"Crazy That Way" is a collection of my original songs spanning big band, bossa nova, jazz waltz, gospel, funk, "quiet storm," and jazzy pop styles. Together they examine love from a variety of different angles: the first sensation (That Moment), romantic bliss (September Seems So Far Away), pure devotion (You Are Everything to Me), hopes and regrets (Paris Apartment) and primal passions (Only Human), love’s journey (The Mystery of Love), enduring passion (I Still Want You So), and its frequent craziness (Crazy That Way).  My special thanks go to producer/arranger Dori Amarilio and guest vocalists Mark Winkler, Tawanda, Sidney Jacobs, Nicolas Bearde, and the Perri Sisters.

Crazy That Way Playlist

Toby Fox - Snowy + slowed

Sad 😔
Original audio by EMBRR on YouTube (link right here) :
https://youtu.be/v1wMBrkUEFE

I like to listen to this during car rides, when the sun is setting. It usually sets this whole mood. Makes me sad :(

Also, if you see any tracks with genres that don't really match, it's because sometimes the tracks don't really want to work when I upload it with the same genre many times. 

Feel free to request songs you can't find (or acesss here) in the comments, I'm fine with anything that is at least downloadable on YouTube 😅. 

Mice On Venus but make it E X T R A  nostalgic

It’s playtime!

Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Riccardo Muti, conductor
Fritz Reiner, conductor

Beethoven: Overture to Egmont, Op. 84

Like most of us, this song has "been through some things" over the last few years.  I wrote it when Covid was near its peak of fear and worry, before the vaccines emerged.  It was looking ahead with hope for a better time post-pandemic.  As the infection rates rose and fell, the lyrics evolved and the verb tenses changed.  In what is hopefully the final version, it celebrates looking at that terrible time in the rear view mirror.

We Can Get Together Again

This began, like many songs, with a chord pattern, then a melody, then developed into a song about love's journey through a lifetime. Where these lyrics came from, who knows?  It's a mystery.

The Mystery Of Love

"Crazy That Way" came about when I was searching for a title to prompt a new song. I saw it on a list of "lost" films of the '30s. I thought it would probably work well as a swing tune, and probably with a twist.  I discovered later that, like my stalkerish protagonist, one of the characters in the film follows a young heiress and her fiancé everywhere.  Anyway, given the preponderance of love songs on this album, it serves pretty well as a title, I think!

Crazy That Way

This song was written in one of prolific songwriter and jazz vocalist Mark Winkler's lyric writing classes shortly after I had arrived in LA.  So it's a very fitting honor that he chose to sing it on this album.  I've never lived in Paris (though I've visited on many occasions); still, I hope this story-song captures something universal about memories and reflections on what might have been.

Paris Apartment (featuring Mark Winkler)

It was only natural that I would write a song about my newly adopted home town. I wrote it within a year of moving here from New York.  The line about "open freeway arms" is meant to capture the larger sense of possibility that I as a newcomer feel in this town.

Good Morning, LA

When first dating my wife Frannie, I wrote her song that was truthful but a bit tongue-in-cheek, called "Perfect for Me."  She loved it (and it obviously didn't hurt the relationship's progression).  But once we were married, she said "Hey mister songwriter, why haven't you written me a truly sincere love song?"  Thanks, honey, for inspiring this.  And thank you, dear Tawanda, for so beautifully bringing it to life!

We Can Get Together Again

Steve Sieck

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