Louise Perryman

about the painter and the bird

"Perhaps the same bird echoed through both of us yesterday, separate in the evening·." Goethe

I could have had the PR Machine write the promotion for "the painter and the bird" but the experience of this recording has been so exquisitely personal that I felt to have someone else write the "blurb" would be copping out at the last minute.

Bill Risby is, without a doubt, the most beautiful piano player.

If you're lucky, there is a special bond between pianist and singer and when the chemistry is right - phew!

This album has been a plan of Bill's for quite some time. A simple plan to record a collection of some of his favourite songs - some of which have been largely used and abused throughout their short lives.

There, of course, could be another thousand tunes on this album - almost any Bacharach tune or Lennon and McCartney tune or Sondheim tune in fact - these are just the ones that came to mind first.

How lucky that I happened to be in the right place at the right time to be asked to join him on this!

Recorded onto a portable hard disk recorder, Bill played everything you hear in one take on a beautiful Steinway, very kindly made available to us at the de Boos-Smith family home. He arranged it, engineered it, mixed it, produced it and even took the photos you see on the front cover. All I did was sing. It is incredibly intimate and moving and, oh, what a luxury to have a croon for a change!

The only snag in the whole proceedings... the painter and the bird who feature softly on the recording - the house painter from next door drags his ladder, the pet bird chirps loudly... very loudly!

These songs really do contain some of the most beautiful melodies and harmony in modern music. They are some of my favourite songs too.