Now the documentary we’re working on is titled When I Need to Smile and the title comes from the song Gretchen Valade wrote that launched Mack Avenue Records.  At some point Mack Avenue decided to re-record the song that has been sitting in their catalogue.  So unaware to us, they called Freda Payne, “Band of Gold” fame, in California and got her to come to Detroit and record new vocals.  I was made aware of the idea after everything was in place.

Now here’s the cool part. About a week ago, we met with the music producer, Drew, who's putting the recording session together for the song.  And he told us his plans, and it sounded great to me.  So, this past Thursday we went to the session. When we got there they were laying down the music tracks, Freda wasn’t there yet.  But Drew turned to me and said “what other musical pieces can we give you for the project?” So, I said “well if you give me something with a 20s feel and 30s feel that will help me a lot”. 

Immediately he started talking to one of the musicians. They went back and forth about musical styles.  When he jumped up and ran to an upright piano and started playing in this 1920s style.  They started asking me questions about the script and what I need and for a second I thought “this is cool.”

So I must modify my long help position, I love actors and now musical directors, because they come to work wanting to do what I want. This is unlike my daily work situation, where nobody wants to do what I want. 

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