About three weeks ago, we attended Victoria Clark’s concert at the Kaplan Penthouse, in celebration of her new PS Classics album Fifteen Seconds of Grace. And at the end of the concert, following the two standing ovations, a gentleman stopped us and said (and we’re paraphrasing here), “I really love the albums you put out.” And since strangers never stop us and say that, Tommy dimwittedly replied, “Do I know you?” And the answer was “no,” and so Tommy introduced us, and the gentlemen introduced himself, and later we remarked how really cool that was: someone knew us. (We also didn’t pretend that he was representative of millions of people, but remarked that it was probably more like that “Mary Tyler Moore” episode where Ted comes in and asks if there’s any fan mail, and Mary says no, and Ted says why not, and Mary says, witheringly, because your fan died, Ted.) But something about that gentleman’s kind words made us take a moment to acknowledge the amazingly diverse projects that we’d had the pleasure of taking on in 2007. And on the drive home, we reflected on that very spirit of joyous collaboration that we alluded to earlier.

Our second cast album of Grey Gardens (what a kick – we were tickled enough just to do one!) was followed by our “sleeper” hit of the year, Georgia Stitt’s This Ordinary Thursday, then by Jessica Molaskey’s peerless Sitting in Limbo. Somewhere in there, we were at the final dress rehearsal for 110 in the Shade, and we were so entranced that we marched down the stairs at Studio 54 to the basement offices and said to the general manager, Sydney Beers, “Let’s make this album.” (That variation on “let’s put on a show” never happens with us – usually our spontaneous enthusiasm is tempered by caution, timidity or, at the very least, good old-fashioned fiscal responsibility. But with 110 in the Shade, we just “went for it.” We truly thought, “If we don’t record something this good, then why are we running a record label?”)

So moving backwards – since this whole essay seems to be alternating between forward and reverse chronology – sometime in the late winter, we received guests at our offices: author Mary Pope Osborne and her husband, Will Osborne, who’d penned a stage adaptation of his wife’s beloved series of children’s books, the Magic Tree House series. We always welcome opportunities to introduce younger audiences to musical theatre, so we were immediately interested; when we heard a few tunes, we were sold. And so in June of 2007, we offered up two wildly different cast albums that happily “spoke” to their intended audiences: the 2007 Broadway revival of 110 in the Shade and the world premiere of Magic Tree House: The Musical.

For our next 2007 release, we need to go back in time again, to January of 2006, when we received an E-mail from the husband of Emily Saxe, asking us to give a listen to his wife’s album-in-progress, Keeping You in Mind, which she’d co-produced with the amazing David Piltch. So we said “send it along.” And her recording made its way to Philip’s desk (since all submissions have to pass Philip’s desk first), then into his CD player, then over to Tommy’s desk with the note “Listen to this.” And there was the making of a great album there. Emily was a wonder: she crossed over from jazz to blues to pop with what one writer has since called “the smooth sensuality of Diana Krall, the Nashville twang of k.d. lang and the rustic familiarity of Norah Jones.” But we were about to go off to London to record Sunday in the Park With George, and pressed for time, we scrambled off a very lengthy, rambling E-mail, with all the things we loved and all the things we thought needed to be addressed. And almost a year later, we received a CD in the mail, and a note from Emily’s husband, asking, “Is this what you had in mind?” And sure enough, they’d taken a promising album and forged a memorable one. And in August, we were thrilled to unveil Keeping You in Mind.

And finally, November brought the simultaneous releases of solo albums by three Broadway powerhouses: Andréa Burns, Lauren Kennedy and the aforementioned Victoria Clark. You couldn’t ask for artists more passionate about the music they sing, and who bring not only talent, but keen intuition and deep intelligence, into the studio. Ideally, you want every solo album to be as singular as a fingerprint – no one else could have, or would have, made that album. That’s what we feel these three artists achieve here. To hear them isn’t just to love them – it’s to know them.

This time of year is always filled with the urge to give thanks. 2007 was a gratifying year for us creatively, and we have to thank all the vocalists, songwriters, producers, engineers and musicians for giving us the opportunity to work with them. Yup, they were all pretty “nice,” but they were all pretty magnificent too. So thanks to all those kind and gifted people who inspired us and challenged us to do some of our best work this year. And to the customers who buy our CD’s, and to the ones who write in to tell us what they think, and to that gentleman at Vicki’s show who took the time to tell us in person. See you back here in 2008. The year starts on a high note, with the twin releases of Xanadu and Take Flight, two musicals that soar in very different ways. Where we go from there – well, check out our What’s New page in the coming months. We already have a couple surprises in the works: CD’s that we hope will prove as gratifying for our customers to hear as they’ll no doubt be for us to make.

          — Tommy Krasker & Philip Chaffin, December 2007

Tommy Krasker, Executive Producer for PS Classics, can be reached at tkrasker@psclassics.com. Philip Chaffin, A&R Director, can be reached at pchaffin@psclassics.com.