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DIVA TALK: Chatting with Linda Eder, Euan and Eden at Town Hall and News of Greene, Lemper and Menzel
By Andrew Gans
28 Oct 2005
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Linda Eder
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News, views and reviews about the multi-talented women of the musical theatre and the concert/cabaret stage.
LINDA EDER
Just what is it about Linda Eders singing that is so exciting? It is partly due to the voice itself: Just when you are convinced the singer-actress cannot possibly belt any higher, the jaw suddenly opens wider, her head flings back and out comes some of the most exciting, vibrato-filled notes youll hear anywhere. Eder, who is best known to Broadway audiences for her performance in former husband Frank Wildhorn's Jekyll & Hyde, has also grown as an interpreter in the last decade, and that growth is nowhere more evident than on her newest solo recording, "By Myself: The Songs of Judy Garland," which was released earlier this month on the Angel Records label. On the new CD Eder wraps her rich, powerful alto around such Garland classics as "Almost Like Being in Love," "This Can't Be Love," "Me and My Shadow," "Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart," "The Trolley Song" and, of course, "Over the Rainbow." She will perform these tunes and many more during her eagerly awaited return to the stage of Carnegie Hall on Nov. 9 at 8 PM. I recently had the chance to chat with the down-to-earth Eder, who spoke about her newest recording, the upcoming Carnegie Hall gig as well as her new television special for Animal Planet; that brief interview follows.
Question: How did the decision to record an all Judy Garland album come about?
Linda Eder: Well, it was my eighth solo album, and to be honest I really didn't know what kind of record I wanted to make next. You like to play around a little bit I kind of know what my strengths are, but I also know I can stretch out into other areas. I like having a nice mix, but I was just really on the fence, so my record company came to me with some ideas, and this particular one just jumped out at me. This is the main one that they really thought that they wanted to do, too, and I thought, 'Great.' I think I am the right person for this. [Judy Garland was] a huge influence on me, probably the reason I'm a singer, and there aren't a lot of people out there doing this kind of music that's natural to them, something that they have grown up doing.
Question: When do you think you first became aware of Garland?
Eder: Eight years old. [Laughs.] "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" in "The Wizard of Oz." I remember it so vividly because it really did change my life. It made me go, "I want to do that!" It gave me a passion and a direction, and for that I've always been very grateful to her.
Question: What do you think made Garland's singing so unique?
Eder: I think one of the things that we've discovered through "American Idol" and reality shows, we like to know who we're watching and who we're listening to, and Judy's life was so [in the news] from the very beginning. She performed from a child on, and her life was so dramatic the good and the bad and we saw it, we knew it, and I think that lent something to her appeal. You would have heard her emotion anyway in her music, but when you knew that much detail, you heard the emotion [even more].
Question: Do you see any similarities in your performing styles?
Eder: I think there are two types of performers in this world. There are the ones who stand up on a stage and basically it's the equivalent of shutting their eyes, saying, "This is what I do. If you like it, great. If you don't like it, I'm not changing. This is what I am, and you have to come to me." And then there are the others who are up there going, "What do you want? Anything you want. If you don't like this, I'll give you something else." [Laughs.] I think that was Judy, and I think I emulate that style more. I'm very much aware of the audience, very much there for them.
Question: You'll also be performing again at Carnegie Hall next month. . .
Eder: . . . which will be amazing because Carnegie Hall was the one place I knew of as a kid growing up in Minnesota that was famous to play at. It was always my dream to play there, and I have now done that a few times, and it's been amazing each time and very nerve-wracking because it is Carnegie Hall, and it means so much to me. But this time will be something else because it's Judy, and her ghost has always been in that place for me, but this will be like having her right there on the stage because we'll be singing some of the same songs that she did that night back in 1961, that very famous concert.
Question: How does it differ singing at Carnegie Hall than at other concert halls?
Eder: It just has an aura to it. There are a lot of ghosts there, people who have performed. It's just different because all kinds of music play there, classical as well as jazz and pop. It definitely has an elegant feel to it. It's in Manhattan, which lends a weight to it also.
Question: Do you remember taking your first step out onto the Carnegie stage the first time you performed there?
Eder: I always say you could have touched me with your fingertip and I would have fallen over. I was a bundle of nerves and very alive and scared to death! [Laughs.]
Question: Tell me a bit about how motherhood has changed your life and your performing.
Eder: Everything in your life adds to what you sing about, especially this kind of music. Music is emotional in general, but there are certain types of music that are more so, and this music is very theatrical and very emotional. I've basically had a very good life, but nobody escapes the rough times, and I've been through that in the last two years personally and have come out in a better place, but it's made me understand lyrics on a whole new level. And that's what having a child is for me as well. You hear all the stories about how it changes your life, and you can keep telling someone who doesn't have a child yet what that feels like, but you can't really explain it until they experience it for themselves.
Question: Is anything happening with any of the musicals you've been involved with like Camille Claudel?
Eder: I don't know. I did what I could do with Camille. I had the best time doing it. I really enjoyed playing that character. I think the piece is great. I think the music is great. I love the story. It's not in my hands anymore. It's up to people who want to produce it and spend the money on it to try to take it forward, so I really just have removed myself from that. If they come to me one day and said, "We want to go with it," I would certainly not say no. I loved it, but it may be that that magic time up in Goodspeed will be the only time I ever perform it. If that's the case, that's okay as well because it truly was a magical experience. The other thing is, even though I love doing theatre, when you have a child and they're in school, I know the schedule of theatre, and I know I would hardly see him.
Question: You also have a new television project. Tell me about that.
Eder: It's called "Trail Mix," and it came about as a result of a woman that I met who runs Animal Planet, and she approached me with some other project ideas. When she found out I was a horse lover, she said, "I love horse programming. Would you want to try to take a crack at coming up with something for us?" I honestly didn't take it very seriously, but I got an idea, I pitched it to them, and surprise, surprise, they liked it, and it all took off! I guess because I'm sort of suited it it's combining music and horses, singers who are also real horse people. I go to their farms, I ride with them, I sit and interview them, and at the end of their segment, we will be cutting together footage of the day to one of their songs. You see them in a little bit of a different way. First of all, I can relate to them being a singer myself and also relate to them as horse people. Horse people can sit around and talk horses all day long. [Laughs.] It relaxes them, and you sometimes can get things from them that you wouldn't normally, and certainly see them in a way that you wouldn't normally see them.
Question: Who are some of the people you have spoken with already?
Eder: Rob Thomas from Matchbox 20, Lee Ann Rimes, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Ronan Tynan, Joe Perry from Aerosmith, Tim McGraw.
Question: When will the show air?
Eder: It's a two-hour special, and it airs Jan. 29 at 8 PM.
Question: Getting back to Garland, do you have a particular favorite song of hers or one that you enjoyed doing most on the recording?
Eder: Well, it really depends on what mood I'm in. In terms of performing them, I've just now started doing this concert, warm-up concerts leading up to Carnegie Hall. But it is so much fun to get up there and sing all the big-band [tunes]. I've always loved big band "Rockabye," "Swanee," "San Francisco." Those I love. As far as the ballads, I'm really having fun with a song called "Do It Again" and also, of course, the title track, "By Myself."
Question: That's a great track. I think it's actually your best recording so far there's an added layer of emotion to it.
Eder: Thank you. I think it's natural it feels right. As I said earlier, it's not as if I'm a singer who had spent my life doing pop and all of a sudden decided one day to this type of music. . . It's very natural to me. . . . I understood that a long time ago, where my strengths lie. In this arena, this type of a song, a really good classic standard song, I can pretty much compete with anybody out there. When it comes to pop, I can sing a good pop song here and there, but there are so many other people who do that better. Continued...
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