When TONY QUARRINGTON and ZOEY ADAMS sat down together to write some songs, they had already been singing together for almost fifteen years. 'And we each had written things on our own', says TONY. ' Yet, somehow, we never thought of trying the obvious and collaborating. And when we did, it was like opening a floodgate!' Many dozens of tunes later, the duo is releasing ONE MORE THING on Sonic Peach Records, a new Canadian label with high resolution/audiophile capabilities, distributed by Naxos. Last November, TONY and ZOEY brought out a wonderful seasonal recording, Q&A CHRISTMAS DREAM, with fourteen original Christmas tunes that have attracted a lot of attention. And now, from the same marathon recording sessions, fifteen vibrant new songs that range across many genres and styles. 'It's very diverse and eclectic', ZOEY says. 'There's big band tunes and bluegrass, some intimate modern jazz and a 50s-style ballad. We let the lyrics just find their own genre and sound every time.’
Backing up the duo is a stellar group of musicians, Stuart Laughton and the Radio Dial Band. TONY says, 'We would often go and see them at the Dora Keogh Pub in Toronto, and they had a really good sound and feel, and a comfortable way of working together. So it just seemed like a good idea to hire them. And it was!' Multi-instrumentalist Laughton plays trumpet and harmonica, and is joined by Jeff McLeod, piano and organ: Burke Carroll, pedal steel: Steve Lucas, acoustic and electric bass: and Martin Worthy on drums. Radio Dial's superb lead vocalist, Rebecca Campbell, joins Zoey for a duet on the pop ballad HOLD ON. The album is further enriched by the work of Chris Robinson on saxophone and clarinet, Paul Tarusov on trombone, in big-band arrangements written by TONY. In a more folky vein, the track LAST ONE IN LOVE features the deep sweet cello sound of Amy Laing, and lovely violin by Shelley Coopersmith.
TONY Q and ZOEY A, as ‘Q&A’, have co-written almost 100 songs to date. ‘But there still always seems to be ‘one more thing’ to say!’ laughs ZOEY.
Choosing the songs for this album was an interesting process. ‘We were kind of spoiled for choice’, says TONY. ‘No matter which tunes we selected, there always seemed to be ‘one more thing’ we wanted to include.’ ZOEY adds, ‘Yes, but we finally settled on this assortment- like a box of chocolates- something for every taste.’
I think it’s safe to say we will hear more than one more thing from this seasoned and prolific duo.
