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Thursday, April 25, 2013

You Haven’t Lived Until You’ve Heard Her Singing

I have just read a truly enlightening article written by David Kudler, the gifted narrator of my upcoming audiobook. In it, he draws parallels between two of his recent projects, especially the use of music in both of them. Here is how he opens it:

"I’ve just wrapped recording on my second full-length audiobook this month — David Wesley Williams lyrical novel of sex, family, and rock ‘n’ roll, Long Gone Daddies. As I was listening through just now, I realized that there were a lot of similarities between this bluesy book and my most recently completed (and soon-to-be-released) project, Uvi Poznansky’s 
Apart From Love. Both books dissect tangled, dysfunctional families featuring deeply fractured father-son relationships, each of which is hiding some very important secrets. And music is very much at the heart of each.

For an audiobook narrator/producer, music is both a joy and more than a bit of a challenge. Audiobooks — for the most part — are not meant to include music tracks (Audible and Amazon don’t like them), and so any music must be created purely by the narrator in the character’s voice. When a song is known, that can be great fun; when it’s created by the author, that’s fun too… but can sometimes take your breath away."

Later, David introduces one of the first scenes in 
Apart from Love:

"The Kaminsky family in Apart from Love also has a musical soul; unfortunately, that soul belonged to the mother, Natasha. Divorced from narrator Ben’s father, she has disappeared, like Luther Gaunt’s progenitors. Where the Gaunts left behind only an old guitar, however, Ben’s mother left behind a beautiful white grand piano. When Ben’s father Lenny decides to remarry his long-time (and much younger) girlfriend Anita, the new Mrs. Kaminsky decides to use her predecessor’s piano as the stage for a dramatic entrance to the wedding reception. The scene is described here in a letter by Ben’s acid-eyed great aunt Hadassa — and you haven’t lived until you’ve heard an aged Jewish lady singing Bryan Adams..."

Read the entire article here: David Sings the Blues.

Also, here is Aunt Hadassa with her sisters,  in my watercolor painting. Why are the Rosenblatt sisters dressed as cancan girls? Find out here.



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