The Sky is the limit
Amy Sky's debut album collaboration with husband Marc Jordan an education
- The Sault Star
- JEFFREY OUGLER jougler@postmedia.com On Twitter: @JeffreyOugler
The pandemic didn't produce creative rust in the Amy Sky/Marc Jordan household.
Naturally, the Toronto-based singers/songwriters/producers saw shows sidelined as COVID -19 restrictions put cramps into concert work everywhere.
But the long-married couple both had irons in more than a few musical fires.
“We did tons of writing and recording during the pandemic,” Sky told the Sault Star this week in a telephone interview from her Toronto home.
A project of principal of interest – and effort – was their debut album collaboration, He Sang She Sang, started in 2014 and finally issued last May.
Yes, the pandemic delayed the record's release. But, before that, the two were “deliberately” taking their time. Sky and Jordan really wanted to make this one sing.
“We just wanted to not be under pressure and enjoy the process,” Sky said. “We just took our time to make sure it stayed as fun as possible.”
Fun. And challenging. Like long-married couples wallpapering together, working cheek by jowl in the recording studio can produce more than just fine harmonies. Sometimes frustrations brew.
“You marry someone because they do things differently than you and you find it fascinating ... until you try to paint your room together,” Sky said with a laugh.
Such continuous creativity should be no surprise to anyone with even a passing familiarity with the couple's careers, which they've kept largely separate over the course of 34 years married. The Juno-winning Jordan, 74, perhaps best known – at least in singles circles – for his 1977 Canadian smash Marina del Rey, has also penned a treasure trove of hits for a who's who of the music world, such as Rod Stewart, Chicago and Cher.
Beside releasing her own successful albums and singles, Sky, 62, has written for a host of A-listers; several collaborations with Olivia Newton-John stand out as career highlights.
This debut stab at joining musical forces has both forged fresh takes on classics and introduced new, original compositions.
Covers include Tom Petty's Free Fallin', The Beach Boys's God Only Knows and Bonnie Raitt's You.
Choosing material was not an exercise in exact science.
“It was more trial and error,” Sky said. “One or the other of us would come up with ideas and what we tried to do was not just do the songs you normally think of as duets, but try and find songs that stylistically blend in with both of us and have some relevance to our history, and then try to make it into a duet.”
The classic Ooh Baby Baby was considered after Sky “stumbled across” a live version, sung in duet form by Aretha Franklin and Smokey Robinson, the song's co-composer who first made it a hit in 1965 with his Miracles.
“There wasn't one key that would work for both of us,” Sky said. “So, Marc started in a certain key. And then when I'd come in, we'd modulate up to my key. And when we both sing together, modulate back to the original key.
“I've never heard an arrangement of Ooh Baby Baby like that.”
Interestingly, Sky's first exposure to the tune was Linda Ronstadt's 1978 cover. Asked which version the Sky/Jordan interpretation sounds more like, Sky laughed.
“I think Marc sounds like Smokey and I sound like Linda,” Sky said.
Duets may sound like sweet musical magic to the masses' untrained ears. Hearing how the sausage is actually made lends fresh perspective. Terms and phrases, such as “accommodating range” and “the challenge of singing into each other's phrasing,” crop up when Sky is quizzed about the often-tedious recording process and its “challenges.”
“We like to joke that somebody in a duet is always Ginger Rogers dancing backwards in high heels,” she said. “Because you don't just put up mikes and sing together. That's not the way we do it because you'd never match. So, one person goes first and the other has to match their phrasing.”
Sky paints phrasing as a “fingerprint,” completely unique for each vocalist, and “very difficult” to match.
“It's actually kind of like, `Walk a mile in my shoes kind of thing,'” Sky said, “because if Marc would go first, I had to listen super, super closely, sometimes even word by word. `How does he push that? How does he pull that? How long does he hold that?' You're learning someone else's style from the inside out.
“You learn a lot about a person. As a singer you get information from people's performing styles. But when you're actually trying to mimic it, you really learn a lot about someone.
“You have to be humble. Because it's not, `My way or the highway.' It's definitely a collaboration.”
Original pieces were penned separately, often with a co-writer. Sky said she and Jordan don't write well together as the pair “sort of occupy the same space in collaboration.”
“We wanted to capture the beauty of the sound of our voices together,” Sky said.
“Unique” best captures the nature of how Algoma Fall Festival audiences will hear He Sang She Sang selections; the pair's Saturday appearance here will mark the first time they've performed songs from the album in concert. Both Sky and Jordan have performed live since COVID restrictions let up, but always separately.
“It's kind of surreal,” Sky said of returning to stages following pandemic-forced shutdowns.
The AFF show will also feature Sky/Jordan staples.
“I'm sure it will be like riding a bike. It feels like a long time.”
One thing Sky and Jordan will likely never get used to is the absence of Olivia Newton-John in their lives.
Sky joined forces with the late superstar – Newton-John battled breast cancer three times and died of the disease in early August – on several occasions, writing and producing songs for Newton-John's albums. Jordan made his 2010 acting debut in the musical Score: A Hockey Musical, which also starred Newton-John. They all remained close, kept in touch and even communicated during Newton-John's last days.
Sky had spoken to her friend a weeks before she died; the severity of Newton-John's illness was not known at the time.
“She was still very optimistic, she was taking singing lessons,” Sky said.
A week before Newton-John died, Sky and Jordan attended a Rod Stewart show in Toronto, where the three had a chance to chat.
Stewart mentioned he was working on a new album of swing songs and said he sought someone with whom to record a duet. Sky offered up Newton-John's services. Stewart was delighted.
“He goes, `I would love that. That would be great,'” Sky recounted.
Sky would soon attempt to deliver the glad tidings to her friend. A message to Newton-John got no reply. A text a few days later also failed to get a response.
“Oh my God … this is not normal. She always gets back to me,” Sky said of her reaction at the time.
Newton-John's husband, John Easterling, soon reached out to Sky and Jordan with the news that their friend had a taken a turn for the worst, suggesting they say final farewells.
A phone call soon followed.
“We both sang to her and talked to her,” Sky said. “She was not able to speak but her husband said she could hear people. I told her, `Rod Stewart still wants to work with you. I know you can't do it, but people still love you, people still want you.
“She was just a lovely, generous person.”
In fact, a current Sky project is writing a Broadway musical inspired by a project the pair did, created in the wake of the 2013 death of Newton-John's sister.
“I'm really, really focused on getting this thing out there,” Sky said. “It's really about how any one of us deals with loss and transformation in our lives.”
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La collaboration d'Amy Sky et ONJ nous a gratifiée de quelques jolies pièces maitresses musicales .. dont l'album GRACE & GRATITUDE et le G&G Renewed !!
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