I did take tap lessons and would dance with my mom, usually to Gene Kelly movies at 1:30 A.M. on channel 13. Both the depression and especially the war, and that one was the big W with a II, framed our parents' lives and thus ours. From it we inherited the sweet nostalgia of some of the big band crooners that are still so dear to us and were reinforced by the sound tracks of what seems like every other movie we saw growing up. We were also lucky in our informative years to have been blessed with the Golden Age of the American musical. Fortunately they made it to film in Technicolor for us to enjoy. The title song of the CD is from the Music Man. Other titles range through other musicals and some are stand alone favorites.

My wife grew up listening to lots of singers that were popular with her parents. Looking back we can now consider this a unique era. Within a few years as we baby boomers grew older we eventually got our own turntable and played our own music. Recently I was talking with a younger person and was asked what music I collected and listened to when I was ten. That was the first time I truly came to understand what a dinosaur is. I tried to explain to him when I was ten there weren't even transistor radios yet. At ten you didn't have your own music. He had no idea what I was talking about!

I started playing the guitar at eight and participated in school orchestras and bands since the age of nine on string bass and low brass. I played all the way through school years and didn't think anything about it. It was just one of things I did. At that time I had no ambition to have music be my career (I was going to be a rodeo clown). I guess you could say music chose me. As an instrumentalist, I have always been a melodist. I have chosen the music especially for its sentiment and lyrical qualities. These arrangements are by the best in the business. Some are by the great arranger of popular music Howard Heitmeyer. I have had the pleasure to talk with him on the phone many times and for my money there is no one better in the business. He never actually published any arrangements. He would arrange them for his guitar students and sometimes they were done right at the lesson and given to the student ... with no back up copies! One gets these arrangements through the grapevine. It is quite a subculture to hunt up an arrangement by Howard through 6 degrees of separation. Some works he arranged for a beginning student and it is not unusual to then come across a more evolved arrangement he did for a different student. In one instance I came across an arrangement of the same song in two different keys. Also included are some wonderful arrangements by Laurindo Almeida, Mario Abril, Stan Ayeroff and Noriyasu Takeuchi. All tend to go out of print fairly quickly so keep looking on Ebay. Enough details ... enjoy the music!

Terrence Farrell

To use the PayPal secure ordering system to buy this CD of guitar music, click on "Add to cart". (Cost is $16.99 + shipping. California residents add 7.25% tax.)

TROUBADOUR RECORDINGS