Art Songs from Carolina

Marilyn Taylor writes: "My voice sat down in this music. It kicked its shoes off and felt cold bare earth and said 'this is home.' The events leading to the creation of this disc took place over many years. A motivating factor in producing it was bringing the songs of Charles Vardell to light, as well as other unrecorded works of composers either born, or living in North Carolina. Synchronicity has proven that a link exists between myself and each group of songs, sometimes becoming obvious only after the fact. Moving to Winston-Salem in 1992 to teach at the North Carolina School of the Arts was made easier because the terrain and homes reminded me of Louisville, Kentucky, my birthplace. Here I discovered I share with Frazelle and Vardell a love of land and hills and an appreciation of rural life and music, instilled in me by childhood visits to relatives in 'the country' and long jaunts in the woods there. The songs of Robert Ward do not evoke these types of images; however, a connection between Millay (from whom the text is taken) and myself exists in the passion for a younger man, which in my case became a marriage and a musical collaboration lasting fifteen years."